Step 2 – Clarify Your Purpose

Purpose is defined as: something set up as an object or end to be attained : intention, resolution, determination.

What is your purpose? Remember what I told you in Part 1?

You are a unique creation and therefore, very special. There has never been one like you before and there will never be one like you ever again.

That was not an accident it was by design.

In Step 1: Acquire the Fire, you were discovering or rediscovering your passion. What excites you? What turns you on? What do you love about your job, your life, your hobbies… from this point let’s focus on creating a picture of the things you would like to accomplish in your life. (It would be a good thing for you to get a notebook, steno pad or a journal at this point.) Please, please, please do not judge… just turn on the dream machine. Imagine 2 or 3 things that you would like to look back and smile and say I’m really glad I pursued that. Write it down. It does not have to be significant to anyone but you. Remember, I told you in Part 1, I don’t believe you were put here to live up to anyone else’s expectations.

How well do you know yourself? What are your mental models? What do you value? Takes some time, I mean really take some time and with paper and pencil write down your answer to these questions:

1. How do you see yourself?
2. What are you most proud of?
3. What is your favorite responsibility?
4. What are you passionate about?
5. What do you do well?
6. What do you do not so well?
7. What are your values?
8. What’s unique about you (in personality, experience, skills, etc.)?
9. What 5 of your personality traits stand out the most?
10. What do you bring to a relationship or a group that you are in?

Ask 3 or 4 people that you are close to:

1. What they believe you are passionate about?
2. What they think you do well?
3. What they think you do not so well?
4. What they think your values are?
5. What they feel is unique about you?
6. What they think your 5 most outstanding personality traits are?
7. What they feel you bring to a relationship or a group that you are in?

This is a wonderful discovery exercise. Investing the time to do this project will produce amazing rewards. It will help you connect with yourself and others in an exciting new way with more clarity and intention and it pulls the cover off of your purpose in life. Even if you know what your purpose is, this exercise well validate it and make it even clearer still.
In this step you may feel that you are completely reinventing yourself, and that is OK. You may find that your friend’s answers do not concur with your answers. This too, is OK. It is simply their point of view. Can you, through examining the disparity between their answers and yours, better understand them and how they see the world?

I would absolutely love to hear for you about your experience with this exercise. Won’t you drop me a line?

Til next time,
Charles