We explored the notion of Purposeful Self-leadership in the last post, part 3 of this series titled ‘Start with the Self’. Today we explore how to develop Purposeful Self-Leadership and in the next post, we can explore the complexities of such an aspiration. In the first two articles of this series, we explored the two key concepts of purposeful leadership: purposefulness and leadership, and the three branches of purposeful leadership: self, people, and organisations.
Developing Purposeful Self-Leadership starts with articulating a purpose statement depicting our sense of purpose at the current stage of life. The first version of the purpose statement is only a glimpse of our purpose as finding purpose is a lifelong journey. However, having a sense of purpose begins the quest and gives us the drive and desire to be purposeful. Being purposeful improves our clarity about our life purposes and helps us fine-tune our purpose statement, leading to us being more purposeful. This cyclical process not only improves our sense of purpose and purposefulness but also attracts abundance to succeed in vocations aligned with our life purpose, gives us happiness and peace of mind (De Silva, 2024).
Let’s now explore how to articulate the first cut of our life purpose. Firstly, reflect on four questions and not down what comes to mind. The first question is ‘What makes me feel most alive? Reflect on types of activities at work and home that make us feel alive or used to make you feel alive. This gives us an idea of inherited capabilities. The second question is ‘What did I learn from my past and present struggles? Reflect on the struggles in the areas of health, emotions, relationships, finance, vocations, academics etc. This gives us an idea of acquired capabilities. The third question is ‘What concerns me about my world? Reflect on issues such as injustice, discrimination, persecution, cruelty, exploitation, poor leadership, destruction of nature etc. that matter to us mostly and create an inner drive to act. This gives us an idea of the contribution we can make to make this world a better place through our inherited and acquired capabilities. The fourth question is ‘What are the decent human values that will help me make a positive difference in this world? Reflect on the decent human values we have acquired during your life and would like to acquire. The values that I aspire to live by are authenticity, benevolence, humility and passion. The choice of values we aspire to live by is deeply personal. This gives us a good foundation to shape our attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in our quest for purposefulness.
The answers generated by reflecting on the above questions generate the content for our purpose statement. A purpose statement is a short, crisp, inspiring statement which articulates; the ‘why’ of my life, my values for a purposeful life, and the opportunities I will accept in three short paragraphs. The why of my life becomes visible when reflecting on the first three questions above, which nudges you to act upon your concerns about your world using your inherited and acquired talents. The values we aspire to live by generated by reflecting on the fourth question can be written in a short paragraph next. The opportunities that we are willing to say ‘yes’ could be summarised in the third paragraph. Given the diverse realities, values and beliefs of each individual, the articulated purpose statement is unique and deeply personal. Click here to read more about the notion of purposefulness. I am happy to share my current evolving life purpose statement below as a sample.
Live a purposeful life based on my evolving realities, methods, values, and purpose and share my learnings for the flourishing of life.
Be authentic in my conduct, be benevolent to all forms of life, do what I do passionately, and be humble to everyone.
Say yes to opportunities presented to me, to sow the seeds of purposefulness in the hearts and minds of people to contribute to a better world with the grace of God.
Once the purpose statement is articulated it is useful to decide on some specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and trackable steps to improve the quality of life in important areas of life related to our purpose statement. Such areas include spiritual work related to our beliefs, emotional maturity, relational quality, intellectual capabilities, financial stability, physical health and temporal maturity. It is also useful to consider steps we can take for the well-being of society and the preservation of our environment related to our life purpose. It helps to decide on minimum standards when conducting activities in these areas daily for the first month, review at the end of the first month and decide on new minimums for the next month. This process helps us to live purposefully and get improved clarity about life’s purpose. It is useful to review the purpose statement once a quarter, improve it if required and take relevant baby steps to improve purposefulness.
I invite you to articulate your purpose statement, take baby steps in strengthening your purposefulness, and reflect and enhance your understanding of your purposefulness. In looking for how to improve you may examine my blog www.ranjandesilva.com, website www.ranjandesilva.com, explore other sources and speak with your trusted advisor. We will further explore the notion of purposeful Leadership and methods of transformation in the upcoming blog posts.
References
De Silva, R. L. G. (2024). Living Purposefully: An Inquiry into the life of a leadership development practitioner. (Doctoral dissertation, Hult Ashridge).
