Anchor in the Storm: Reclaiming Your Purpose in a Chaotic World

Feeling overwhelmed and disconnected in today’s fast-paced, noisy world? In this episode, we’ll explore how to quiet the chaos, reconnect with your core values, and rediscover your true purpose. Through simple steps and a powerful visualization exercise, you’ll learn how to anchor yourself in what truly matters—so you can live with clarity, direction, and confidence. Tune in and take the first step toward reclaiming the life you were meant to live!

IG: @themrmindd

Transcript

Ryan Johnson (00:00):

Believe it or not, I totally understand. We live in a world where we have unrealistic societal expectations. We have endless notifications, we have daily demands, and it's easy to fill lost. But even in chaos, your purpose act is your anchor. Today, we'll talk about how to reclaim that anchor and get back to what truly matters. Ask yourself this. When was the last time you felt connected to your purpose? Thank you so much for tuning into the Mr. Mind Podcast. Your twice a week dose of living well, even though you may not feel you are living well at this moment in time today, after the holidays, you may not feel that you are living. You might be feeling exhausted. It's a normal thing. We all feel like that, and a lot of it is because our purpose gets lost in the chaos, even though we do have our purpose and normal everyday life.
(01:14)
But when the holidays come, a lot of times our purpose gets lost in the holiday. Chaos. What do you mean, Ryan? Well, we have a plethora of external distractions, social media, news, work pressures, kids, grandkids, hanai kids. Oh, let me explain what that is in Hawaii, hanai is the unofficial process of not really process, but it's unofficial and it's like fostering or adopting a child. It's like, oh, yeah, yeah, that person, she's like family. She's hanai. You know what I mean? So for those not from Hawaii, that's a brief explanation, but yes, those kids too. It's easy. Very easy for your purpose to get lost. Not only external distractions, internal barriers too, like fear, self-doubt, or the belief that life is just too busy to focus on personal purpose. So what's the result? Well, we fall into autopilot. We live life by default instead of by design.
(02:23)
Did you get that? We live life by default instead of by design. We come reactionary instead of creative in our own day-to-day doings. So how will you know if you actually are falling into this travel? What did you do yesterday? What did you do today? If it's hard to remember, it may be because you're on autopilot. You ever left work and then all of a sudden you're home and you're like, wait, how did I get home? You don't really remember any of the happenings between you leaving work and getting to your house. That's autopilot and a lot of us live life on autopilot. There's a really interesting movie about this, and I'm not going to go too much into it, but it's called Click by Adam Sandler. That's the only Adam Sandler movie that I cried in you. If you seen it, you would cry too probably.
(03:22)
So the question is, how do we recognize when we've lost our purpose? How do we do it? So the common signs are you feel unmotivated, you just feel plainly unmotivated, or you feel disconnected from your daily activities. You're like, okay, yeah, I have to do it, but do I want want to do it? You say yes to things that don't align with your values. Does this sound familiar to you? You say yes to things that don't align with your values, and here's a good one right here. You struggle to answer the question, why am I doing this? When I was in high school, there'd be a lot of times where everyone would be like, Hey, let's go hang out, man. Everyone would be excited. Yeah, let's go hang out. And we'd get everyone together and we'd sit down in a parking lot of this local restaurant called Zippy's, and we'd sit there and we'd talk story.
(04:15)
We'd just sit there and chat, and I would think to myself, why the hell am I here? Yeah, the people were cool and stuff, but I was like, what the hell am I weird for fulfilling? Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? And there was no real answer, really. Did I feel that they were better than me or I was better than them? No, not at all. That's not the case. Not at all. It was just different. I just felt that I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing. Now, I'm not talking about homework. This is deeper than homework. I felt that I wasn't doing what was needed of me to fulfill my purpose that was needed of me at that time to get to where I wanted to be. So do you struggle to answer that question? Why am I doing this?
(05:11)
If you do, don't worry. You're not weird. You're not obtuse compared to the rest of us. I want you to know that this is normal. Chaos can cloud clarity however, but with intention, here's the good news. With intention, we can focus. So I'm going to help you reclaim your purpose. And four easy steps. Step number one, quiet the noise. Take 10 minutes each day for stillness. It doesn't have to be meditation. I know a lot of people are kind of opposed to meditation, but it doesn't have to be that. It can be meditation, but it doesn't have to be a meditation. You can journal. How about a tech free walk? What's a tech free walk? Leave your phone at home and go for a walk. You're going to feel something. You're going to feel a breath of fresh air. It's going to be like that noise that's been with you is all of a sudden gone.
(06:04)
Something that you don't realize is gone until it leaves. Oh, wow, that humming. Guess what? It is gone now. Leave your phone at home and go for a walk. Just go around a corner and understand how refreshing it will be at the end. You're going to feel good. You're going to notice things. It's kind of notice nature. I notice that your neighbor's houses are wherever the heck you live and you'll feel refreshed. I promise you. Sometimes you just got to disconnect. This is still step one. By the way, reflect on what truly matters to you, right? This is part of quiet the noise. Just reflect on what truly matters to you, what matters to you. And I have to do this a lot myself. When I feel myself getting pulled in all these different directions and I have to sit down and say, Hey, what matters to Ryan? What truly matters to Ryan? Family business? And when you do that, you'll understand that yes, your noise will be quieted. You'll notice that you start feeling better about the decisions that you're making. Here's something else under step one. This is another way to quiet the noise. Ask yourself this. What lights me up?
