As I’m writing this blog post, I’m also recording the official season one of the Career Mom Community Podcast. The topic of discussion for this season is Finding Purpose in Your Profession. I’m so excited about this topic. The women who I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing thus far are absolutely amazing. I’m confident you will enjoy the dialog and discussion.
Oftentimes, when I hear teachings or read articles discussing purpose, it suggests that purpose is a destination. I’ve discovered that purpose is not a destination. Instead, we grow in purpose and walk in purpose. By definition, purpose is the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists according to Dictionary.com, LLC.
Living in purpose is so powerful because it provides a sense of peace and fulfillment. As you start to uncover your purpose, it’s valuable to operate and live intentionally aligned with the reason for which you exist. If you are on a purpose pursuit journey, meaning you are still uncovering your personal “why”, there are few things you can do to help you discover your purpose.
Let’s dive into a quick discussion. Feel free to share your perspectives and experience in the comments below.
Identify themes
Take a moment to reflect on the things you enjoy. Identify what they are and look for common themes among your passions.
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Give language
Use this journey, discovering your purpose, to give language to your life’s activities. Don’t just say I’m a professional, instead use deeper language to frame your endeavors. For example, “I am a professional who supports ____” or “I’m a team leader supporting our infrastructure design”. As this practice becomes second nature, you will begin to uncover elements of your calling and that will point you to purpose.
Assess
There are a number of assessments online and in publications. These can be beneficial in helping you to identify themes within your life (see point 1). For example, I’ve taken the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment featured in the StrengthsFinder 2.0 best selling book twice. Once for Graduate School and again for a work team building exercise not too long ago. My top two strengths are analytical and strategic. Go figure, right! Knowing this provided clarity in regards to elements of my purpose.
Keep Living
Yep, it’s that easy. If you are unsure about your purpose, keep living! Keep pursuing the things that you enjoy with gratitude. In doing so, you will discover the things you’d like to do more of as well as the things you prefer not to do. Keep the things you prefer tucked away in your memory. As you evolve your purpose will become more clear.
Where do we go from here?
Once you walk through some of the suggestions below, start to speak your purpose out loud. It doesn’t have to be anything creepy or weird, but make it a part of your conversation. If what you are saying doesn’t feel natural, re-evaluate to ensure you’re on the right path. It could be something as simple as saying, “My purpose is to empower and equip others”. Try this approach with your team and leaders as well.
Our words have power and our actions follow – Debranetta, Career Mom Community
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Having informal conversations sprinkled with simple statements such as this gives others an idea of work you might enjoy and an area in which you will excel. If you say, “My purpose is to empower and equip others”, you may get asked to lead training sessions even if it is not within the norm for your role.
Why? Because it’s purpose aligned therefore you are more:
- Likely to excel
- More apt to enjoy it
- More willing to commit to the end
The inverse is also true, if you connect your purpose with the types of work you take on a seek you are more likely to do the same. My encouragement is to find ways to make your purpose a part of your career dialogue because there is power on purpose.
We will deep dive more into this topic on the Podcast and here on the blog so make sure you subscribe to both.
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