(This is the second post in a series of five that is dedicated to offering practical advice on How to Set Business Goals. In the first post we explored the importance of focus.)
Imagine this: the Red Sox are playing against the Yankees. It’s game 7 of the American League Championship, and the winner moves on to the World Series. Bases are loaded. The Sox are down by three runs in the bottom of the ninth. David Ortiz is up next at bat. The sold old crowd waits in anticipation. If he hits it out of the park the Red Sox win, while the Yankees are eliminated. Just before Ortiz steps up to the plate to bat, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out a blindfold, and wraps it around his head so that his eyes are covered. Huh?
Setting business goals that are not a direct reflection of your unique life purpose can be likened to stepping up to the plate with a blindfold on. It’s not very practical, and the odds of success are not great at all.
If you choose to pursue a business path that is not a reflection of your purpose, I must forewarn you that you’ll experience a lower sense of passion, it won’t feel very meaningful, and it certainly would not be the best you can do to restore sanity and peace to the planet. The net result of all this is that even if you do hit the ball, you’ll probably run out of steam and collapse short of home base.
Yet, at the same time, so many of us go to work every day and feel a deep sense of disconnection and dissatisfaction with what we do, day in and day out. Many even hate what we do every day of life, and this is a very painful place to be.
In fact, I used to be in that place—specifically, I went to work every day as an accountant and did not like the work. I knew deep down inside that something was missing, yet I could not find a way to align my daily activities with my deeper calling so that I could live a more fulfilled and meaningful life.
Over time, I discovered that it does not have to be like this.
In fact, when you live life on purpose, you are fully aware of the reason why you are here on Earth and your daily activities are a direct reflection of this awareness.
. . . and, this leads to great joy, peace, and fulfillment. This has been my experience, and now my purpose is to support others as they make their similar transitions. For those of you who have been to my lectures, you may have heard me reference one of my all time favorite quotes from Eckhart Tolle:
“The most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary … Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other purpose on the planet – because it is the primary purpose of humanity.”
-Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
Whenever a new client or student comes to me for mentorship, the first thing that we need to verify is that their business is truly a reflection of their life’s purpose. And, here’s three actions that you can take identify the reason why you are here and to verify whether or not you are living life on purpose:
Action 1: Contemplate your Death and Your Funeral. Make a bulleted list of how you want your life to pan out. What do you want to be remembered for? How do you want your friends and family to remember you? What do you want people to say at your funeral or final ritual of passage?
Action 2: Identify your primary essence energies. These core energies, which of course manifest on a beingness level, are alive in you during all moments, though we sometimes are unaware of them. Write them down as a big list of words. You can extract their energies from keywords you identify in Action 1. Some examples of essence energies in my life that achieve this objective include love, mindfulness, community, awakening, and service.
Action 3: Write a brief statement of Life Purpose and post in in places where you can see it on a regular basis. I often call this the “I am here” statement. To do this effectively, simply write down “I am here to” then finish the sentence with a statement that relates to the beingness essence energies that you identified. Do this several times, until you have written down all the reasons why you are here. Remember to keep this on a beingness level. Right now, you are thinking big picture, not specific. In the next few posts we will get to the doingness level, the activities that bridge “who you be” with “what you do.”
Once you have written a life purpose statement, put it somewhere where you can read it constantly. Post it everywhere, and repeat it like a mantra unit it’s deeply engrained.
The first time I wrote my life purpose statement was in 2007, and it’s been hung in several places in my home so that I can consistently be reminded of the reason why I am here. In fact, my purpose is to “Help people awaken into their full potential and – in doing so – to create peace and healing on and with the planet Earth.” I am certain that this statement will never change for the rest of my life. I will never do anything else for the rest of my life. Notice how it does not express “how” I am going to do it, or the doingness aspect. It ties directly to my inner purpose on an essential, or beingness, level.
Once you know your whole life purpose, it can truly be an “a-ha” moment to realize that you have plenty of time to achieve your life’s objectives. You do not have to accomplish all of your goals this week, this month, or even this year. You can simplify and enjoy more spaciousness in your life. You can live a more mindful, concentrated, and focused life as you realize your dreams.
You realize that home plate is the present moment. And, instead of stepping up to home plate with that blindfold on, you can instead take the blindfold off, and confidently hit the ball out of the park … grand slam, and the Red Sox win (of course), the crowd goes wild, and the entire planet benefits from your diligence.
