I stumbled upon this inspiring video over the weekend:

It’s a longish video – just over 6 minutes in length – but is perhaps the best case study on purpose and working for yourself.

Mayor Hazel McCallion is 88 – and has been the Mayor of Missisauga, Canada for the last 31 years.

There are days when all of us get defeated – and try to find the purpose in what we do in our lives. Hazel’s life is a grand testimony of what happens when we can define our life purpose well and stick with it no matter what.

This video also brings out another interesting thought. All employment typically comes with a well-defined super annuation – an age at which the employee must retire. It varies from 55 to 70 based on geographies and job types. I think the concept is ridiculous.

People work hard (read: slog their asses) all thorough the best years of their lives only to be told one evening that their services are no longer needed because of some mythical age barrier? Crazy!

That’s perhaps the strongest reason for working for yourself. Working in a “job” that you are passionate about – so that even work becomes play and the ability to make a different transcends age barriers.

Think about it.

Wouldn’t you rather spend the next 30 minutes drawing up a blueprint of what you want from your life, what you are going to put into it and what defines your life’s purpose?

And having drawn up this blueprint, would you do anything else than to work for yourself and convert your purpose into a reality that manifests right before your eyes?

Anything else and we all are selling ourselves short in our lives. No?

P.S.: I know Hazel has been in the midst of a controversy – but that does in no way discount the morale of this post.

Don’t lose sight of what is important – by mere appearances of what isn’t important. It’s your life!

(Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepe69potamo/)