Find Your Purpose In Five

Can you really find your purpose in 5 minutes? Can you really find your purpose by answering 5 questions? Let me know what you discover in the comments!

This blog is based on the excellent TED Talk by Adam Leipzig

Obviously, I've been inspired to play with the material, creating the Mind Map and some qualifying content in this blog - but Adam is the original source of the content!

You Can Find Your Purpose In Five Answers

1) Who you are = insert your name, or if you're feeling shamelessly audacious, shout it out loud! Imagine you are like Christopher Lambert in "Highlander" - on a mountain top, declaring to the Universe who you are... better still, go to a mountain top and do this!

"There can be only ONE!" (You, that is!)

2) What do you do? Answer = what do you love to do - for me, it's writing. What is the ONE thing you feel supremely qualified to teach other people? What is your passion? If time and money were unlimited, how would you spend your time? Transforming - would be my answer in ONE word.

3) Whom do you serve? For whom do you do your ONE thing = say their names!

4) What do these people want, need, or desire? Happiness? Freedom? Purpose?!

5) What do they get out of your service? How are they changed or transformed as a result?

To Validate!

Going a little beyond what Adam has time to say in his TED Talk, I really do think it is vital that you 'validate your identity' - provide proof to yourself that you really are being the only 'You' that you can be. If that sounds a bit weird - there's nothing that feels weirder than trying to be the 'You' that someone else thinks you should be or wants you to be. Are you fulfilling a role that isn't really you? Revolt!

Your heart will tell you when you are you... when you are congruent... when you are aligned with your true identity. That's what I mean by 'validate'.

A very close friend paid me the most important complement of my life. She said to me,

"You bring out the 'Me' in me."

I'd love to do that for you too. And you and I know that you can do this for yourself - you just need permission sometimes. I give you permission! You're perfect just the way you are... when you're true to yourself. The other 'you' is a fraud. Dump them.

To Vocate!

Ha ha! A quick aside. I thought I'd invented this word this morning but look here! This was a delightful discovery and validation, for me, for repeating Adam's work in my own way. Here's a group of people helping others discover their meaning and purpose.

Their definition of 'Vocate' is:

[verb], to seek and find one’s calling in life; to engage in meaningful work (as in vocation)

I love the idea of this being a verb rather than a nominalisation (that was for my NLP buddies.) A nominalisation is where we change a verb into a noun - and thereby strip it of much of it's motive power. A vocation, a calling, is an ongoing process - you need to live it daily.

The Paradigm Shift That Brings Happiness

I've deliberately structured the Mind Map so that we have 2 branches on the left-hand side, and 3 branches on the right. This reflects Adam's teaching in the video. Only 2 refer to us - the 2 on the left; 3 refer to others. i.e. the emphasis is on an 'outward facing' orientation.

The bias is beyond ourselves.

The bias is bigger than ourselves.

"Happier people do things to make other people feel happy, and make them feel well taken care of." Adam Leipzig

"So when people ask you, "What do you do?" just give the answer for what you said for #5." Adam Leipzig

What follows is almost verbatim what Adam says in the conclusion to his TED talk...

"I help people get great work into the world..."

"...because I train Entrepreneurs and Creative People to take decisive actions so they can get their greatest work into the world."

"Then you'll get to share how they may come to know their great life purpose too."

If I was to Seth Godin-fy this, I believe Seth would say,

"I help people get great art into the world."

"...their unique great art..."

Or as Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach would describe it, "their unique ability."

In fact, here's a quote from Dan's site:

"We believe that entrepreneurs are the change-makers who are transforming the world. That’s why we became entrepreneurs, and that’s why we’re so passionate about your entrepreneurial success."

Well, I don't know about you, but Adam has described what I do better than I have ever articulated it myself... until this time.

I vocate, therefore I am.

Happy Sunday - and may your life change for the better today!