Purpose : What is your life purpose ?

Today, as part of our HPE Inspire series for leaders I have interviewed Vic Strecher. The HPE Inspire series is designed to engage our employees with an outside in perspective on a range of insights that will help advance the way we live and work. Vic, a natural choice for the series, is a Professor and the Director for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan in the School of Public Health and Medical School. He is also the author of the book “Life on Purpose,” an exploration of living life purposefully and how to apply those same principles to your own life.

As I started to research Vic for the series, I listened to his Ted talk ‘On purpose’. During his talk, he encouraged others to really try to think about their purpose in life and then aligning their actions, goals, and behaviors to achieving that purpose, as he has done. Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of everyday life we forget about our bigger purpose and we can get dragged down by everyday tasks; meetings for meetings sake, being endlessly busy instead of productive, and wearing tiredness like a badge of honor. To truly be happy, I think goals, purpose and our actions must align.

Today, Vic asked us two simple questions to help us find our purpose:

1. How are you when you are at your best?
2. What matters most to you?

When I was thinking about my answers, my purpose became clear. And, suddenly, very personal.

My life purpose became clearer when I became a mum, and deepened the last 5 years raising two boys as a single mum.

 I believe many parents can relate to the sudden shift in priorities that accompanies having children. Raising children completely refocuses your life and allows all the meaningless, white noise in life to fall by the wayside. Being a good mother and raising kind and balanced boys is my main personal life purpose. My professional purpose is to be a great leader; to grow and lift teams, to deliver growth for my company, as well as excellent service and experience to our customers and partners. These two purposes are, of course, connected. Ultimately, I want to be a good human being and remain authentic inside and outside of the home and empower others to feel comfortable and empowered to do the same.

Authenticity starts by being kind and compassionate to myself and others and doing so consistently – aligning words and actions.

To not sound cliché, what I mean by being authentic, is to live and work being true to yourself. The opposite of that, in my view, is being true to somebody else’s ideas of who you should be. And that takes a lot of energy. Energy you could be spending on other, more valuable things that will add to the person you are and who you want to become. Authenticity starts by being kind and compassionate to myself and others and doing so consistently – aligning words and actions. Secondly, you have to start valuing time. This is extremely important because time is so limited, and much more so when you are a single mum. I offer time with intent to genuinely extend trust, partnership and value in performance.

You lift, by lifting others -- give your time to volunteer or help others. Taking time mentoring or sponsoring someone’s career development, or volunteering at a local non-profit helps others rise up to be their best selves. I believe this is essential to living an authentic, purpose-driven life. I recently joined the board of the British Benevolent Society, which in partnership with the Consulate General offices in California, they seek to help and support British Nationals, residing in the United States whom have found themselves in incredibly difficult, trying situations and quite literally have nowhere else to turn for help. My involvement in the local community also directly ties to support my homeland, which allows me to grow a deeper sense of connection and gives me an even greater sense of purpose.

I want to be the best mum, daughter, sister, friend, mentor, leader, co-worker, human I can be. For me that means focusing on being a role model in all facets of my life, especially for my children, who remind me everyday of why it’s so important to be purpose-driven.

Thank you, Vic, for your session today. I left inspired and I know I am not the only one.