My Recent Breakthrough With My Life Purpose
I think there’s some rule (since I’m a coach as well as a blogger) that I’m supposed to stay a bit detached in my posts.
I’ve decided that that doesn’t feel authentic for me.
So instead I’ve decided to be extra authentic and look at my progress on the most important issue I’m working on: my life purpose.
Last week I wrote about how Clayton Christensen’s process for creating his life purpose. Well, I’ve worked on my life purpose and I’ve recently made some big breakthroughs.
I was planning to wait until I had it all figured out before posting, but in the context of my decision above I’m going to write about it now.
My Life Purpose
If you’ve read my About page, you’ll be familiar with my current purpose statement:
I dream, I play, I conquer, and I empower others to do the same.
This purpose is reminiscent of Caesar (“veni vidi vici”) interpreted through my own lens:
Dreaming to me is about possibility, imagination, and inspiration. It’s about dreaming big in my life, and the story it tells.
Playing is fun, laughter, and love. It’s the lifeblood of life.
Conquering is setting goals and hitting them. Straight-up accomplishment.
I want to lift others up - to empower them to dream, play and conquer in their lives, whatever that looks like for them.
As an example of the clarity brought by life purpose, as soon as I realized “empower” belonged in that statement (instead of my original word - “inspire”), I dove headfirst into coaching.
My recent breakthroughts
Do you ever get the sense that you’ve been biting off more than you can chew? As if you’re hoping to use those things you’re biting off (e.g. work, a hobby, exercise) to fill some hole inside of you?
And, no matter what, whatever you’re trying won’t fill that hole?
I had been feeling time poor, and I realized that it was because I was focusing on things that would never fill the hole.
Oddly enough, the answer came while journaling - I only realized it was the answer after I’d written it. I was exploring what would truly move the needle and "fill the hole" when, to my surprise, I wrote down the three ways I will measure my life:
the time spent with my loved ones
the people I help
the dreams I create and nurture.
This is what matters in my life. You have to understand, I've been trying to figure this out for a long time.
Me being me, I tried to figure out what the lead measures would be for these three metrics (lead measures explained in the 4-prong approach to getting shit done). They were: (i) hours spent having quality time with loved ones; (ii) hours spent coaching people; and (iii) … uhhh….
It’s hard to figure out a lead measure for the dreaming metric, because I’m still not sure what it is. I’m working on it and I’ll keep you updated.
So what?
This knowledge has given me a new lens to look through.
Should I take on a new commitment? Which measure(s) does it improve? Which measure(s) does it take away from?
It gives me a way to live a life where I’m highly focused on the things that matter.
What would your life look like if you were highly focused on the things that matter to you?