Who do I serve and what impact do I hope to have?

Let’s get a little existential on Press Release this month, shall we?!

Why am I here?
What am I doing?
Why does it matter?
What is my purpose?
What is the point of it all?

Human beings have been asking these questions for eons in all areas of discourse and professional activity. Philosophers help us wrestle with the question of why we are here. Corporate executives retire and write books about purpose-driven leadership. Life coaches (ahem) offer courses and promise to help you find your purpose. There is no shortage of theory, research, and advice about how to answer the “big why.” So, we might as well stop pretending that thinking about, defining, and declaring a sense of purpose is an extravagant, or “woo-woo”, or self-centered thing to do. Whether we intend to or not, we are going to ponder our purpose, so we might as well do it with intentionality.

But let’s also acknowledge that the existential quest can be a bit overwhelming, and people who seem to have it figured out are not necessarily well equipped to help those of us who are struggling to nail down a pithy epithet that tidily sums up the legacy we hope to leave. In fact, maybe we could even leave “legacy” out of the conversation…

Case in point—when I was in college, I took a leadership course that asked us to write the eulogy that we hoped would be delivered at our funeral. We were 18-21 year olds, being graded on our ability to articulate the impact that we hoped our lives would have. I could not even get a single sentence onto the computer screen without cringing and deleting. I turned in something half-baked and got a half-baked grade. Outwardly I told my friends I thought the assignment was stupid; inwardly I was ashamed that I had no idea what kind of a legacy I wanted to leave and assumed that I would probably never be able to be a leader because of this.

Here is what I wish they had taught me—your life will likely be long, with many chapters, which might not seem to make a lot of linear sense at the time. Don’t worry about legacy; don’t focus on the destination. Build a compass that will help you navigate, especially when life puts obstacles in your path.

And this is exactly how I approach (and help my clients approach) a sense of purpose today--how do you take your values and your strengths, and point them out into the world, so that you can serve and have impact upon the people and issues you care most about?

But even that can feel a bit overwhelming and difficult to discern.  As per usual, we "should ourselves" to death, we don’t trust our intuitive wisdom, and we fall prey to the disease to please. That’s a lot of noise to tune out while trying to listen for a calling.

We know that a strong sense of purpose is crucial to leadership and to fulfillment, but how do we get clear and commit, so that we can make the kind of contribution we hope to make?  Here are a couple of short exercises to get you started:

1. Journal your responses to one or more of these questions (the use of metaphor is intentional here, as it helps to get you out of analytical/focused thinking and into your creative/open ended thinking):
   1. What is the hunger that I can feed?
   2. Where is the pain that I can ease?
   3. What can I build with the tools that I have?
2. Create a couple of “so that…” chains:
   1. write down an activity that you do with some regularity, either because it is part of your job or part of a commitment in your personal life that is important to you.
   2. Then write down your response to this prompt: I do this activity so that
   3. Make several more links in the “so that” chain…I do this activity so that A, so that B, so that C, so that D…. With each link, go a bit broader, until you arrive at something that feels like a statement of purpose.
3. Use metaphor to describe the impact of your personal or professional work. Examples:
   1. I am a lighthouse that guides people on the darkest nights. 
   2. I give people an opportunity for a redemption lap.
   3. I plant the seeds that yield a lifetime of harvest.
   4. I am the dynamite that tears down old structures to make way for the new.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.  And if you want to book a coaching session to zero in on your purpose statement, use the contact form to get in touch.