“Everything is practice,” said Pele one of the greatest footballers of all time. Life is a practice. Parenting is a practice. Even loving is a practice. Everything is practice, it truly is. When we practice something, we are taking action to get better at it. We do something over and over again to master it while continuously learning and adjusting course along the way. Practice doesn’t make perfect however, it simply makes progress.
For some reason when it comes to finding and following our true Purpose at work, we don’t treat it as a practice. We tell ourselves that it’s a luxury, something to explore when we have the time or when we win lotto, the kids leave home or we retire. We put it off until one day we’re sitting at our desks asking ourselves “is this really all there is to life? Am I really going to be spending the rest of my life doing this?”
What happens is that over time we get stuck in the rational and functional requirements of our job only practising “what you’re good at” and “what you can be paid for” at the expense of the emotional and spiritual potentiality of our job by practising “what you love” and “what the world needs.”
So why is it that we don’t practice our Purpose and bring it to our daily work? Why is it that we have ignored this potentiality? And whose responsibility is this? Is it yours, your managers or your leaders? I believe it’s up to you because Purpose is intrinsic. It requires you to self-lead not look to others to provide it. You don’t need your appointed leaders to permit or mandate Purpose because trickle-down Purpose like trickle-down economics simply doesn’t work.
You need three things to start practicing your Purpose now and bringing it to your daily work. The first is the courage to admit you are ‘off Purpose’, the second is the willingness to go on a Purpose adventure and the third is to make the time for it.
If you think you’re too busy to make time for it, just look at the past week. How many of those hours were spent inside and outside of work in unhelpful or time-wasting activities diverting you away from your Purpose (you know TV, social media, pointless meetings)? What if you were to devote those hours to practising your Purpose instead? What would that feel like to you?
At the end of a year by focusing just three hours per week on a Purpose Project, I’m willing to bet that your personal and professional life will have radically changed. I’m willing to bet that you will have discovered (or rediscovered) your Purpose and have a clear plan for your next project. (Action always precedes clarity of Purpose.)
What if every worker in the world became a practitioner of Purpose? Wouldn’t that be something?
Yours with love
Carolyn
PS Discover how to become a practitioner of Purpose with me @ carolyntate.co
