What You Can Learn About Your "Purpose" From Bees
When I am working from home, one of my favorite places to go when I need a break is my daughter's apiary (bee yard). I am absolutely fascinated by these amazing creatures. Between their work ethic and how they function together as a colony, I think I could sit and watch them for hours (and I might have on a couple of occasions)!
Purpose has been on my mind a lot lately. The monumental disruptions in how we do work and life have, honestly, caused me to sometimes feel less focused than I should be. I find myself "checking boxes" instead of intensely aligning my day with my purpose or governing values. And when I have those moments of self awareness about what needs to change, I find that a quick trip to the bee yard helps me get back on track.
What is it about bees that I find so helpful in clarifying the importance of purpose? Here are three things that I see:
Knowing your purpose helps you be intentional in all you do.
You never see a bee just wandering aimlessly around a hive. Every moment is focused on intentional activity. I need that reminder when I'm tempted to not plan my entire day. I can miss opportunities to advance my work, deepen a relationship, or invest in personal renewal. Every moment counts!
Your purpose doesn't change but HOW you carry out that purpose does.
A fascinating insight about worker bees for me is that their job changes over their lifespan of approximately 40-45 days. They start out cleaning honeycomb cells, move to caring for baby bees, and finally leave the hive to forage for the colony. This season of change has found me at times wanting to hold on to the familiar and the comfortable. Bees remind me that there are multiple ways to carry out your purpose.
Living out your purpose helps others live out theirs too.
Catching a swarm of bees is truly an adventure. It can get quite chaotic with thousands of bees flying around trying to figure out where to go. Something amazing happens, however, once the queen is in the transport box. A number of bees will land on the top of the box, stick their abdomen up into the air, and wildly flap their wings. That's the signal to the other bees where the queen is, and soon you see this steady stream of bees moving to the box. Because one set of bees carry out their purpose, others can too. A question I've started asking myself more often when thinking about this process is, "How will living out my purpose help someone else live out theirs?"
If you aren't fortunate enough to have a hive of bees to remind you about your purpose, that's okay. I've created several free resources such as my video about being more intentional in your day, that you can use to better identify what your purpose is and how to begin living it out. But if you WOULD like to start working with bees…let me know. Just be prepared for a really long and spirited conversation. ;)
