Claiming Your Purpose Can Be Confusing
I have had many conversations with friends and clients over the last 5 months about purpose. People are asking big purpose exploration questions. What is my purpose? Am I doing purposeful work? Does what I do matter? Am I leading the life I am meant to lead? So many questions and yet not a lot of clarity about how to claim one's purpose. As I researched the topic, I found there were many different ways people write about purpose. One of the best quotes about claiming purpose was in Bob Goff's book Dream Big. Goff quoted a client who felt “I’m more confused than a chameleon in a bag of Skittles” in regards to claiming purpose.
I often find that when a topic is hard to wrap our heads around, it's helpful to read quotes by different authors to shape meaning. Here are a few that are helped me to claim more clarity on purpose.
- Spot the difference between what you do vs why you do it. Jamino de Nysschen
- When I’m trusting and being myself as fully as possible, everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously. Shakti Gawain
- Chasing after your dreams requires clear headedness and wide eyes that are trained to follow the specific path in front of you not the path in front of them. Bob Goff
- As we build bridges and even become bridges, we will be doing a service to the world. John Powell
Which quote resonates with you the most as you think about the meaning of purpose? Sometimes we just need an anchor quote to hold on to when we begin an exploration of purpose.
An exploration of your values is a good starting point to clarify and claim your purpose. I recently facilitated a value clarification exercise for over 60 people on a zoom session. Each person sifted and sorted a list of values and landed on five core values. These values now serve as a compass for how to be in the world. The group also explored how they had used those values in the past and how they wanted to apply those values going forward. This simple, yet powerful exercise helps shape clarity of purpose.
I conduct a values sort like this every few years to ground my purpose. I had two new values on my list this month: health and creativity. I'm excited to explore how I will act on those values. Another value that showed up for the first time was beauty. I am so grounded by the beauty in nature that my response was..."why has it taken so long for this value to show up on my list?" "What has been standing in my way of owning that critical core value more intentionally?"
A few good quotes and clarity on your core values will help guide you towards your purpose. Are you interested in exploring your values and beginning to claim your purpose? Let's set up a time to talk.
And, if I think about that confused chameleon that can changes so many colors....at least I've got my colors down to five. Five grounding values, guiding my purpose.