You’ve seen the commercials.  The middle aged man with the pronounced Minnesota accent touting the advantages to buying his…I mean MY Pillow.  He holds the pillow to his chest like he’s carrying a precious child. From what I understand, this pillow has been his life work, the answer to his difficulty in finding a pillow for himself that would allow him to sleep without pain.  A path that was not straight and narrow, but a path that dropped him to the bottom before he found his way. And now, I have one, given to me for Christmas.

Reviews of this pillow are mixed.  My oldest son swears by it.  Not ABOUT it, by it. Says he’s sleeping better than ever.  On the other hand, we’ve had friends who have said it’s awful.  I haven’t used it yet, so I’ll have to save my review for later.

But let’s go back to this My Pillow inventor.  His life’s work.  He saw a need, albeit for himself, and has worked to fill the need.  This may not seem to be the most life altering work or product in the world, but could it be?  Are there people who have difficulty sleeping?  Yes.  Is sleep necessary?  Absolutely.  If this guy invented something that helps people is it important?  For those people it helps, you bet.  On the outside it may seem a little silly to focus all of your attention on a pillow.  But if this is his gift, his purpose, and he is fulfilling it, then it’s not silly at all.  And a side benefit was that he has provided jobs for 1500 people.  No, not silly at all.

Finding ones purpose is top of the list for many of us.  A while back there was a best-seller called The Purpose Driven Life.  Best seller because so many of us want to know what our purpose is.  We see ourselves in a job where we feel like we’re going nowhere, in a place we don’t feel like we belong, with people we don’t want to deal with.  We all want to feel or know we’re serving an important purpose in life, that we make a difference.  Who’s to say you aren’t?  You could absolutely be serving your purpose no matter where you are.  It doesn’t have to be something huge.  In our culture we all want to have our 15 minutes of fame doing something important that everyone notices but that’s not necessarily the truth.

The man behind the counter at my local donut shop who gave me free donuts on the last day of school with a “Merry Christmas” had no idea that he lifted my spirits before what would probably be a crazy day.  And I’ve seen him do that for others as well.  Is his life’s purpose to be a fast food manager?  Or is his purpose to be a bright spot in someone else’s day?  Sure, his job is to wait on customers, provide good service and monitor employees, but it doesn’t have to be his purpose.  His job can merely be the vehicle for his purpose.

I think when you can align your job and your purpose is when you find your passion.  And that’s where you can do some really powerful things.  Like My Pillow perhaps.  I wish I had the formula as to how to match up purpose with the right job, but if I did, I would be a millionaire.  I do have a theory that most people can feel when they’re not in alignment but most of us are afraid to take the steps to do it.  I’m sure people laughed at this guy when he said he wanted to invent a new pillow.  According to the story, when he told his daughter, her response was that it was “so random”.  $280,000,000 later, I’m betting it doesn’t seem so random anymore.

Now, I’m not saying that monetary gain is the only thing that comes from the perfect  combination of job and purpose.  That would be pretty shallow.  I’m pretty sure most of us would be grateful to wake up every morning, excited to go to our jobs, knowing that we’ve made that alignment we all dream of.  It may not be the perfect pillow, but if we follow our hearts to those things that bring us joy I believe we will find our purpose.  Oh, and I’ll let you know the verdict on the pillow in the days to come.