Back home in Ohio, I was always playing sports, building forts and climbing trees. It was a typical Midwestern childhood until when I was 14 I came home off the school bus and followed a trail of blood to find my mother had fallen down the stairs.

I almost called 911, but at her insistence, I didn't. Two weeks later a family friend took her to a clinic and she was immediately life-flighted for emergency brain surgery.

Because she had not received medical treatment right away, the bleeding in her brain had dried and swollen and her brain was damaged beyond repair.

The nurses told me that the mother I had always known was gone forever, because her brain didn't get treatment in time.  As I watched that helicopter take off, I placed the loss of my mother entirely on my shoulders and blamed myself mercilessly for not saving her.

When I visited her in her nursing home, I would always leave and bury myself deeper into the chasing of external "success" to cope with the mountains of shame in me.

I dumped all of that shameful energy into football and soon became varsity captain.  I took tests like my life depended on them and ended up with a full academic scholarship for an engineering degree.

Looking back, I see that I was just a very lonely boy who missed his mom and was trying to prove to the world that he wasn't a failure for failing to save her. 

Nonetheless, I had laid out the red carpet for myself to live the "American Dream" in Corporate America.

But as I took a deeper look at the perfect little plan I had laid out for my life - promotions, mortgage, family, retirement, death...  I wondered where I would ever find a sense of true fulfillment. 

Freedom was an ideal I loved pledging allegiance to at baseball and football games, but I didn't actually FEEL it anywhere in my life.

Then one day as a Freshman in college I came across an ancient book of Chinese wisdom called the Tao Te Ching.  Almost immediately, the roof was blown off my perception of reality. 

I had my first full-fledged mystical experience as an endless list of questions arose in me about my purpose and the meaning of my life on the engineering path I was on.

I invested some internship cash and took a semester to sail around the world with a study abroad program called Semester at Sea. I explored the world's major religious and spiritual traditions, meditated with Zen masters and Buddhist monks, all the while seeking the answer to the question... "What is the most meaningful use of my human lifetime?"

When I got home to Ohio I was still ravenously curious, so in an inspired moment after watching "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", I flew to Houston and hitchhiked to Idaho, then south to San Diego.

I got home and finished my engineering degree, but by then I felt that all of the travel and deep reflection had left me completely transformed.

As graduation approached I turned down my job offers and instead launched my first company with my best friend.  As a company, we got admitted into an accelerator program in downtown Columbus, Ohio, received seed funding, and were valued at $500k. 

Things on paper looked like they were heading in the right direction, but I knew in my heart that ever since I gave pump-up speeches to my team before varsity football games I had always deeply dreamed of being an inspirational speaker, transforming the lives of thousands of people to help them live a better life.

But, like many of us, I told myself "Someday when I'm rich/secure/successful/old enough I'll finally do what I really want to do."  

... Until one day I looked up at a solar eclipse and had another deeply profound mystical experience.  In that powerful moment, I suddenly realized…

"If I live a life that I don't love, amassing wealth and credentials while ignoring my true dream, so that someday I can retire and mentor others, I'll just be teaching them how to also ignore their true dream and not love their life."

I couldn't bear to waste another day.  So I leaped. 

I dropped everything in my life, and made the decision to be unavailable for any activity that wouldn't lead towards me speaking my truth, and inspiring others.

I had zero training on social media or online business, so I decided to do what I knew I definitely could do and then go from there.

I started by meditating every morning and filming a video about the path to the self-directed, purposeful and meaningful life.

I had no more income, no plan, and everyone around me thought I was nuts for not getting a job making $100k as an engineer somewhere.

But I ignored the people who didn't believe in me, as everyone chasing a dream should.  I just kept making videos every morning and posting them on Facebook.

Despite the colossal uncertainty and near-daily tears, I was chipping away at my life's purpose.  I was alive, I was free, and there was no way in hell I would turn back.

Eventually, people were so inspired by my videos that they reached out to me to coach them on their purpose, so I became a Purpose Coach.

I began coaching my clients virtually while traveling around the world, more deeply exploring who I am and how best to love myself.

Then a year later, in a meditation on a flight from Costa Rica to California, I received the words…

"Let Your Purpose Go Viral"

 

Ever since, those words have been my mission, my tagline, and my deepest wish for humanity.

I believe to my core that deep alignment to purpose is the solution to all of our challenges, both as individuals and as a society, because any time we ignore our divine path we compensate by somehow becoming a cancer in the lives of others.

We don't have a drug problem, we have a purpose problem as some who ignore their purpose seek external fulfillment in chemicals.

We don't have a domestic violence or sexual assault problem, we have a purpose problem as some who ignore their purpose seek fulfillment in other people's bodies.

We don't have a have a crime problem, we have a purpose problem as some who ignore their purpose seek validation in the instant power or wealth that comes from criminal activity.

We don't have a divorce problem, we have a purpose problem as spouses seek fulfillment in each other instead of looking into themselves to find the doorway to purpose in every triggered moment.

We don't have economic problems, we have a purpose problem as nobody who is truly living their purpose goes unsupported by the Universe, or tries to identify themselves by the number in their bank account.

We don't have an environmental crisis, we have a purpose problem since too few people have connected to their purpose and in the process understood their inseparable place in the global ecosystem and begun seeing the Earth as their mother.

We don't have a government or corporate corruption problem, we have a purpose problem as no politician, lobbyist, corporate elite, special interest group, or government worker would ever make decisions without the best intentions of all at heart if they were indeed connected to their heart, and saw themselves in everyone around them as a result of their own purpose journey.

But the good news is...

Every Problem Is An Opportunity

 

Everywhere around us, in every moment of our lives, we are invited to more deeply connect to the present moment, love ourselves, receive the next piece of guidance for our lives.

When you heal your trauma, and commit to sharing your story to be a ripple effect of healing in the world so that future generations don't start with the same setbacks that you and I did…

THAT ripple effect will change the world far more meaningfully, permanently and profoundly than any technology or invention.

It is my deepest prayer that by following this path together, we can create a Heaven out of this experience on Earth and create a world where everyone is free to live their purpose - where joy and fulfillment are the baselines of all human activity.

And it is my deepest joy to follow my purpose into the sharing of this message, thanks to my mother teaching me with her injury just how short life can be for all of us, and how important it is that we leave a legacy of love with the time we still have left.

So thank you, my visionary friend, for joining me on this sacred purpose path.

May these words serve you well on your own journey as you continue to explore what it means to you to commit to your purpose, and live your Divine Mission.

 

So Much Love,

Joe