Hands up if you want to be wealthy, content, successful across a broad range of metrics, have deeply connected relationships across your life and work, feel connected to your true self, live an amazing life in general, die with no regrets and leave some kind of legacy?
Yes please! Sign me up!
Well then, sounds like you need a dose of purpose, because lighting the purpose fuse is the key to the best life you can live, and that is a FACT! Thanks to Brandon Peele for pulling this resource together.
But how do you start connecting to purpose?
Below are 5 factors you need to consider for you to connect to the feeling of meaning and get on the purpose train:
1. Whose plane are you on?
Disengaged or disconnected at work? There are so many people that are on the wrong trajectory or even on the wrong the plane in life.
95% of your decision making as an adult is controlled by your sub-conscious, and that is formed when you are a kid. So fundamentally most of the decisions you have been making are based on an internal operating system that has been built by your parents, society and peers, not you! Bill Cortright has some great content around that you can dig into.
This is where you need to look real hard - where is the disconnect for you, the dissonance? What is it about your work that makes you feel uneasy? Ask your parents and relatives what you wanted to be as a kid - there are often clues there as to what you might really want to be doing.
2. Purpose = (meaning x contribution x connection x impact) - externalities
Look at this equation and rate where you are at. This will help you identify where the gap or disconnect is. Rate each one of 10!
Meaning = understand why you do what you do and who for.
Contribution = do something of service.
Connection = to yourself, family, community, society, planet, universe.
Impact = do something bigger than you.
Externalities = all the bad stuff/unintended consequences caused by you.
3. Just start doing good.
Start where you are! As Ghandi said "You find yourself by losing yourself in the service of others." No-one ever felt bad from doing good. So just start doing more good. Volunteer, open the door for a colleague, shout someone a cup of tea.
There are a million and one ways you can spread the good vibes. As this study shows doing good is good for you and it's contagious.
4. Your purpose is already there you just need to connect to it.
You can start to find the feeling of meaning by looking at the Ikigai model here or you can be a legend like Michelle Sharp at Kilmarnock and have that stuck into the front page of your notebook to look at every day!
How can you start navigating closer to the Ikigai or your reason for being?
5. PLAY BIGGER!
What does real legacy look like? Are you chasing values or valuables?
Look at what Elon Musk and Tesla recently did -
"Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology." Elon Musk.
The competition is not selling more cars than other companies. It's creating sustainable transportation.
Cos here's the thing, people won’t remember what you had, they will remember what you did and how you did it.
For example see if you can answer this question without Googling it - Who was the richest man in the USA in 1963?
Give up?
I'll make it easier - Who was the richest man in the world ever (when adjusted to modern value)?
But if I asked you what the name of the man was who gave a speech in the USA in 1963 about a dream, you'd probably get that one right?
Well I have a dream too! And that's helping you ignite your purpose.
Let me know in the comments how you feel about purpose and how you connect to it!