(07:19)
What lights me up? What feels meaningful? A lot of people don't ask themselves this, what lights me up? What makes me happy? Sometimes you have to ask yourself that. What makes me happy? What makes me feel meaningful? Are what feels meaningful for me. It's making people happy, teaching people things that I didn't know at a time that helped me become to where I needed to be the next step to help people up on that next step. And a lot of people do feel that way. How do you feel when you give someone a gift and you give them that gift and you see their reaction first to the fact that you actually thought of them and then them opening the presence? How does that feel? What lights you up? Step number two, reconnect with core values. Define or revisit your core values. Well, Ryan, I don't have core values.
(08:20)
How do I figure out what my core values are? Really easy. Reflect on meaningful moments. Just think about experiences in your life that made you feel fulfilled, right, proud, genuinely happy. And then think of this. What was happening in that moment, right? Who were you with? What values were being honored? Here's an example. If you felt most alive helping your friend through a tough time, well, compassion or service might be a core value. Here's another way to define your core values. You're going to identify what you stand for or against. Just consider situations where you feel frustrated or upset, deeply moved. These reactions often reveal your values, and here's the reason why. It's because they highlight what's most important to you. And then you can ask yourself again, what was being challenged in that moment? Was it fairness? Was it respect? Those are a couple of ways that you can figure out what your core values are.
(09:12)
So back to step number two, reconnect with core values. What you need to do is you need to identify if your current actions are in alignment with those values. If you value creativity, but spend no time on creative activities, it's time to adjust. Step number three, craft a personal mission statement. Does something short, something clear, a sentence that defines your purpose? Here's one of mine, my personal ones. My purpose is to inspire others to overcome adversity, limiting beliefs, and believe in their potential. That's one of my personal ones. And here, let me give you some example ones as well. Okay, so this is for someone who wants to lose weight. My mission is to eat healthy, stay active, and be kind to myself. Simple as that. Guys. Here's one For someone who wants to be more productive, my mission is to stay organized, focused, and aligned with my priorities to make consistent progress. And here's one for someone who wants to focus on their goals, my mission is to pursue my goals with clarity, determination, and daily actions that reflect my purpose. Those are just some examples. You don't have to use those, but hopefully that pushes you into a lane where you can find your personal mission statement. And here's step number four. Take small aligned actions. And yes, I say this continuously throughout my podcasts, and there's a reason for that. It's because it's important.
(11:02)
So with that being said, identify one or two actions you can make today, not tomorrow, not when you get in the mood, but today to move toward your purpose. And it's not for me, it's for you. Example, if your purpose is to help others, start by volunteering or reaching out to someone in need or maybe carry a bottle of water with you. This is something I do. I carry bottles of water with me in the car. And when I see people with those sciences that anything will help, I usually go and reach out and give 'em a bottle of water because everyone needs water and they are thankful. It's just a small idea. Do if you're driving, you don't have to do this next part because I want you to survive. We're going to do a visualization exercise. I want you to do this, okay? Close your eyes and imagine your ideal life and get real detailed. What are you wearing? Where are you going shopping? Where are you going to eat? How much money is in your account? What are you doing? Who are you with? More importantly, how does it feel? How does your heart feel?
(12:20)
I visualize a specific moment where you're living fully in your purpose, what you feel you need to be doing in life you are doing in this visualization. You're doing it to the expectations that you know can and reflect on how you can bring a piece of that vision into your life. Rather, if it's the type of food that you need to consume to become that better version of you, whatever it is, however you can bring that vision into your life right now, I want you to know that your purpose is not lost. It's just waiting for you to find stillness and look inward. Because in a chaotic world, staying true to yourself is a greatest act of courage. Remember, start with one step today. Whether it's journaling, meditation, clarifying your values, or taking aligned action, purpose grows with practice. Thank you so much for tuning into the Mr. Martin podcast. Please like, subscribe, leave a comment if this helped you and share, because maybe the person that you share it to just may need this advice. Before you leave, can you do me a favor? That very last person that you text, can you text that person again and let 'em know, Hey, I hope you're having a great morning. I hope you're having an even better afternoon. But more importantly, I hope you're having an amazing night because guys, you never know, they just might need it. Aloha.