If you would have told me about Soul Purpose five years ago, I may have said something like, “Sounds great, call me when you land back on Earth.” When it came to my specific set of talents and abilities. I just never gave it much thought at all. This post is a journey through my Soul Purpose discovery process.
When it came to having ability, I knew that there were some things that I did very well. Even easier to pinpoint was the list of things that I didn’t do well. ( Isn’t that always the case? We are always so good at what we suck at.) The problem is that I didn’t value a lot of the things that I did well and so I never bothered to explore them at a deeper level.
The reason we do this a lot of the time is because the things we do well come some easy and natural to us that because they are so natural, we think that everyone can do it. We get stuck in this place of thinking that we have no talent, no ability and nothing that distinguishes us from anyone else.
Because of this thought process, my career path was that of working for a Fortune 100 company and trying to move up the ranks within that company as fast as I could.
When it came to be being an employee at the firm I worked for, I was better than average but certainly not exceptional. I was being promoted but not always as quickly as I would have liked mainly due to the fact that the operation that I ran was not always delivering consistent results.
This inconsistency drove me crazy. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I will tell you this. I worked at a job for almost 9 years and hated it 75% of the time. I loved it during the extremely high points of my success but was constantly having to pep talk myself and get myself up to go in and work. Mondays were the worst days of my life.
During my career I had friends who made comments about why I was working where I was working and those comments just pissed me off. I think they made me mad because I really wasn’t sure why I was doing what I was doing.
It wasn’t really until one my daughters was hospitalized at 3 weeks old with pneumonia that I really got serious about my career and where I was going. At that point I realized that life is short and I should spend it doing what I love to do and what allows me to create the most value in the world.
So I quit.
I went to work for a smaller firm that allowed me to be more of an intrapreneur and I loved it. I ran projects with a lot of autonomy. During this time I decided to start educating myself on what my skills were and decided that I needed a deeper understanding of what I brought to the table and what I truly loved to do.
I took tests like the Kolbe A index and Meyers- Briggs. I read books like Unique Ability. It all started to slowly come together. Clarity of purpose started to manifest itself.
I also started spending time in the mornings doing what I call a power hour which consisted of physical, spiritual and mental exercises that helped further my clarity.
With this increased clarity I started a business on the side while working at the small firm. Eventually I went out on my own full time.
I haven’t looked back since.
I never considered myself to be an entrepreneur growing up. It’s funny how thing’s change. Soul Purpose starts with questions and possibilities and then creating a process to develop the possibilities and answer the questions.
It’s not an easy process and one that I am still working through but it has certainly been worth it.
What things do you value in your life? Are you in a position to create the most value for the world? Do you know what your core strengths and abilities are?
I have my purpose… how to live it out, though, is the question. I feel like I am so bad at life. I have crummy discipline, but I have a passion for learning. I will read and read and read, and when I actually get a paper written, it’s usually decent. But getting the paper written is sometimes a nightmare for me. Lately. I’ve gotten worse. Perfectionism. Like right now… can’t focus. Started the semester out really focused (for me anyway), but now it’s the very end of the semester and I’m so unfocused. It’s hard to remind myself that I want to live right now.
Everyone seems to have more discipline than I do. I’ve been working on personal development specifically since August, took the Fall semester off to work on it… and I’m still having such a hassle with myself. So how do you get down to business? I’m thinking about getting a PD coach this summer because if I can’t even handle one semester straight off a break, how can I handle the next two semesters off one? Might have to take another semester off. I can’t even focus on my purpose anymore at this point because I’m so busy just trying to get a late paper in. Driving me crazy.
Louche,
First all, I doubt that many are more put together than you. When we struggle with something it just seems that way. The fact that you acknowledge certain limitations puts you way ahead of the game.
With regards to purpose, ask your self the following question: What are the activities that you absolutely love to do and are engaged in doing?
No with regards to perfectionism: What are you truly afraid of? What stories are you telling about yourself that probably have no basis in reality. Perfectionism is typically a by product of fear. The best way to overcome it is to practice the art of “good enough”. Start setting hard deadlines with yourself and then stick to them and get your stuff done and move on.
Brett Harward calls this the law of velocity. The quicker you get something done the quicker you either succeed or fail. Either way you are closer to overall success.
Good luck.