Stevie Ward is an inspirational speaker, poet and documentarian with Sky Sports. As a former professional rugby league player and captain, Stevie won a total of 8 trophies during his time at Leeds Rhinos, his hometown club. At 22 when struggling with his third long term injury and having won 4 trophies, Stevie launched Mantality. Mantality is an online magazine, podcast and counselling service for men. This united his passion for team performance, authenticity and the creative side of life.
"Purpose is something that has felt something like a lightening bolt most of my life. It has felt like a gift and a burden interchangeably.
No matter the outer vehicle I take, the different experiences and the people I interact with, whether it was smashing into people playing rugby, speaking in front of hundreds of people or if I am in conversation with someone new, purpose is the thing left over that brings me joy in a real channelled way. Because in the end, there is nothing left but to fully give. I am either in or out.
It is a freedom and a requirement, it is a certainty and uncertainty. It seems to be an uncovering of what really, really means something to you despite the frailties and fears that often obscure it. Purpose is the beam of energy that seems to always be replenished. Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor quoted the philosopher Nietzsche and spoke to the power of purpose in his book ‘A Man’s Search for Meaning’ recounting the reasons he felt helped him get through one of the most terrible encounters known to man.
“When you have a strong enough why, you can cope with almost any how.”
Purpose needs the friction, purpose needs the reason, it needs the doubts, grief and at times the terror - through that you might just get to the bottom of it.
I felt the urge to write a poem when I was asked to write about purpose by Woodhill Park Estate who do some of the most purposeful work there is. Supporting children hospices, those who are suicidal and those who are seriously injured.
For some reason writing the poem, I got the picture of those things that used to be in the supermarkets, where you would donate a penny and it would swirl and spiral all the way around until it took the inevitable drop.
I hope self love, acceptance and maybe even relief can be found from this poem.
Purpose
Purpose is when the candle wick keeps flickering
It’s when the whims stop winning
It’s when the doing starts being
It’s to climb up on top of your surest thoughts that whisper
It’s to speak them louder
Purpose is not a defiant act
It is not a tag on to who you are
It is not a nice to do
Purpose is looking at the drop and knowing that it’s your fall to take
It’s falling to the death of a million and one ideas that were never going to work anyway
It’s the feeling of the wind blowing past your ears
Blowing away all of the thoughts that you said were yours
It’s the bullseye that you keep avoiding
Purpose is the instinct that’s given
The painful birth of you giving
It’s when you have nothing left but that
When you decide to stop hanging off every thing else
When you let yourself fall
Into what you think is a trap
You realise that purpose is where you have no choice
It’s when even with the freedom to choose,
You would only choose that
There is nothing left
But to fall amongst the flowers
The scent you’ve known for a long time
To pick up your feet
And to walk
Into what you were already here for
Which until now,
You never really let yourself know."
stevieward.co.uk
