If purpose is about living fully…

And calling is about living freely…

Then, mission is about living redemptively.

(The above links lead to previous articles on purpose and calling)

To live a life of mission is to live with a specific objective in mind. A particular way you want to impact or influence the world — hopefully for the better.

The more specific the mission, the deeper it gets:

• To help others heal from generational trauma.

• To help adults heal from the generational trauma of emotional neglect.

• To guide adults raised by emotionally unavailable parents through healing spaces where they can unlearn self-abandonment and rebuild trust in themselves.

See how that evolves?

The deepening of one’s mission takes time and if you’re trying to live a life of deeper mission, here are 3 things that have helped me:

1. Go Beyond the Castle Walls

As the story goes, Buddha was a prince in Nepal, born around 563 BC.

Until age 29, he lived entirely within the walls of his palace — surrounded by luxury, pleasure, and protection. He had never seen death, poverty, or sickness. His father made sure of that.

But one day, curiosity got the better of him. He asked to go outside.

And what he saw shattered his worldview: a man starving, a person dying, a leper with no one to care for him.

It broke him.

He returned home, stripped off his royal robes, and renounced his status.

He left everything behind to search for understanding — eventually meditating under a tree for 49 days until he reached enlightenment.

Now, we’re not Buddha, we don’t have to reach enlightenment to find our mission, but we can still go beyond our own castle walls — whatever form they take.

For me, it meant leaving home in California and moving to New York City.

Or more recently, taking the past 3 months to travel the world and see what people outside the US are thinking, feeling, and experiencing.

Or making sure I consistently do things that make me uncomfortable, like having vulnerable conversations, fasting, or cliff jumping into a lake.

These small departures from comfort — geographic, physical, mental — they add up.

They crack open something inside us.

And if we follow that crack, it just might lead to something truer.

2. Let Your Heart Feel

There’s a lesson in Buddha’s story:

Mission is born when comfort is pierced.

He didn’t find it in the palace. He found it on the street.

The same was true for me.

Years ago, I started volunteering with the homeless in New York City. I’d spend hours talking with people on the streets, praying with them, listening to their stories. I started building relationships, not just passing out sandwiches.

Almost all of them carried deep pain: abandonment, abuse, addiction.

Many had parents who neglected them. Most turned to substances to numb what hadn’t healed, and the substances, in turn, prevented healing. They were stuck. And it was heartbreaking.

I had read about stories like this before, and seen them in documentaries or movies. But experiencing them directly — looking into someone’s eyes as they told you — was different. It moved the story from my head to my heart.

I remember one day, after a long afternoon of serving, coming home and falling to the floor of my apartment, weeping.

I wept over the sadness. The hopelessness. The feeling that nothing I did would be enough.

When Scripture says “Jesus wept,” I understood a small sliver of why.

Little did I know that my ruptured heart would become the soil from which purpose, mission, and calling would grow.

3. Anchor Yourself in a Hopeful Worldview

When I say “worldview,” I don’t mean a set of beliefs you recite on a test.

I mean: a way of seeing the world that helps you engage with brokenness — without being crushed by it.

You need both honesty and hope:

Without hope, mission becomes martyrdom.

Without truth, mission becomes delusion.

For most of my early life, my worldview was:

Eventually, that broke down. In my late 20s, I hit a spiritual crisis. 

I achieved worldly success, went to good schools, had a good job, but deep down, I had no idea who I was, what I was made for, and why I was here…

And that’s when I encountered the Christian worldview:

Hearing this worldview was an “ah-ha” moment for me. I remember thinking, “Oh, this is what’s going on. Okay, so how do I help?” It was the sort of mission I had been searching for all my life—and my life hasn’t been the same since.

My point is this: if you want a life of mission, you need an effective worldview that impacts your life.

Ask yourself, does your worldview, or the way you look at the world:

• Deepen your sense of purpose, calling, and mission?

• Give you peace, joy, strength, gratitude, and hope?

• Help you love others — and yourself — more?

If not, I suggest finding a worldview that does - because mission beckons.

In Conclusion

If you want to live a life of mission, you have to get out there.

Experience the world. Let your heart feel. And anchor yourself in a story bigger than your pain.

Do that, and you’ll find your mission.

Or maybe… your mission will find you.

With curiosity,
Eric

P.S. 

My work as a life coach centers on helping people break out of their shells and live more missional lives.

I’ve walked alongside many people on that journey, and I’d be honored to walk with you too.

If that’s something you’re seeking, feel free to reach out.

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