Setting Your Quality Life Purpose

– First Published on Nasdaq –

More and more these days I’m asked my thoughts on the meaning and quality of life. This global pandemic, including being on social lock down, has caused individuals to have deeper discussions.

Many of us agree that we were having these “life” discussions when we were in college, newly married or considering our career choices. Now as adults facing so much uncertainty in the world, we are returning to these life-shaping talks to review or audit our lives, evaluating where we go next.

Golf and Revelations

I recently received an invitation to attend a golf lesson event via video conference being hosted by a financial planner. This was too random not to attend. But before the event I spoke to the host who told me that he was looking for innovative ways to stay connected, not just with friends but also with clients. So he hired a golf pro to demonstrate not only golf swings but also to give tips on how to “read” a golf course.

His intention was to bring together key people in his life who he knew were having similar life discussions, but not just to talk, but to do and enjoy something together. In this case golf.

He went on to tell me that, over the past three months, he had come to the realization that he was spending far too much time working, building wealth and growing his businesses, and too little time with his family.

Appreciating how many of his early life values were being compromised troubled him, he dug out an old journal from his youth to read. Years before he had written on the first page:

• I will always be able to articulate my purpose.
• I will endeavor to have balance in key areas of my life.
• I will live with purpose and intention.
• I will responsibly attend to my wants and needs.
• I will have a plan for giving back to the community.
• I will be a present and responsible head of my family.

These statements were guided by the values, goals and socio-cultural context in which he lived. Knowing that he had moved so far away from them was troubling.

A Season of Revitalization

After the Zoom golf lesson ended, the ten attendees talked about this being a season of revitalization for them. They talked about catching a new vision for their lives, for their businesses, yet all agreed how far they had drifted from their quality life purpose and plans and how important it was for them to re set their life compass.

Interestingly, we all shared news about the video conferencing events we’d been invited to. Golf was obviously of interest to us as golfers and was a small step toward refocusing our quality life. Even as we talked and laughed about the video conference events we’d been invited to (learning to cook, attending a music recital, exercising at home, portrait painting, dress making), it led us to question what would people in our personal and business world want to be invited to? Clearly not all of us would be interested in such video conference invitations.

What kind of events would we run that add meaning to life? More importantly, how would we even know what quality life and meaning looked like in the lives of those people if we didn’t know them at a deeper level.

This led to a wider conversation. Given that many people were having profound and meaningful conversations and looking at their lives through a completely different lens, how could we work with them or their clients to ensure our service offering genuinely added value to their quality and life goals?

Further, how would we know what those were? As a group we’d forgotten or laid aside our own quality life purpose to some degree. So, how then to now engage with family, friends and clients to understand and gain insight into what a quality life looked like for them?

‘Money Confidence’ Is a Key

From my own perspective I’m already seeing investors keen to understand their financial personality as they make potentially life-changing decisions. They clearly see how understanding their financial personality will build “money confidence” to make decisions that build a quality life performance in the areas of:

• Life purpose
• Career
• Finances
• Health and Recreation
• Community
• Relationships
• Confidence
• Wisdom

Over the next few months, I will unpack the importance of understanding how having a clear quality life purpose and plan can lead to significant money confidence. I hope you will join me on this journey that is at once both introspective and collaborative.