Your Personal Productivity Platform – 1. Purpose
We’re not out of the woods but it seems that some things are changing for the better.
Vaccines are more readily available more widely and I’ve received my two shots (sigh of relief for that status). The government checks are in the mail for many people. At the same time, people have been and still are stressed about health and work and finances and working hard to juggle multiple priorities. And businesses are looking at what work will look like in the ‘new normal’ environment.
In this and the next seven blogs I want to speak about a conceptual scaffolding that can enable each of us to get ourselves grounded, oriented and organized towards creating the kind of fulfilling and satisfying future we desire. It is predicated on a plethora of Ps: purpose, principles, practices, priorities, power, people, progress and play. Let’s get started.
Purpose provides our ‘why’. When our purpose is nested within and aligned with a higher purpose, we find ourselves engaged in life for the sake of others and their betterment. That context provides meaning and motivation for the choices we make, priorities we establish and the actions we take. It is an organizing principle for what is worthy of our attention and intention, fueling our persistence.
For example, I met Su while coaching TED Fellows several years ago. She grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, where her large family lived on their farm, tended the land and raised cows, goats and chickens. With the challenges of doing this effectively, Su developed a purpose to become knowledgeable about organic farming and a family resource for her farm’s greater effectiveness.
By 2003, her care expanded to include the fate of other farmers in Kenya who were even less able to assess and intervene to farm productively. Her learning about how to produce organic crops, dairy and poultry led to training other farmers to implement best practices to conform to organic standards. Recognizing the importance of scaling the business to touch more lives, Su pivoted to developing an agricultural extension service that could be delivered to smallholder farmers over low-end mobile phones. iCow was born in 2010 to do this.
This included developing an app and an ecosystem of relationships, partnerships and stakeholder networks to gather and analyze farmer data via SMS messages, then provide tools and personalized information to help farmers mitigate their farming risks and improve their livelihoods. iCow now provides these services to thousands of farming households in Ethiopia and Tanzania, as well as Kenya.
Her care and values informed her purpose. Her purpose continues to guide her choices in ways that support her family and many more families to have a better life.
What is your purpose? If you have an initial articulation of it, try this exercise: Given that purpose statement, ask yourself, “And what does that make available?” Listen for (and write down) the answer and notice your energy level. Repeat this process four additional times. Where was your energy level the highest? The purpose statement associated with that heightened energy level is the one that most deeply resonates with you.
What is your purpose? How does it inform and guide you? This is another opportunity for observation, reflection and dialogue, as well as new action. If you’re willing to share, I/we are willing to listen.
#selfleadership #designyourlife #purpose