Why am I so frustrated for you? Click the image below to see and listen why, or jump below the image to read the transcript.
Here’s why:
When it comes to purpose, where do you invest your precious time and resources to get your desired results? Have you noticed the increasing numbers of books and experts about purpose or on-purpose?
I have! It frustrates me because this proliferation of newly arrived purpose prophets are muddying the waters for you.
A purpose colleague recently shared The Science of Purpose website touting itself as “The Most Comprehensive Collection of Research on Purpose.” The website is fascinating for its compilation. And it is infuriating for three major distortions of purpose:
First, describing the effects of purpose instead of the cause of purpose confounds and confuses. It doesn’t clarify purpose — what purpose actually is. For example, describing purpose as one’s life work, calling, or service contorts mission into purpose. Purpose, vision, and mission are not synonyms. Yet, this massive misconception of purpose not only persists but is promoted by the compilers of The Science of Purpose website.
Second, none of their “Models and Terms” speak to the deep spiritual nature of purpose as it relates to your soul’s well-being. Playing on the surface of purpose but not tapping into its source produces counterfeit purpose for the seeker. Science doesn’t accommodate spirituality in the manner that spirituality can host science.
Science is mankind’s efforts to make sense of created objects and entities. The most humble scientists will admit that the more they know, the more they don’t know. Similarly, your 2-word purpose statement is a symbol of the mysterious relationship between God, you, and others. Fortunately, we’re all better off with the symbol and the science than mindlessly bumping along in the dark.
Third, purpose is now big business. “Purpose experts” are cashing in on “the purpose movement.” Purpose was one of the 2018 buzzwords of the year. Purpose is truly simple, but making it complex creates reliance, and reliance generates ongoing billings. Today, major consulting firms, business schools, and universities tout “purpose services and programs” for five-figure-plus tuitions and fees.
Some “purpose gurus” charge individual clients thousands of dollars to find their purpose. Over weeks and months they ask clients to reconstruct their past life story, contemplate their gifts and talents, and participate in personality inventories, assessments, and strengths discovery exercises to craft a “purpose encircling” Venn diagram with a blank space in the middle labeled “purpose.” Invariably the resulting sentence or two is a commingled mess-age of vision, missions, and values, but not a true purpose!
Compare all this to a $20 investment and about 3 minutes of your time to use ONPURPOSE.me to clarify your 2-word purpose. You bypassed all the above and went straight to the heart of your soul. You know your purpose — your reason for being. And, you know it fits better than anything you’ve ever done before. Now you can write your future story, engage your personality, and leverage your strengths to shape your life into being an on-purpose person in creation.
Yes, purpose is truly simple. The foundations are here at On-Purpose Partners and have been since the early 1990s. That’s why I’m frustrated for you.
Together, let’s be on-purpose.
Pinkie promise?
Kevin
