The Case For Going In Pursuit of Purpose

"Hey, Tim! Would you be keen to come and talk about B Corp and Purpose?"

"Sure Catherine van der Meulen, you know I love to do that."

"Great. You have 10 minutes to speak and it's at 06:45 on Friday..."

I love a talk and I love a challenge so leeeeshgo.

Thanks to the team at St Margaret's College, Christchurch, New Zealand for having me in this morning to talk at their year 10 Daughter Father breakfast event.

When talking to a younger audience I find it interesting to try and remember back to when I was that age.

In 1993 UB40 were #1 in the hit parade, there was no social media, phones made phone calls and Stanley cups were something burly Canadian men played hockey for…

But the essence of purpose and the need we all have for that is timeless.

As Aristotle observed,

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“At the intersection where your gifts, talents, and abilities meet a human need; therein you will discover your purpose”.

But what exactly is this purpose thing?

When you first bump into the idea of purpose it can be a tricky one to grapple with.

In many ways, it’s like trying to explain the taste and smell of the number 3. Accountants tell me that it is basically raspberry…

When we want to get a definition of something the dictionary is a good place to go and it describes purpose as:

“the reason for which something is done or created,

Or somethings use/usefulness.”

So the best way to think about is about you being you and doing good for something bigger than you that creates shared good for you and others.

Think about it as about planting trees that you won’t see grow.

As American philosopher William James said: "The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.”

And so this leads us to the second part and harder part of purpose.

For you to be deploying your gifts talents and abilities in service to a human need, you must connect to the deepest and purest and truest expression of who you are.

And unless you have done that work, right now you are more than likely not that version of you.

The Romans called it your genius.

They believed that everyone had a guiding spirit that attended them on their life’s journey.

A force that dictated their unique personality and disposition.

The word genius comes from the Latin verb?gignere?meaning "to give birth or bring forth".?

And so the hardest part of the purpose journey is the journey into yourself.

To confront the parts of you that you don’t want. To grow and develop into the person you were at your birth potentially.

But again we’ve known the need for this for ages.

Back to Ancient Greece where “Know thyself” was one of the maxims inscribed on the forecourt of the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

That’s one of the reasons why so few people are living a life of purpose.

The other is down to your tribalisation.

By this, I mean your childhood.

As it’s between the ages of 0 – 7 that you undergo this process.

During this time your subconscious brain is formed.

Your brain is literally a sponge with no filter during these years as it sucks in all the information about how to function as a human.

As an adult around 95% of your decision-making is made subconsciously.

And that’s great for tasks like opening a door.

But it also means the seemingly rational decisions you are making about bigger things in life are also being processed by the operating system that was put in there by other people some time ago.

Your parents, your upbringing, your schooling, your society, your peers etc have led you to be who you are and where you are today and the tribe you are a part of.

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Beyond that, the emerging field of EPIGENETICS is proving that your DNA and how you behave can be influenced by the trauma of life carried from your grandparents.

How many of the ideas and values we hold to be true have been passed from generation to generation without us challenging them?

Be independent, look after yourself first, get a “good job”, get married, have a nice house. Work hard.

It’s best summed up for me by the idea of “What is it that people like you should be doing?”

So then, why are you here right now?

The chances of you being you here today are so infinitesimally small it’s actually practically zero.

Your mum and dad met and liked each other just enough to create you – that's about 1 in 40 million

At the biological level, you were one of 4 trillion sperm that could have made any sort of version of you.

And you are the end point of billions of years of unbroken reproduction all the way back to the first single-celled organisms.

So why you?

Why now?

Well, that’s what you need to work out in life!

As Mark Twain said

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

To read this you have a computer and electricity and the ability to be sitting somewhere in relative comfort. You have won the lottery of life.

You have an amazing head start in life by virtue of the luck of you being born as you and being right here right now.

So you bunch of miracles my challenge to you is to go connect to who you really could be.

And once you’ve done that aim to do the most worthwhile thing that creates the most good.

Find a game to play of sufficient grandeur that makes your life worthwhile.

What extraordinary thing will you make happen that genuinely creates a better place for more people and the planet?

If you need some help on that I might know a guy...

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