There once was a young man who spent five years in university and graduated with a professional degree. Upon graduation, he started down the road to success and fulfillment, bright eyed and bushy tailed with hopes of changing the world for the better.
However, it wasn’t long before a harsh reality set in and what started out as a passion became a task and then a chore. Disillusioned because his chosen profession seemed so mundane, he felt that he had wasted his time, his education and his life. He became angry. He told anyone who would listen, including his children, to avoid his profession and the path he had chosen.
One day, everything changed.
A customer came in and for some unexplainable reason, our young man, now 20 years older in his mid forties, filled with bitterness for his profession, took 15 minutes to explain the process of what the customer was buying and how it would affect that person. The customer was amazed and grateful.
Our professional repeated the same thing on the next client who was using a different product and the results were the same. His customer was enormously grateful for his insight and explanations and said that they had been using the product for eight years and nobody had taken the time to tell them how it worked before then.
It was at that point that a light went on. The professional realized how important his job was, that he had wasted 20 years of his life because he had underserved his clients. As he wrote to me in his own words;
“Suddenly I had passion for what I had chosen as a profession because I finally realized my value to my clients. It transformed me from the anger of wasting five years of university for a poor choice of a life profession to a passionate professional wanting to help every one of my customers”
Finding purpose and meaning in life is something that each of us is challenged with. As youth, we yearn to find our place in life and we try to choose paths we think will be the most rewarding. Some people seek fame and fortune, others want to create something with their hands. There are people who want to work alone in a quiet atmosphere and still others who gravitate towards helping others.
In my years as a business coach, I regularly come across leaders who feel unfulfilled. Some are making huge amounts of money and others have no interest in monetary remuneration.
Knowing that I was going to write about purpose this week, I sent out an email on Friday evening asking people if they could help me out with my article and answer three questions:
Question One: In a few words, what is the purpose of your life?
Question Two: What is it about what you do in your job, or business, that gives you purpose or meaning?
Question Three:In the last few months have you questioned what your real purpose is?
Bonus Question: What should someone struggling with purpose do?
The response I received was overwhelming. Over the next couple days, I received dozens of emails and had people reaching out to me in various forms willing to help out and tell me about their purpose. Some people were definitely unsettled by the questions, others were challenged and put considerable effort into their response, including the professional above. Surprisingly, quite a few respondents who had clarity about their purpose had similar answers.
There was an underlying theme that consistently ran through the responses where people said that they had clarity about their purpose in life. It didn’t matter whether the respondents were young or old, doctors, pharmacists, realtors, or financial planners, executive directors of non-profits, business owners of retail establishments, or construction companies, mothers, fathers, or employees of organizations.
Repeatedly the theme of people who said they had clarity about their purpose in life was, in 10 short words; “To help others and make a difference in their lives.”
It seems that where people clearly found ways through their lives to make a difference for others, there was a sense of satisfaction in their fulfillment of that purpose. Unfortunately, not all of us are able to have such clarity or understanding about how we make a difference for others or how our lives have meaning. Yet like the professional at the beginning of the article, when we take the time to go through the process and see how the little things we do can make such a difference for others, it can transform our lives and those of the people around us.
Having trouble finding your purpose? Respondents told me to tell you not to over think it. Struggling through this is normal and as more than one person wisely said “Find your passion and your purpose will follow!”
- Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award-winning professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Stuck? Email dave@pivotleader.com
