I’ll preface this story with news that I am totally fine and super grateful. 

Two weeks ago, I found a lump in my breast and saw a doctor the very next day. “Dr. K” speculated that it was fibroadenoma and benign. I was immediately relieved. Dr. K wanted to be certain so he sent me to get a sonogram (since I have been nursing within the last 6 months they do a sonogram instead of a mammogram). 

As I was getting the numbing shot and biopsy at the local breast center, I invited one of the nurse practitioners to distract me with a story. Since I am always curious about how people got on their career path, I asked her, “How did you get into this profession?”

She explained she had earned several different medical education degrees and finally found a program that caught her attention. In reality, she said, doing sonograms found her. She’s been at the breast center for six years and loves it! 

I said to her, “You love this?“ I couldn’t imagine doing her job … scanning lumps in women’s breasts!

She replied, “Yes!” 

So I asked, “What do you love about it?“

She paused and said, “I feel like I am saving lives.” 

I said, “You’ve connected your work to a meaningful purpose?”

She said, “Yes, I believe I have a strong purpose!“

I walked out of the breast center confirming one of my strongest life principles: when you connect what you do to a purpose, something greater than yourself, it becomes infused with love! 

I got the results on Monday — and thankfully, they came back benign. 

I share this story with you because there definitely were moments when many different and frightening scenarios crossed my mind.

Have I been fully living?

Am I spending my time how I want to?

In many ways, like that nurse I, too, love what I do because I feel connected to a purpose greater than myself.

Do you feel connected to your purpose?