Category Archives: Purpose

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive…”

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“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

—Howard Thurman, 20th Century African-American author, educator, and civil rights leader.

Image from Unsplash by Jakob Owens

I support a strength-based approach to work performance and life in general.

The work of many individuals, including Marcus Buckingham, has established that the average person works in their area of strength perhaps only 20 – 25% of the time. However, some of the most satisfied and highly-successful people work in their areas of strength and unique abilities 40 – 50% of the time.

Exercise:

How could you design your life and career to shoot for spending 60%, 70% or 80% of your time in your areas of strength?

If you did this, how alive would you be and what difference would you make in your life and the lives of those around you?

“A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it.”

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“A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart and set out to accomplish it.”

– James Allen, philosopher and writer

Life purpose, making a difference, and living a meaningful life are fundamental to happiness.

How can you find your purpose and life direction? How will you know when you are heading the right way, and when you’re getting close to arriving?

Exercise:

List your top 20 – 30 core values.

Cut this list in half, and then in half again, to get to the real core.

Next, create a life vision statement, using all of the final list and perhaps most of the second list of values. Wordsmith this vision until you feel it is 100% you.

Now use your vision statement as the context to inspire your actions in every area of your life: it can help you become happier and more fulfilled.