The Clarity and Purpose Blueprint - Becoming your authentic self
Jan Aquarius
Partner @ AQ Brigade | Effortless High Performance Coach @Live. Grow. Matter | AQ Coach & Consultant | Career Coach
This post is part of the THRIVE Blog Series in which we guide you through an integrative approach to
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If you want to translate knowledge into action and create lasting change, check out the online masterclass The Clarity & Purpose Blueprint . At the end of the article, I share a gift as well. For more on the THRIVE Academy, check here.
Every fulfilling life starts with a simple yet powerful question: What do I truly want, and why does it matter?
If life doesn’t feel as vibrant as it could—whether that’s because of constant fatigue, stress, a sense that something is missing, frustration, or lack of joy—this is an invitation to take a step forward. It’s never too late to create a life that feels more intentional, meaningful, and aligned with who you are and who you want to be.
In a world full of distractions and expectations, finding your way can feel overwhelming. But when you have Clarity about what’s important to you and a sense of Purpose that drives your actions, life takes on new meaning. These two elements are the keys to designing a life that feels authentic, impactful, and truly yours, and they give you guidance and stability in the chaos and busy-ness.
This article will help you uncover your Clarity—the what that lights your path—and your Purpose—the why that fuels your journey. No matter where you are in life, taking these steps will empower you to create a future you’re excited to live.
Let’s begin!
Understanding progress and transformation
Clarity & Purpose are the starting points of building a life that truly fulfills you. If you want to live life on your terms, you’ve got to get really clear on what you want. Sounds logic, yet many people don’t really spend time deeply thinking about it, let alone crystallizing it.
Without Clarity about what is important to you, you are essentially navigating life blind. Imagine yourself on a sail-boat and just going wherever the wind takes you. This can be fun and there is nothing inherently wrong with that, but in the context of living life to the fullest and truly being in the driver seat of your life, navigating blindly isn’t optimal. You might enjoy it for a while but you might also end up in places you’d rather not be. To move towards the life you truly want, you need clear direction, you need Clarity.
Clarity is the bedrock of personal transformation and growth, and the foundation of progress.
We’ll not cover the full model of progress and transformation in this article, but it’s useful to understand the big picture.
The model for Progress & Transformation
If you want to build the life you really want, as mentioned, Clarity & Purpose are the first step. But there are other elements you need to master for lasting change. These are:
These are the pillars of change, transformation and success, which lead to a more fulfilling life. They can be summarized by:
We’ll cover all the other elements of the model more in depth in other articles.
Now, what are we exactly looking at when we want to get more Clarity in our lives?
Clarity about what?
There are four domains you can think of to shape your life in the best possible way:
And for all of these questions: Why is this important for you? Understanding your whys and how all of the above gives meaning to your life falls under Purpose.
So in essence, Clarity is about answering the WHAT question, which can be used as a base for the reflection on WHO you want to be. (By the way, the identity-level reflection is a more meaningful and powerful frame to think about success (success here as a measure of making progress towards what is important to you). More on that later! )
You might value equality, respect, or collaboration (values). Perhaps you aspire to become a successful entrepreneur or live in nature (achieve). Or maybe you’d love to explore diverse cultures through travel (do / experience), or pursue fitness goals like having a six-pack—or even owning a Ferrari (have). What you desire doesn’t matter, there’s no right or wrong; it’s deeply personal and unique to you. What does matter is how clear you are about exactly what you want. It’s this precision that’s going to start pulling you towards it.
On your personal growth journey, Clarity acts as an anchor—a reference point that guides you in the direction you want to go. You can think of it as the destination you enter into your GPS. Once you know where you want to go and set the destination, the GPS automatically directs you left and right to get there.
Life works the same way. Once you have Clarity and have clearly set your destination, your inner GPS takes over and guides you in the right direction.
This also means you don’t need to know the entire path in advance. How you’ll reach your destination doesn’t need to be completely clear when you start moving toward it.
