Living Your Purpose
David Cottrell
Author of Monday Morning Leadership; Fairways, Greens, Lost Balls & Bad Lies: Quit Drifting, Lift the Fog, and Get Lucky; Grace Upon Grace ... My Story
How do you define and live your personal purpose??I think that you have to answer three main questions with crystal-clear clarity:
First, what are you currently doing that you believe in and are proud of? To prevent drifting, you have to know where you are. You have an unique set of skills. You have been trained and understand the demands and challenges of your role. Given your knowledge of your job, how does your role at work connect with your purpose?
The second question is: what positive difference do you make to those around you? Are you a positive influencer who lives your purpose? What do people say about you when you are not around? What if you did not show up at work for a week, would it matter?
The third question is: ‘Does your work contribute toward your personal purpose?’ You are at work a majority of the time. Your time at work should be an opportunity to help you become the person you want to be. If what you do at work does not add to your personal purpose in some way – like providing you the funds, knowledge, skills, time, or connections with others who can help guide you toward your purpose – then you may need to make adjustments. If you connect your personal purpose with your job, everything at work will be a lot easier and more fulfilling.
For example, one person’s purpose is to help the less fortunate in our area. His job provides him resources, skills, and knowledge to help hundreds of people every year. His job also provides him connections. Several of his co-workers, and their friends, invest their time and energy to help him fulfill his purpose thus he can help thousands of people every year. His job is not the end to fulfill his purpose, it is the means for him to become the person he wants to be. The more successful he is at his job, the more funds, knowledge, skills, time, and connections he has to live out his purpose.
Here are a few points to ponder as you coach your team from drifting to purpose:
- Do you come to work with your purpose of doing a task … or are you coming to work because your task will help you achieve your purpose?
- Have you fallen into a comfortable niche and drifted instead of pursuing your purpose?
- Do you believe in what you are doing? If so, you will achieve your best and enjoy life to the fullest.
Based on the book LeaderShift … Making leadership everyone’s business.
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