A good tee shirt slogan can say a lot in just a few words …

● “I put the pro in procrastinate.”
● “Duct tape can’t fix stupid.”
● “Leftovers are for quitters.”

Or for us snowmobilers, “when in doubt, throttle out.” 

More about tees, later. 

Creating a Life Purpose

Finding your Purpose is so incredibly important and life changing that I was initially reluctant to blog about it. Hopefully, sharing my own experience in creating a Life Purpose will be helpful. Here goes. Many years ago, I worked briefly with a coach who showed me a list of values and virtues. He asked me to pick the character traits that best described me. But like a kid at Baskin-Robbins, choosing from 31 flavors was hard because they all looked good!

Since then, during 20 plus years of business coaching, I’ve learned from Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni the difference between a Core Value and an Aspirational Value. When assessing leadership teams, I find people often identify with values they aspire to become rather than who they are in daily practice.  

Define and Clarify your Purpose

When I was 40, a very wise and gifted coach helped me define and clarify my Purpose in Life, which is: To Inspire and Challenge Leaders to Achieve their Greatest Personal Potential. We came very close on the first draft, and with a few tweaks, we nailed it. Arriving at this clearly stated Purpose allowed me to see that the business I was running at the time was not the vehicle to fully realize my vocation and I needed to search for something bigger to serve.  

Around then, Verne Harnish offered me the honor of being his first Gazelles Coach in the late 90s. Coaching proved to be a far better platform to serve my Purpose of inspiring and challenging leaders. Twenty years later, my Purpose led to writing my first book, providing a larger audience to serve — while creating a movement to shift the existing retirement paradigm for 80 million Baby Boomers.

In the process, I learned that Purpose is something that you never tire of pursuing, that you can always improve, and that you never fully accomplish in this life. Your Purpose provides the underlying motivation of everything you pursue. 

The Questions to Ask

When I coach clients on creating their Purpose, I ask them a series of questions: What gives you energy? What have you enjoyed doing since youth? If you had unlimited wealth and could do anything, what would you choose? While they’re answering, I’m writing their words and thoughts on a whiteboard.  

Before long, I start forming phrases that capture their soul’s desire. After years of experience, I can usually come up with a first draft we both agree is 80% right. After that, it’s a matter of fine-tuning. Taking the vision to 100% requires meeting some criteria: An effective Purpose should fit on a tee shirt. That requires simple, easy to memorize wording. Beyond being brief and memorable, it needs to feel “comfortable,” like putting on your favorite jeans. 

When you can effortlessly say your Purpose out loud and it feels true and congruent, you’re getting close to 100%.  

Your Purpose on a Tee Shirt

Here’s the final test: Would you be comfortable walking through the Atlanta airport with your Purpose emblazoned across a tee shirt? 

Granted, some travelers might avoid you, but I guarantee that some would approach you. They’d ask what your shirt means and where you got it. This latter group would be drawn to your Purpose because it resonates with them!  

I admit I’ve never “worn” my Purpose on an airplane, but I do gladly share it one-on-one, in meetings, and from stage. I am not shy about owning my Purpose because it describes the core of who I am and why I am here — to serve others. 

I like how Marian Edelman puts it, “Serving others is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, not something you do in your spare time.”

Bullseye. That’s a leader who knows her Purpose and lives it out as president of the Children’s Defense Fund and a powerful agent for change.

My friends, there is tremendous, unlimited energy in knowing your path and walking it. That energy is the Power of Purpose. 

I’ll look for your tee shirt next time I’m at the airport.

For more on Core Values, I recommend this blog post on “Character.” Or read the chapter called “It All Comes Down to Character” from my 2018 book Replace Retirement: Living Your Legacy in the Exponential Age.