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We often think we need to have everything planned out and perfectly understand how we’ll get to our endpoint before we take action, but that’s not true. Not in the car, and not in life. Enter your destination and start driving. The how reveals itself along the way.
Note: when I speak about a destination, I don’t mean the final, ultimate destination. This is simply the direction you’re choosing right now. Along the way, you might learn new things, gain new insights, or experience shifts in your life priorities that lead you to set a new destination in your GPS. That’s perfectly fine. The endpoint isn’t the goal—it’s merely a guide. The journey itself is the goal. That’s where you learn and grow.
Purpose
Purpose goes a layer deeper. It is the underlying reason behind what you want. It’s the answer to the question: why do you want what you want? This answer provides insight into how your desires fuel your energy and joy and how they bring meaning to your life. A crucial aspect of Purpose is its impact and contribution—a positive influence beyond yourself. If your purpose only serves you, it’s not really a purpose.
Purpose is, therefore, the WHY behind what you want tied to a positive contribution.
A purpose might be as broad as making society kinder and more respectful or helping preserve the planet for future generations. But it could also be something smaller or more personal, like bringing people together to help them make the most of life, spreading laughter, making a positive impact in your community, being a supportive parent, helping your team members grow, or excelling in service to your customers.
Your Purpose represents your deeper motivations and is something you can pursue in various ways. It doesn’t specify the WHAT or HOW. These often fall into place naturally once your Purpose becomes clear and you start taking action aligned with it.
To summarize
Both Clarity & Purpose form the foundation for taking ownership of your life and experiencing more of what truly fulfills you. It’s not about perfection or checking off boxes—it’s about aligning your energy and actions with what feels meaningful to you.
If life doesn’t feel as vibrant as it could—this is an invitation to take a step forward.
Once you have defined very clearly what is important for you and have a deep understanding of why that is important for you, you have taken the most important step to get more out of life, whatever that means for you. You’ll have all the insights to be more in charge of your own life and start living it on your terms.
Like Greg McKeown said, “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”
It’s a game changer once you know what you want (and should) prioritize in life. You started writing your own story and took the first step to put your own mission in the world. And I cannot wait to see you starting to live that life, step by step.
Following these insights, you will be more aligned with your authentic self and will be moving toward more meaning, more fulfilment and more peace of mind. Automatically, this will lead to more self-confidence, more joy, and higher performance.
Let’s get to work
Inspiration without implementation equals frustration, so let’s get started with getting more Clarity in what is important for you!
For a short period of time, I’m offering the Clarity & Purpose Blueprint Workbook for free. Grab your copy here.
Go through a couple of exercises to get to know yourself better. Get clear on what you want, get clear on why you want what you want and start directing your life towards more joy and fulfillment.
I’m wishing you a wonderful day, full of clarity and plenty of fulfillment.
I’m also looking forward to seeing you in the next article so make sure to check the Blog regularly and subscribe to the monthly Newsletter.
In the meantime, if you want to dive deeper into this material:
Here’s to a life fully lived ??!
Cheers, Jan
Ps, don’t wait until you feel bad
One final reflection :
For many people, the topic of Clarity becomes highly relevant when we feel the need to change something in our lives. When something feels off. When we don’t feel great, when frustrations build up, when we hit a figurative wall, or when we find ourselves dragging through the days for too long. A challenging moment or period can be a powerful motivator to start asking what truly matters, and it can be a great trigger for change—but it doesn’t have to be the only trigger. Regularly exploring and reflecting on what’s important to you can only enhance the quality of your life.
Even if you already know what you want, it’s valuable to revisit this regularly. Our desires, priorities, and what’s important to us often change, especially as we move through different life stages. In your early career years, for example, your career might be more important than free time. When you have children, family probably becomes your top priority. And when you’ve had enough of the rat race, freedom and leisure time might take center stage again.
It’s completely normal for your Clarity and Purpose to shift over time (though Clarity is likely to shift more frequently than Purpose).