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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat is your purpose?\u00a0 It\u2019s a deep question which you will find either incredibly easy or difficult to answer, depending on how aware you are of yourself. I couldn\u2019t answer this question for years… decades in fact. I only really started to understand my purpose in the past year or two. Before that my identity was tied to distinct roles in my life… Catriona the student, the pharmacist, the mother, the leader, the employee, the writer or the sailor. What got a bit confusing was that were slightly differing versions of me, depending on the role I was fulfilling at any given time. For example, as a pharmacist, I embraced detail and as a writer I preferred to think creatively; as a mother, I set a direction and as a student I took direction.<\/p>\n
Which is the real me? The answer is I am all and I am none of the roles I fulfil. None are me in my entirety and I am none entirely. So, who am I? I now realise that there is a \u201cme\u201d which underpins everything. I have values which shape everything I do and there is a purpose to my life which gets expressed slightly differently in each of my roles. At this point in time I believe that my purpose is to be a catalyst for meaningful growth.\u00a0 Maybe it will change as I do, but for now it is a purpose which threads through everything I do. The word \u201ccatalyst\u201d anchors me to my chemistry and pharmacy background and nicely describes my affinity for precipitating or accelerating change. I like making things happen or helping to accelerate change that has already started. Not just any change. Change which results in growth.\u00a0 More importantly, growth that I believe to be meaningful. I am interested in growth which results in a better world.<\/p>\n
Once I am clear on my purpose, all the different manifestations of \u201cme\u201d make sense. Through parenting I am enabling growth of my children. Through my work, I facilitate growth of the team, of individuals and of my wider environment. Through writing, I hope to provide support to others in their growth; thus, the concept of Reflect to Prosper.<\/em> Knowing my purpose makes it easier for me to decide what I should do. If I\u2019m unsure about what direction to take, I ask myself which path is going to align with my purpose and values. This generally leads me to things that I enjoy because they are meaningful to me.<\/p>\n Once I understand my purpose it also helps me to make sense of the times in the past when I felt disillusioned. When a job feels like it\u2019s draining your enthusiasm, you\u2019ll often find that some aspect of the work or the environment is impinging on your values or is preventing you from aligning with your purpose. Einstein is widely credited with saying \u201c<\/i>E<\/i>verybody is a <\/i>genius, b<\/i>ut <\/i>if you judge a fish<\/i> by its ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole life believing that it is stupid”<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/i>I believe that we all have a unique purpose in life. I also believe that, sadly, many of us never discover what that purpose is which means that, at best, we live lives where we don’t achieve our full potential and, at worst, we spend our lives believing that we’re stupid because we don’t quite fit where we are. Everyone is a genius at something but, too often, we never discover what that something is and we spend our lives feeling like something hasn’t quite clicked for us. To quote\u00a0Les Brown …<\/p>\n \u201c<\/i><\/b>The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry our their dream.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Identifying your purpose may seem challenging. It took me quite a while to recognise the patterns and to identify an underlying theme. But it was worth the effort. I discovered a book in my local library called Brand You<\/a>, <\/i>by John Purkiss and David Royston Lee,\u00a0which provides a nice structure which can help you figure it out.<\/p>\n When I gave a copy of the Brand You<\/em> book to each of my work colleagues as a Christmas gift, I confessed that I had been considering buying a Nespresso coffee machine for the office before deciding that this, individual gift, would be more meaningful. One of my colleagues diplomatically offered to gather up all the copies of the book that I had given to the team as gifts and organise their return so that he could recoup the refund and buy the coffee machine instead. So maybe this approach isn\u2019t everyone\u2019s cup of tea…. or coffee!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reflection time<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Are you open to the idea that we all have a unique purpose? Or do you fundamentally disagree with the concept? Feel free to share your comments if you disagree. I’d be interested to hear your perspective.<\/p>\n If you are open to the idea that you have a unique purpose, do you understand yours? Does it guide you in deciding what is right for you? If so, perhaps you could share what helped you do identify this, through the comments section of this blog-post.<\/p>\n If you aren\u2019t clear on your purpose, reflect on the questions listed below\u00a0and see if you can identify patterns that might point you in the right direction.\u00a0The questions raised here aren’t intended to be a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to identifying your purpose. Rather, they are prompts for reflection, designed to stimulate your thinking and to help you gather clues as you try to identify\u00a0patterns.<\/p>\n Once\u00a0you have reflected on these questions, consider if you\u00a0can identify any patterns? Is anything emerging that can help guide your thinking about your purpose. I would encourage you to mull over these\u00a0questions over time. Think about them as you go about your day. Observe where your attention and energy goes. Over time its likely that your purpose will become clear. And once it does, my view is that this makes everything else clearer too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 7th April 2017 What is your purpose?\u00a0 It\u2019s a deep question which you will find either incredibly easy or difficult to answer, depending on how aware you are of yourself. I couldn\u2019t answer this question for years… decades in fact. I only really started to understand my purpose in the past year or two. Before … Continue reading What is your purpose?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,5,3,8,20],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-purpose","tag-reflect-to-prosper","tag-reflection","tag-reflective-practice","tag-self-awareness","post_format-post-format-image"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n\n