Step 6 of The Plan to Live your Life on Purpose : Writing your Purpose Statements

If you have been following the previous steps of my Discovery Project over the past few months, it is likely that you have already come to some realisations about what’s important to you in your life.

You have been exploring what life experiences have shaped you thus far. You have identified your strengths, beliefs, values and drivers. You have a much better understanding of your hot buttons (motivational and de-railing) and you will have a heightened sense of self-awareness.

Today’s exercise brings all that hard work and self-reflection together in some statements of purpose that you can use as your “guiding stars”. The first step is to identify what are the categories that are important to you when thinking about living your life “on purpose.”

As an example, if you decide that it is important to “Put my Family First” then going forward living in a way that is congruent with this statement will lead to different choices than you might otherwise make in life.

Although my family has always been very important to me, when working in my executive career, I did not “Put My Family First”. I did have a mantra of “Provide for my Family”. Over time I refined what that actually meant. It was not just about “financial provision”. As the children grew up I realised that I needed to “be there” for them when they needed me not just when I could squeeze in a few minutes between work commitments.

It is really important to include “Self” as one of the categories. Too often people think that their role is to provide or look after others and neglect themselves. They see it as selfish to invest time and energy in their own wellbeing. However, unless you look after yourself properly you cannot be of best value to anyone else. “Self-care” is an essential element of Living a Purposeful Life.

This is not a “One Size Fits All” Exercise. The categories will be different for each person, depending on what really matters to you in your life. For some people they think about the things/people that are important in their lives. This might include Health, Career, Finances, Environment, Relationships etc…. For others, the focus may be on their various “roles” in life – e.g. self, spouse, parent, child, friend, member of society, peer etc….

It is also not a “Do Once and For All” exercise. As you live your life purposefully you will notice that priorities change. It is fine to change your Statements of Purpose over time.

For example, I have always had “Health” as one of my categories. In my earlier life my health goals were all about achieving various physical or athletic challenges. But since becoming a grand-mother I have realised that it is really important for me to do whatever is within my power to bit fit, active and healthy and extending my perspective on desired longevity! My latest aim is entitled “HAAF100”……“Healthy, Active, Alert & Fit at 100”. Of course, I realise I do not have total control over whether I can achieve this purpose but what I can do is live my life in a way that supports this ambition. I have modified my eating habits and exercise regime as a result. Instead of continuing with gruelling intense training each day, I have a much more varied exercise regime designed to protect my joints, improve my suppleness and strength as well as maintaining good aerobic fitness.

For each category you choose, you can have more than one statement relating to that category. However, I would encourage you to spend time to reflect on what really matters and to hone your statements over time so that they truly reflect how you want to live your life.

I first wrote my Statements of Purpose in July 1997 (yes really!). This was in anticipation of getting married and some of the key elements of these statements still hold true today. But I have, over time, honed them. I do now “Put Family at the Heart of how I live my Life”. This means that I do turn down meetings and other business opportunities to baby-sit my grand-daughter or to spend quality time with my husband. I want to be HAAF100 and this impacts what I eat, how I exercise, how I stimulate my brain with new endeavours, and how I practise mindfulness, meditation and yoga on a daily basis.

It is worth taking time to devise and reflect upon your Statements of Purpose. In 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years time what needs to be true in order for you to feel fulfilled and to believe that you have lived the life that you wanted to lead? It is not unusual to take months to hone your Statements so that they really can form the “compass” with which you live your life.

However, as we will see with Step 7 of the Discovery Project, it is not enough to just devise your Statements of Purpose. Once you have these statements, the next (and arguably most crucial step) is to have an action plan and a regular reflection practice to assess to what extent you are living your life in line with your Statements of Purpose.

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If you would like to learn more about strengths-based coaching or the 7 Step Plan to Living Life on Purpose contact me on ad@annemariedurbin.com or visit www.annemariedurbin.com