Soul Mx - Determining Your Purpose

This is part of a series shared ecumenically with members to whom I was assigned; the goal was to start conversation and deep thought, and many of these messages led to great conversations.

Determining Your Purpose
Original Publication Date: 9 September 2024

Following up on our training last week, I spoke on how to know, find, and excel in your purpose. When we don’t know our purpose or are working outside our purpose, we can feel like we’re not just failing, but failures. An MQ-9 that is being used as an Airliner, a CV-22 being used as a fighter jet, or a stapler being used as a hammer are likely to not just fail their mission, but be destroyed in the process…not because they’re worthless, but because they are not fulfilling the purpose for which they were designed to excel. Now that you’ve had a couple days to process, do you know, and are you fulfilling your purpose? If my purpose can be easily defeated by circumstances outside of my control, is it a big enough purpose? Do we even have a purpose? If you’ve heard me speak for any length of time you’ve heard me say,

“Your purpose needs to be outside of the Air Force, the Air Force can survive without you, you need to be able to survive without the Air Force.”

The reason your purpose should be bigger than the Air Force is because you will most likely live a long life after your service ends. If your purpose is in your job then a single debilitating injury that leads to a medical retirement will not only end your career, but your purpose as well! A major downsizing of the military could have the same effect. Or, many of us know of a Chief or Colonel who died six months after retirement, because when they hung up the uniform, they hung up their purpose.

But we have to be careful as well that our purpose is not so far outside of the Air Force that we aren’t any good to the nation or our fellow Airmen. Some examples would be those who are ALWAYS out taking classes or volunteering or at a second job. Don’t get me wrong, I love classes, and volunteering, but if the Air Force is a hindrance to your purpose or merely funding your purpose, I want to recommend you reevaluate what you’re on this planet for.

I just came from Air Force Global Strike Command; in years past they had a clarity of purpose in one of their mottos (when they were SAC): “Peace is Our Profession.” I love this motto because it captured a purpose that had fulfillment both inside and outside the Air Force: the idea that the reason for many Airmen’s existence was to prevent wars or win wars so completely that peace reigned in their lifetime. Many Airmen from the days of that motto will tell you that the Cold War didn’t just end, it was won, and their efforts were the direct catalyst that no significant amount of blood was shed between Soviets and Americans. I’m starting to hear the same language again and I believe it is an excellent reminder that by we are working peace in our world by making our enemies question their actions and saying to themselves, “Today is not the day; I can’t win today.”

This e-mail is not meant to tell you where to find your purpose, only to encourage you to look outside of yourself and your job for meaning in your life. There has been debate for a long time on where to find purpose. A famous painting by Raphael called The School of Athens captures this debate, it depicts Plato pointing heavenwards for purpose, and Aristotle pointing earthwards. There are generally five places (according to Stanford University) people find purpose:

1. In a Deity
2. In the Improvement of the Soul
3. In Pragmatics (what works for you)
4. In Quantifiable Achievements
5. In Acknowledging the Transient Nature of Everything

Generally, good questions to ask yourself are:

1. What am I good at?
2. Are my talents being put to good use?
3. Am I fulfilling my calling/vocation?
4. Is there a better place/way for me to express my purpose?

As your chaplain, I would love to help you search for and find your purpose: a purpose that will benefit you for the rest of your life, and that will benefit the Air Force for as long as you serve. Regardless of where you find your purpose, take some time this week to evaluate where you have come from, where you are, and where you are going.

In closing, the United States Space Force posted a recruitment video with a pithy statement, “Maybe Your Purpose on This Planet is Not on This Planet.” Do you think Plato or Aristotle would agree with that more?