“I am exhilarated! I want to do more of this. I’m cranking out more work, better work, faster work, and it’s like I don’t want to stop. I found what I want to be when I grow up!”
Today I took an unprompted client call, something I typically let go to voicemail because I’m unavailable during the day. I am so glad I hit the green button, because I tapped a direct line into the rare, powerful, and dizzying nature of talent.
You think Strengths are great? You should try aiming Strengths at Purpose. That’s what my client Marcus (not their name) has been working on all week, and I believe it has shifted the universe in a positive way. We didn’t get there overnight. In fact, we have been dedicated and disciplined about studying Marcus’s strengths for almost two years. We meet regularly and solve pressing issues. There are plenty of challenges Marcus has overcome, and habits they have adopted to align more closely with their best way of thinking, feeling, behaving, and dreaming.
And, as a parallel track, we have been keeping a keen eye on additional patterns–how Marcus views the difference they want to make in the world. Studying Purpose alongside Strengths has helped give talent a direction. It’s become more than just improving productivity or efficiency. Our practice has enabled something I want to call “difference-makership.”
When you build on Strengths alone, you discover your unique pathway that leads to excellence. This is a promising pursuit, and one that not nearly enough people ever access. Strengths coaching helps you name, accept, and own your best approach toward a goal. And when you open yourself up enough to also explore your Purpose, you open any goal up to your earthly contribution. You expand your energy beyond making your own life better and reach into the deep and renewing well of possibility that comes from being inspired from the very effort you are exerting.
Here are some clues to look for as you include a more intentional focus on your own Purpose:
1. Hot Button Topics: What issues or causes would you go to great lengths to promote or defend?
2. Sparks of Inspiration: When you’ve had a creative idea, something that just had to flow out of you, what was it about?
3. Social Intuition: What do you believe in your gut is a right way for people to behave, even if you don’t have proof or information to back it up?
Often we stop the conversation about Purpose here, as if it’s a vocation quiz, asking you whether you’re more fit for plumbing or podcasting. But we missed two very important parts of understanding Purpose–the parts that help us truly step into our own power. When you can master these, you can notice them in the wild. And from there, you are no longer beholden to pleasing others or striving for the acceptance of someone else. You get to experience the excellence, energy, and joy that comes from aligning your talent with your contribution, your soul with your role.
4. For Who?: Who are you most compassionately drawn to serving, supporting, partnering with or advocating for?
5. Why You?: When you consider your Strengths, skills, experiences and future dreams, what unique perspective makes you the best one for the job? (Hint: You have to believe you are, just for a second. The rest of us already do.)
Disclaimer: These five Clues to Purpose are not born of exhaustive research. They are a concept, and one that I hope helps you reach beyond your own personal performance. When you do, you experience the kind of rush that you only get when connecting to a very powerful source of energy and inspiration. The beautiful part is you get to take that source with you. And the more you tap into it, the more it grows. Truly, it has been within you all along.
