Discover Your True Purpose in Life

Additional Info

• Segment Number: 4
• Audio File: naturally_savvy/1519ns3d.mp3
• Featured Speaker: Cornell Thomas, Author & Motivational Speaker
• Book Title: The Power of Me
• Guest Website: Power of Positivity
• Guest Twitter Account: @cornellthomas
• Guest Bio: Cornell Thomas is a basketball coach, trainer, life coach, motivational speaker, and author. Through his program Crossroads Basketball he has helped hundred of kids in the last nine years reach their goals. For the last four years Cornell has been inspiring and motivating people of all ages through his own motivational quotes and blog site at www.powerofpositivity.net
• Transcription: RadioMD Presents: Naturally Savvy | Original Air Date: May 6, 2015
  Hosts: Andrea Donsky, RHN & Lisa Davis, MPH
  Guest: Cornell Thomas
  
  Honest information about living a healthy lifestyle on the RadioMD.com. It's time for a Naturally Savvy with natural visionary Andrea Donsky and health journalist, Lisa Davis.
  
  LISA: The other day I got a nice email from a friend just saying, “I remember years ago you were saying you're going to get into radio,” and I was like, ‘Yes, I kind of tough to get in,’ and then you were going to do this to do that and I just I was so doubtful and I'm so proud of you and you discovered what you love to do and you took your purpose and you really ran with that,” and that meant so much to me. It was such a nice acknowledgment. It was just so out of the blue and I was just so touched by that and so I think to really look at yourself, what you love to do ,the type of person you are what suits you and discover your purpose and here to help us expand on this is a fabulous Cornell Thomas.
  
  CORNELL: Hi, guys. How are you?
  
  LISA: We're good. It's great to have you on. So, let's talk a little bit about that. What do you think really helps people get in touch with themselves in the first place so they can discover their purpose?
  
  CORNELL: Well, what I get a lot is, “I don't know what I want to do” and what you want to do might not be your actual purpose in life. Like if you’d have told me that I would be writing books speaking, even six years ago, I would've told you, “Well, that's not something I want to do,” because what we want to do changes so often. I think when it comes the purpose is not what you want to do, it’s what you were meant to do. And for me, I was meant to do what I'm doing right now. Just like you, Lisa, you’re, you know, you guys were meant to do what you're doing right now, but I think that's why purpose is just so powerful because if not, it may not be so you want to do right now or wanted to do in the past or what it’s something you’re meant to do that eventually you’ll end up finding it or it ends up finding you.
  
  ANDREA: I love that you said that. You know and it's so true because even for myself, I mean, I remember years ago, I was petrified to go on T.V. or petrified to even be a guest on a radio show and now it's the thing I love to do most. So, I hear what you're saying and I think that, you know, the universe and our soul and our angels have higher, you know, obviously… Everything is within our highest good and if it's meant to be then we've been chosen as that vehicle to deliver it. So, I love that you felt that it's not necessarily what we want to do but it is something that we're meant to do that it’s going to happen.
  
  CORNELL: For sure. I mean, I was talking the other day and I was telling people. I said, “You know when you have purpose, along with your purpose, when you find out what you're really put on this earth to do, passion just is part of the package. It's like once you find your purpose, your passion comes with it and purpose and passion equals power. So, if you have that purpose and you have that passion, now you have a power that is just limitless and they did a documentary about me about a year and a half ago and I was talking to my mom and I was able to ask her a question. I was like mom, “You know, you raised five kids by yourself and you didn't have a lot of money. How did you do it?” and she said, “My only purpose in life was to make sure that you guys were raised the right way and that you guys were taken care of,” and it was just so powerful for me and it showed me how she was able to get really through those really tough times was because when you have that purpose and you have that passion for it, you have limitless power. Things that you never thought you'd be able to get through, you can get through.
  
  ANDREA: So, who did a documentary on you? Tell us. This is great. I didn’t even know that.
  
  CORNELL: You didn’t know that? Oh.
  
  LISA: Yes, I have seen it. It’s awesome by the way.
  
  ANDREA: No, I didn’t see that! Tell us! Tell us!
  
  LISA: Oh. There is this great group called [inaudible 3:40] and they do all sorts of stuff. It’s a husband and wife team and they’re both artists, so they’re just amazing. They’re doing great things and at the book signing, my first book signing, I ended up linking up with them and they did like about a 15-16 minute documentary on my life and I got a chance to interview my mom and my family was on there.
  
  ANDREA: Wow.
  
  CORNELL: They're actually doing another one which should be out, hopefully, in the next month or so and this is like a short one, this was like a five minute clip and it’s just about me being a motivational speaker and going out trying to touch as many lives as possible so, a social skills for that and my mom is all over that one, too, because you know, she’s the most influential person in my life so, I try to get her on as many things as she’ll allow to be on.
  
  Andrea: Well, I think she should come on our show. What do you think, Lisa?
  
  LISA: Oh, definitely.
  
  CORNELL: You guys would love her. You would love her. She would love you guys. I mean, it would be.
  
  LISA: I love her in the documentary.
  
  CORNELL: Yeah, she’s great.
  
