If you do an online search for “mission” and “purpose”, prepare to be overwhelmed! There’s an infinite array of definitions, meanings, approaches, strategies, books, workshops, etc.
Personally, I distinguish between
* personal / professional purposes – what I do
* soul purpose – who I am: my higher state of being
For personal and professional purpose, many in the field quote from Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. According to the Library of Congress, it is one of the ten most influential books in the United States. This 1946 classic chronicles Frankl’s experiences as a Nazi concentration camp prisoner during World War II. He observed that his inmates that survived had a purpose in life they felt positive about and immersed themselves in imagining that purpose.
Frankl’s psychotherapeutic method involved each person identifying a purpose through one of three ways:
(1) the completion of tasks
(2) caring for another person
(3) finding meaning by facing suffering with dignity
I would consider 1 & 2 personality purposes, while #3 is a soul purpose.
Using this model, you can identify your “human / personality” purpose and transform it into a spiritual purpose. Revisiting Frankl’s work with this approach, the prisoners human purposes could become spiritual purposes if reframed:
(1) the completion of tasks: I AM DIVINE RIGHT ACTION or I AM ALIGNMENT or I AM CONGRUENCE
(2) caring for another person: I AM LOVE or I AM COMPASSION or I AM SERVICE
(3) finding meaning by facing suffering with dignity: I AM DIGNITY
As a psychiatrist, Frankl had a professional purpose: to complete a book he had begun. As a Jew, Frankl had a heritage-defined purpose as well – to do good deeds:
A Jew comes into this world with a mission to study Torah and do good deeds. When a person lives a lifespan of seventy years and accomplishes very little, his living is only biological but not the true life expected of a Jew.
So doing good deeds – kindness or goodness or helpfulness – could be a basis for Frankl’s soul purpose. His feelings while doing these things could be his soul purpose / higher state of being.
APPLY:
Peak Experience Exercise
You can do this Peak Experience exercise alone, though it can be a richer experience with others.
* Write down 5+ peak experiences. They can be recent or long ago. You’re looking for intensity of feeling.
* Record the circumstances around the events.
* Identify why they were peak – what created your “high” when they happened.
* Working alone or with others, play detective to find the common theme. What do the events have in common? It can be achievement, helping others, creating something, connecting, adventure…
* Record this as your personality purpose. See the blog on Purpose – Spiritual
Frankl concluded that the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. Modern research supports this belief, and adds accomplishing purpose / goals. It is currently popularized as envisioning and communicating with “your future self”.
APPLY: Choose one to do now: one to do at another time.
Exercise #1: Write your obituary.
* Project yourself out to 100 years of age – healthy and vital
* You have chosen to pass over.
* Imagine your celebration of life (funeral) – a joyous occasion with family and friends
* Write the obituary about your life that will be read and published
* Store it away to be opened and read at long intervals (every 5 years?)
For instance, the obituary I wrote as “long term goals” stated I would “make a difference” (my personality purpose). I would be in high leadership positions and be a writer. Both seemed improbable at the time. When I found the obit in my papers a decade later, I was in a high leadership position and had written a book. Currently, I have written over a dozen books / booklets and over 60 Change Your Mind scripts. And I’m blogging. I have served in national leadership roles and I am a writer. More recently, I have refined this purpose to be: Change The World: One Leader at a Time.
Exercise #2.
* Project out 1 or 5 or 10 years in the future (or the time period of your choice)
* Write a letter to your future self
* Store it away to be opened at the appointed time
For instance, my recently written Letter to my Future Self – to be read in ten years by what will then be my present self – begins with:
I am so grateful to you for the Divine Right Actions you have taken in Divine Right Timing to position me so exquisitely as a current and relevant Conscious Leader thought leader, Master Class facilitator, mentor and consultant.
It goes on to list accomplishments in all five areas: mental, physical, and emotional and financial. It concludes with my spiritual state of being (my spiritual purpose).
To expand your personality purpose to a soul purpose, see the blog Purpose – Spiritual.
