You’re feeling beat up. Things are feeling hard. There hasn’t felt like enough juice coming from the squeeze. There’s more confusion now than ever before. The losses feel more prominent than the wins.
All this, over time, leads to feeling discouraged. I’m seeing this resonate with a lot of people over the past few months.
Discouragement plays mind tricks on us. It can get us to question our abilities. We can start to question our path. Set in long enough, we’ll start to look for new paths in an attempt to simply not feel that discouragement.
When we lean into discouragement, it perpetuates all of the feelings of being beat up, hardship, confusion. That impacts the activities that you do, which limits your results – creating the vicious cycle I’m describing here.
If this is your reality, there’s another option. Something that not only allows you pull yourself out of the discouragement, you’ll get better results and feel more fulfillment.
The option is diving deeper into purpose.
Let’s discuss what purpose is, what it isn’t and easy ways that you can tap back into it and get the results that you want.
What Purpose Doesn’t Have To Be
Some of us have a purpose that is big, wide and drives us. It overarches everything we do. A “big why” is sometimes what it’s called. If you have that, that is awesome.
I work with many people that don’t have something they feel a big mission toward. The idea of purpose or a “big why” feels daunting and semi-unattainable.
Purpose does not have to be a “big why.” It doesn’t have to be something that would inspire a room or cause a movement.
My encouragement is to not get caught up in “finding” a purpose that would get “ooos” and “ahs” if you told it to people. It doesn’t have to be big and you shouldn’t find it. It is something within you and important to you.
What Purpose Really is
Purpose is personal. It not only creates meaning, it drives meaning in your life. It can be big or small. It’s something that acts like a beacon of light that pulls you towards it.
It’s at the intersection of your best Self and the North Star that you’re going after.
My first introduction to the idea of purpose was over 20 years ago while working in an advertising agency. One of the questions that the agency asked of its clients was why they are in business. It speaks to the core of the company and, from an advertising perspective, can help shape messaging that is meaningful for finding & speaking to potential customers.
The question that the agency asked was “Why are you in business beyond making money?” We can spin that question to us: “Why do I do what I do beyond earning a living?” The answer might lead toward purpose.
Find Purpose
If purpose is at the intersection of your best Self and your North Star, then finding it starts with understanding both.
Start with your best Self. Ask yourself: what are characteristics of who I want to be? Maybe you have those characteristics all the time now. Perhaps you possess those characteristics only sometimes or situationally currently. Maybe you’ve not yet lived into some of those characteristics, yet you know that when you are your best Self, you would possess those.
Make a list of the dozen or so characteristics that you would find in your best or ideal Self.
With that list in hand, ask “what direction do I want that person to go in the context of my career?” In other words, what would that person do in their career, generally speaking. Would your best Self help people? Would your best Self educate themselves voraciously? Would your best Self build systems? Whatever direction you go is the direction of your North Star.
Purpose is found by being that person in pursuit of that North Star. It’s personal to becoming the person you wish to become while pursuing the path or dream of what you have.
The result is an environment for encouragement. Even when the journey becomes arduous and difficult – and it will when you’re pushing yourself – your purpose will be the thing that you can come back to. It will remind you why you’re doing whatever it is that you’re doing and why it’s worth it. It will keep you into positive activities with a solid mindset that will help you produce positive results.
Find your purpose and you’ll find your way out of discouragement.