How to Find and Live Your Purpose

I’ve come to realize more and more that the deepest, most transformative personal development journey’s typically follow some sort of major catalyst. A big struggle that forces people to fix something in their life.

In June, I asked Trent Shelton about this during the course of a 45 minute interview. Trent is a former NFL wide receiver that is now considered one of the most impactful speakers of this generation. He reaches over 60 million people weekly through hard hitting videos and unprecedented engagement. Trent agrees that most people allow themselves to hit rock bottom before they make a change, and shared how he wants to encourage people to find and pursue their purpose long before that point.

Let Your Pain Reveal Your Purpose

“If you can learn before you hit the rock bottom, that’s what it’s about – but for the majority of people, it takes hitting that rock bottom where you feel like your backs against the wall. It’s either you know you’re going to stay there for the rest of your life or you’re going to find something and find a way. For me that’s what it was. It was that rock bottom. I look back and I’m thankful for all those times because if it wasn’t for all that stuff, all those setbacks, all the losses, I wouldn’t be who I am today and I wouldn’t be able to have the impact that I have. So it all had a purpose for my good.”

Get Clarity on Your Purpose

“When I got really clear about like, ‘this is what I was created to do’ was me speaking on stage to kids – and it was like, I don’t know, three, four, 5,000 kids (it seemed like 50,000) and I would just talk to them for five minutes. I didn’t want to do it. I wasn’t a speaker. I was telling myself all these things and got on stage.

So I get on there and I speak for five minutes and – to make a long story short – I realize this is what I was created to do. I forgot everything I prepared the night before. It was just me on stage sharing my heart for five minutes. And those kids – I mean if you ever talked in front of kids, they’re the hardest audience ever to talk in front of – they were locked in. So I was like, there’s something bigger here. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s not football. And I was still trying to hang on to football. I was still trying to play arena lead, all these things. I completely let go of football in that moment and dedicated my life to go down this path.”

Pursue Your Purpose

“I wasn’t even getting invited to speak. So I’m like, ‘what do I do?’

So, back to networking.

I reached out to people that I knew – some coaches, some teachers. I went back to my old high school, went back to elementary schools like, ‘I’m a football player. I’ll just share my story.’ I used the NFL thing to get in there, and I just started speaking for free as much as I could.

In that process I was like, ‘How can I reach more people?’ It was social media. I picked up my phone and I just started making two minute videos. That’s what started what people see today. ”

Be Consistent With Your Purpose

“Consistency means reliability. When you’re reliable you become trustworthy.

I tell people all the time, the reason that I get do interviews like this, the reason I get to speak on stages, the reason people watch my videos – yes, it’s because of the content, but it’s more because of the consistency.

I wanted to be a category king for self worth. When people thought of self worth, I want them to think of Rehab Time with myself.  And so I decided to dedicate my mission to self-worth content.

Also, with social media, when you are consistent, you become shareable. I realized that in order to beat the boogeyman – the algorithm – you have to become shareable, right?

I post a video once on Facebook. It was a five minute video, and a whole bunch of people shared it. It’s been a minute, and they already shared it. It’s no way they watched the whole video.

I hit up a lady who shared it, and asked, “Why did you share this without watching a whole video? What she said changed my mindset forever regarding consistency.

She said, ‘Trent, you’ve been so consistent for years. I already know that the message is gonna help somebody and I want to be one of the first people to share it.’

I have tons of people who do that. They literally will share it as soon as they see it and then, you know, they’ll watch it later. That’s the name of the game.”


What do you think about Trent’s advice about purpose? Let me know in the comments below.

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