Having a quest, a focused and sustained life-long desire or goal to accomplish, can add immeasurably to the greatness of a life. It adds vitality to everyday activities. It adds purpose and vision to our choices and decisions and it brings excitement and interest into our interactions with the world.

Whether you call it mission, destiny, or even just a project, a quest is some distinct passion or purpose toward the accomplishment of which you are willing to throw all of your abilities, wealth and interests. Such a quest might include feeding starving orphans in Africa. Perhaps it is the creation of a world peace organization dedicated to bringing the planet's greatest minds together to create alternatives to war. Or maybe it is smaller and closer to home (but no less consuming for all that), such as rebuilding a degenerated and abandoned husk of a downtown into a vibrant and diverse community heart, complete with locally-owned businesses, interesting restaurants and communal areas for recreation and cultural events.

The greatest lives in our history have had one thing in common - they were on a quest, a journey of life-swallowing proportions that pulled them out of ordinary living and thrust them onto the stage of world events. Granted, not everyone involved in a quest will take this route of public acclaim or acknowledgement - indeed most do not. However, all quests do fill the questor with a sense of burning focus, power and purpose that colors their life with a deep and abiding greatness that cannot be replicated by other means - and this greatness is attractive to others with the same or similar quests. Like the great quests of fiction literature, it is highly likely that you will pursue your quest, if not to public acclaim, at least in the pleasant company of like-minded and strongly connected companion adventurers.

What is your quest? If you don't have one, what passions or purposes can you see in your life that you might investigate as possible options? Having a quest does wonders to a life - it clarifies decisions, provides a consistent undercurrent of inspiration and joy and offers vast opportunities for growth, success and just plain fun. Plus, when people ask you what you do, you can tell them that you're "on a quest to..." and maybe (who knows) they might just ask to come along!

Soni Pitts

Soni Pitts is a writer and personal life coach currently living in SE Missouri, US.

As a writer, Soni has two main goals. Her first goal is to use her innate copywriting abilities to rid the world of ambiguous, confusing and boring copy. Her second goal is to use her creative writing skills to make a living meeting cool people and doing cool things, then writing about it.

As a personal life coach, Soni works with people who have reached the point of epiphany (eg: "There's got to be more to life than this") rebuild sustainable lives and lifestyles that work for themselves and for the world around them.

She is also the Assistant Community Coach of the Social Capital and Networking Community of CoachVille, and volunteers on the board of her local Habitat for Humanity Affiliate.