  ANDREA: Well, let's have her. I think that would be amazing. We would love her and you know what? We would love to have her with you on at the same time because I think that's would be really fun to talk to her because she, obviously, and, I mean, I can hear what you said, I mean, she raised, I mean, we don't know your other siblings but we know you and like, I mean, we love you, Cornell, you know that, but I mean, truthfully, if I hear of anything, if I ever think of anything or if I get down on anything, I mean, you're my call. I literally will message you on Facebook and say, “Alright I’m feeling this or help me with this and you really are amazing at what you do,” and I could see that's why. It is why, you know, that’s why it’s meant to do what you're doing. So, keep up the amazing work.
  
  CORNELL: Thank you so much. It's funny some people, they’re like, “Oh. You didn’t have your father growing up,” and I’m like, “Yeah, but I had my mom,” and there's people out there that don't have anybody. They don't have their mom or their dad or, you know, their grandparents raising them or influencing them and as long as you that one person in your corner, especially when you're younger, man, you can get through a lot of stuff. I never knew our situation because my mom's purpose in life will you know make sure that we were okay so I never thought we were in dire straits, you know, until I got a little older. It was like, “Oh, we don't have this and kind of don’t have this, but, you know, everything seems to be working seamlessly,” so my mom is amazing human being and that’s I thought when you get your lights turned out and you use candles, I thought it was fine. Like, “Okay. Just put candles on. It’s no big deal. This happens all over the place.” Then, I was like, “Uh, everybody else has the lights on in the neighborhood.” It wasn’t a power outage. But, yes, I really do believe when I go and speak, I always…When I was in England a couple weeks ago and I talk to these kids about purpose and why you're here and legacy and you know, the dash. Not when you’re born and when you die, but what you do in between. And, they all tie in and it’s just a really powerful thing.
  
  LISA: Cornell, how do you work with kids because I know you do a lot of work with kids as well. What do you like…When they say to you…When they say something like, “I don't know what my purpose is,” or I don't know. “What makes me better than the next person?” What kind of advice or exercises do you do with them to help them discover what that…You know, what that purpose is, I guess, for now or why they are so important and why what they’re are doing makes such a difference to the world.
  
  CORNELL: Well, I'm very honest with them and I tell them that it’s okay to not know what you're meant to do because, honestly, up until five years ago I had no idea, really. Like, you know, I was coaching basketball and I was helping people but I had no idea that it was going to turn this. So, it’s okay not to have direction, especially when you're younger. I mean try different things. See what’s out there. See what you like. But I tell them, as you start to get older and start to like things, then write down what you'd like. Write down what you might be into and then try as many things as possible. You know, in high school you kind of have these standardized tests and you're kind of locked into different things but when it's college, you can take elective you want to take. If you want to take Indian culture then take Indian culture. If you want to take, you know, basket weaving, then take basket…I don't know. Pick something but, you know, try to figure it out and try to find out what you want to be but it's okay not to have direction. There are people walking around that are 50, 55, 60 years old that have no direction, so it's okay for this 12-14 year old not to know what they want to be.
  
  LISA: And it’s never too late to get direction, right? I mean, that's the nice thing. I took Buddhism in college. I remember my parents were so excited. My mother's favorite thing to say was “Expand your horizons. It's so important to expand your horizons,” and you would have thought I told them I was taking business. The typical. But, they just loved the idea of just learning to learn and grow your mind and just having new experiences, which is so important.
  
  ANDREA: I love that.
  
  LISA: It’s so important.
  
  CORNELL: I love that. I really love that. And kudos to your mom for just being so open minded and just saying, “Okay. You know, go for it.” You know?
  
  LISA: Exactly.
  
  CORNELL: That's what’s so great about it. She’ backed it. That’s awesome.
  
  LISA: Yes, it is.
  
  ANDREA: And it's great when you’re young, too, because you have…You can really dabble and you can experience and you can bring all of the different things in. So, I think that's amazing. Well, Cornell, we have about thirty seconds left, so what I would like to hear from you is… I know it goes by so fast. Could you leave our listeners with some type of positive message that you think that would help them get through their day today?
  
  CORNELL: Okay. My positive message for today is don't let doubt stop your do. It’s okay to doubt if your dreams are really big, you're going to have some doubt but never stop your actions towards them.
  
  ANDREA: Don't let doubt stop you do. I love that.
  
  LISA: Me, too.
  
  ANDREA: That's awesome, Cornell.
  
  CORNELL: Thank you.
  
  ANDREA: Well, thank you so much for being on the show today and you can learn more about Cornell on his blog PowerofPositivity.net. Are you still writing once a week?
  
  CORNELL: I'm still writing a couple times a week. Sometimes, it’s two times a week. Sometimes, it’s once every two weeks. It’s sporadic, but it’s there.
  
  ANDREA: Alight. Well, check him out. PowerofPositivity.net and you can follow him on Twitter @CornellThomas. I’m Andrea Donsky along with my beautiful co-host. See, that was very positive, Lisa Davis.
  
  This is Naturally Savvy Radio on RadioMD. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @yourradiomd and @naturallysavvy.
  
  Have a very positive day.
  
  Thanks for listening and stay will.
• Length (mins): 10
• Waiver Received: Yes
• Host: Andrea Donsky, RHN and Lisa Davis, MPH