Purpose

Finding Purpose

This applies to every part of our lives both personally and professionally. In business you will hear about a company’s mission, vision and values. Once I heard this presented as purpose, promise and principles and that stuck with me. In finding this new perspective, in finding purpose, promise and principles, it was transformative. It felt more personal, and that is a core belief for me – that this is all personal.

We are all people out there doing the best we can with what we have. And whether at work or at play, with family or with co-workers, how we navigate and respond to life happening around us, comes from who we are as individuals. Each with our own unique and beautiful fingerprint and spirit, we each bring who we are to everything we do, everyday.

Connections

The 10 Power Words fall into their own little groups. It was something I felt when I first put them together. Permission, Progress and Productivity – are the first steps. Even if you stop there and you focus on these three words to replace perfection, you will make great changes in your life.

For Purpose, Promise and Principles, they fit together because of the earlier connection mentioned. In business and in life, you can’t have one without the other two. Your purpose is why you are here, why you do what you do what you do, what motivates you, what you want to accomplish. Your promise is what you will deliver – whether to your clients or to yourself. It is what will happen as a result of your purpose. Then there are the Principles – and they hold the purpose and promise all together. We will explore promise and principles more in the next two blogs. For now, let’s explore Purpose.

Authenticity

The word “authenticity” gets mentioned a lot in personal development. For years I struggled with what it meant to live authentically, and that is because I wasn’t. Authenticity is a key factor in purpose. Knowing who I was, truly and deeply at my core, or at least starting to connect with her, is how I came to see and know my purpose and my company’s purpose.

It has been a long road, as I have spent most of my life trying to be what everyone else wanted me to be. It was exhausting. Then slowly I started to give myself permission to say no, to ask questions like “why was this expected of me?”, and so on. Over the last handful of years, I started to meet myself. Starting my business was definitely a first step, because I did something I wanted to do since I was about 6 or 7 years old, and set up my first restaurant in my parent’s basement. Owning my own business was a dream since that day, and when I made it a reality something shifted.

Shifts

For me stepping into that moment, saying yes to owning my own business, taking a chance on me, was another shift. Shifts are those moments where, either in the moment or later when you look back, you can see where things change and you start on a new path. Like the staircases in Hogwarts (shout out to my Harry Potter fan friends), when a shift happens, you feel it, you know it, and life moves in a new direction. Shifts can go in any direction – backwards, forwards, sideways – and you can and will have many shifts in your life. For some shifts, those are when life happens, and you have no control. For other shifts, they are up to us. We have a choice and when I made this choice I felt the shift and looking back, it has been one of the strongest shifts of my life.

Shifts are like earthquakes, where the plates of the earth shift and shake. Some earthquakes are barely felt, and others bring everything crashing down. And even in those moments, even if while the walls are crumbling it feels like you don’t know how you will go on, somehow we do. We keep going, we survive and it makes us a little stronger. Those scars heal and they are now part of us, making us smarter and gives us new knowing on who we are and what we want to do.

Our Purpose is in Our Journey

It is from the shifts in my life, the moments and events that I experienced that shaped my life to this point and led me to first connect with my purpose. I knew it from a young age, but I buried it for fear of someone hearing me or calling me silly. Now I own it! I embrace it!

When I was younger, I used to ask a lot of questions (ok maybe I still do), and one day I apologized to a teacher for my long list of questions. It was not something that was embraced in my home, so I carried guilt when my inquisitive mind couldn’t hold back. This teacher was so wonderful with what she said next. She leaned down and told me that I should never be afraid to ask questions. She said the world has millions of people out there and there are others out there like me who probably have the same question. By having the courage to ask the question, I help bring a voice to those who have the same question. Holy cow?! Mic drop moment! It gave me permission to be me, and showed me that impact of true kindness.

My childhood was more chaos than kindness. For a long time that that I wanted to help others, I wanted others to feel kindness, I wanted others to know that love is always the answer, but I just didn’t know how I was going to do it. How to help others who are afraid, who know they have something great inside of them and don’t know how to bring it out, that is what I had to figure out. After 50 years on this journey, I found it, my purpose came together. All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

Let Your Purpose be Your Driver

Purpose makes a clear statement of what you do and why you do it. It is a reminder to yourself of why you are here, and tells everyone you meet what it is you do and why you do it, and more importantly it tells you what course you have set for yourself. With purpose defined, you can chart your course and weather any storm. With purpose clear and focused, you know where you are, where you want to go, and why you want to do it. Your story, your experiences have shaped this.

Knowing your purpose makes all other decisions easier. With each day, with each decision, look at the choices you are making (or not making) and ask – Does this hold up my purpose? Get still, find silence and listen – you have the answers right inside of you. Remember, no matter what the answer, no matter if you see what you want or need, you are enough to accomplish whatever it is you want to do.

If you are reading this, and you’re unsure of your purpose, give yourself permission to be okay with that. The fact that you are aware that you want to find your purpose means you’re already on the journey. You are already amazing, right where you are supposed to be, right where you belong.