Much is talked about our purpose and often I find that people get very hung up on the idea and frustrated that they can’t find it! Well, purpose doesn’t have to be found, it is not something nebulous outside of you hanging around until you happen upon it. It is something you find inside of you and is informed by what is truly important to you.
Our purpose is very much tied into our personal values, the things that we feel are important in our lives. If you have never sat down and worked out your values then I suggest you take a look at a recent article on values by Philip Bolton - Are We All Becoming Entrepreneurs?. Whatever you do in your life you need to be fulfilling your own personal values. If you want to gain an even deeper understanding into the importance of your values you can also ask yourself the following question for each value: ‘why is this value important to me?’ In that way you gain an insight into your values and their influence in your life.
Once you have an understanding of your values you can then take a look at your purpose. For some of you your purpose may be very personal to you; to create a loving family, to be supportive to those who are important to you, to leave the world a little better through living life well. For others it may be more ‘bigger picture’; to help eradicate poverty, to improve the opportunity of education. It could also be a very overarching, big statement like ‘to live life to the full’. Whatever it is, is fine. There is no one purpose that is better than another. Your purpose is an expression of who you are.
It is the answer to the question ‘Why’. Why do I do what I do? That purpose stays with you throughout your life but your vision and mission can change as you grow and change. One thing to remember is don’t censor your purpose, often people think that it has to be lofty but it doesn’t. It is a very personal thing and there are no rules – it is totally personal to you and the only person it has to resonate with is you. Take a look at your values and see which one, or ones, stand out for you. What is so important and how might that translate into your purpose?
For example, two of my personal values are ‘empowerment’ and ‘service’ – and my purpose is ‘to empower people to joy’ and I do that through my work – my ‘service’, and that leads me to my vision.
Your vision is the ‘What’. It is how you see yourself living your purpose in this stage in your life. What can you do right now in your life that would fulfil your purpose? This can and does change as we grow older and our priorities change in life. For example when we are teenagers we are going to have a different vision for our lives than when we are married with a family.
For example, taking my purpose of ‘empowering others to joy’, this could be lived in many ways. For me my value of service helps me see what my vision can be. It is what helps me focus my purpose into everyday life. My vision is to be a resource for people so they can be empowered to joy. The ‘What’ which fulfils the ‘Why’.
Ok, so now we know the why and the what, the next question is how are we going to do this? This now becomes your mission. This too can and does change. As you go through life you will add things to your mission and expand it. Just as at the beginning my coaching was my mission, now I have added my books, my CDs, workshops etc. Once you know your vision, your mission is then ‘How’ you fulfil it.
So lets take a hypothetical person and work out what their purpose, vision and mission might be. Say they have the values of living life to the full, family, support, wealth and fun.
They might say that living life to the full is very important and feel that it is their purpose. So their purpose may be simply to ‘live life to the full’. Their vision could be ‘by taking all opportunities that arise that will support my family and lifestyl’e. Their mission might be ‘by ensuring that I create wealth, whilst still having a good work life balance and having time for my family’. Can you see how their values are tied up in their purpose, vision mission statement?
There is a fourth part of this that some people might also relate to and that is the legacy you leave behind – the ‘What If’. This can be quite a strong motivator for some people and for others it doesn’t feature at all. But I did want to mention it here to complete the picture. The ‘What If’ is ‘what would I leave behind if I did fulfil my purpose, vision and mission?’. For some people this is a specific ‘thing’ i.e. a book, for others it could be some ideas or ways of being that they have passed on to their family. Again no judgement as the size of the legacy, but in some ways we all leave something behind so it can be good to make it conscious.
Once we begin to see that in fact we all do have a purpose and the vision and mission that automatically follows, it does give our actions more meaning. Our fulfilment comes when we live our values to the full and by embodying our values in our purpose, vision and mission we become clearer on how to do that. As we look at changing career this level of clarity around our purpose will point us in a direction that we may not have noticed before or even may have been avoiding. It helps us make informed choices as to what the next step is. Even if living our purpose feels challenging we know that there is a greater level of fulfilment and meaning in life when we follow that path. Simply put, it is what makes us happy.
Jessica works internationally as a Life Fulfilment Coach empowering people to create the life they choose and gain fulfilment in every area of life. She offers a free introductory session to discuss how she can help you create the shift you want and feel excited about your life again. If you would like to arrange a time for her to call you please email her at jessica@jessicamcgregorjohnson.com or call +44 (0) 203 239 6155. For more information visit www.jessicamcgregorjohnson.com
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