4 paths to purpose
In the last post, I proposed that artists confuse our love of the arts for purpose. We think that it is the reason why we do our craft. We believe it is enough to be sustainable. I shared ways this belief may actually limit us.
And now, I posit that many of us have not thought about our purpose in ways beyond this love.
Here are four ways we can start and some questions we can ask.
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1) What lights you up
This is a good place to start. We can ask ourselves:
What excites you?
What makes you want to jump out of bed each morning?
What gives you energy and joy?
What drives you?
What makes your heart sing?
Sometimes it is actually difficult to answer these questions honestly, without external influences from your family, friends, mentors, or society.
2) What values you hold
Digging a little deeper, we can ask ourselves:
What do you stand for? What do you care most about?
What are you most proud of? This helps you understand your standards and your expectations for others
What makes you different? How do you stand apart?
What are your non-negotiables? Qualities you're not willing to compromise?
We can then make our values verbs to encourage ourselves to take action. For example, one of my values is courage. I made a point to do something scary every day to practice that value (it can be as small as calling the dentist to make an appointment).
Leaning into your values helps you gain clarity about what’s important to you.
3) What problems you solve
This is a perspective that focuses on your contribution and your value. There are two approaches to uncover this:
What is your fight?
David Burkus share 3 types of fights you may resonate with:
Revolutionary - what do you want to change your industry
Underdog - proving that you can stand up to dissent, or overcome challenging circumstances
Ally - how can you help your group to fight alongside them
A marketing lens:
I’m a fan of Seth Godin’s idea that “Leadership is finding and solving interesting problems."
So we can see purpose as a solution you offer to an existing problem.
When we’ve found a problem we want to solve, he invites us to ask these questions about our work:
Who's it for?
What's it for?
What is your promise?
How will people be transformed?
4) What challenges you've overcome?
This is where it gets very personal. We can consider:
What is your struggle?
How have your values been threatened and how did you overcome that experience?
What life challenges have you overcome?
Many people have talked about this idea that "you are best positioned to help the person you used to be." How can you help others who represent a previous version of you? Who are they? What do they need?
I heard Arthur Brooks describe purpose as, "Look for the thing you don't have and give it to other people." He teaches a popular Harvard class on happiness. He explains that he teaches and researches happiness because he's himself looking for it.
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We are all individual human beings with our own life stories. We spend much of our lives trying to fit into boxes, to follow directions, to satisfy imperatives from external sources. At some point, we stop interrogating ourselves to truly understand what drives us, what makes us tick, what we want to contribute to the world.
When we lose touch with ourselves, we lose touch with our purpose.
I share these four pathways as personal approaches that will help your purpose be sustainable and resilient - because you are fueled by you from within. I hope at least one of these resonates.
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