What is your Purpose? How to connect more in business & life through reflecting on and sharing your purpose.

In life, have you been asked the question…

What is your Purpose?  

At work, have you asked the question…

What is our Purpose? 

Chances are you’ve had this topic come up in one shape or another in conversation.  It is an incredibly powerful question to live a life with more meaning and fulfillment, when we take the time to ask ourselves the question.  It is an equally powerful question to ask of others, either in business or life, to deepen connection.  

In my own journey, I have seen major shifts in daily joy and fulfillment by answering this.  

It started with answering it for myself.  I’ve always been a connector, passionate about people and community, as I realized at a young age the love and joy it creates.  This led me to study psychology and business, and enter a marketing career in which I had the pleasure of designing and creating many spaces, events and experiences in the wine and coffee industries that helped bring people together to enjoy moments of connection.  

As I asked myself, why do I do what I do, the answer was simple, to make a positive impact in peoples’ lives by helping them meaningfully connect.  

By defining this for myself, it helped provide a filter for what I said yes to and what I said no to.  And it acts as a guidepost for how I live my life and how I serve others.  

I shifted ways in how I spend my time by consciously making clearer choices on how I connect meaningfully every single day, with both myself and others.  

For example, each day I:

• Connect with myself in a morning coffee ritual and daily “awe walk.”
• Connect with my mom in some way.
• Connect with friends via voicememo or video message to a friend (at minimum 3 close friends + 1 friend I may not have spoken to in a while to check in and just let them know I am thinking about them).
• Connect with a new connection, client or mentee and just be there to serve them however may be most supportive. 
• Connect with music for some play by taking a 3 minute dance break. 

And this question also helped me understand how whatever I was doing in my work was layering up to this on a daily basis.  This allowed me to feel greater meaning in every day, even if I was experiencing the day-to-day stressors in my previous corporate jobs.

And so, I started asking members of my former marketing team, a few important questions:

• What is your purpose?

• How might what you do in your role layer up to that purpose? 

• How does your role layer up to the company’s purpose?
  
  

This was super powerful and enlightening to people. It allowed them to see how their work truly impacted the greater why of the company.  And it opened up meaningful dialog to understand what their personal purpose is, and how as a leader I may be able to support them in those desires, either in what they currently were doing or potentially in other special projects where they would have the freedom to create, learn or make impact that met these core drivers of themselves. 

This dialog, and of course following up and demonstrating it with action, strengthened my relationship with these team members. Which in turn, led to greater engagement and creativity amongst the team. 

It also led me to the creation of Firestart Connections, to fully align my purpose with both business & life. 

Today, I would like to offer you some resources to support you in connecting deeply with yourself and others around purpose. 

Resources Inspiring Me This Week

Book Recommendation: 

Living on Purpose by Amy Eliza Wong.  Written by an incredible executive leadership coach and friend, this book is a full of actionable ways to live and lead with more purpose.  

Connection Conversation Sparker

Why this question matters: 

Gives an employee more meaning to how what they do in their role every single day matters to the company’s larger mission.  

Ask yourself this today and take 5 minutes to journal it.  If you are a manager, I recommend you asking it to your direct report in your next 1:1.  Listen.  And support them in why what they do matters.

Live & work connected,

Lisa

P.s. if you would like support in how to effectively guide purposeful dialog, I work privately with a limited number of clients to empower you to have more meaningful conversations with ease and confidence.  Hit reply and let me know what resonates and we can find a time for a complimentary call to discuss how I may be in best service to you and if working together feels aligned.