For some of you the term “higher purpose” may be a foreign one.  What I mean by this is “a reason for being greater than yourself.”

In the workplace, it’s feeling like you can’t wait to get to work in the morning to start your day and make a difference. It’s feeling like you want to work harder, contribute more, and challenge yourself to become a better you because it matters.

My father was a high school industrial arts teacher for 32 years.  He went into teaching to share his knowledge of craftsmanship. He was a man who took great pride in creating something by hand, and he believed teaching a trade that students could use throughout their entire lives was a noble mission.  He didn’t become a teacher to make a lot of money, gain status or feed his ego.  My dad went to work every day with a higher purpose and a responsibility to teach and inspire young people and change their lives forever. In his life, he accomplished his mission.

Everyone talks about living a purpose-driven life, but what about a purpose-driven career? Everyone has gifts, something they do well, something they are really good at—such as art, writing, programming, public speaking, people skills—the list goes on and on. Once you identify the gift in yourself, how does that translate into a career that allows you to do what you love and love what your do? Into a business that brings out the best in you and your employees?

Now, I know some of you might be asking,  “Is a workplace like that possible? Aren’t these exceptions?”

To that I answer, “Yes, it is possible and it should be the rule!”  A work environment that inspires employees to want to do more, to contribute to a greater good, pushing them beyond their own limits—where work isn’t just a job, it becomes your life’s work—something we all should experience.  Life is too short to have it any other way.

After 25 years of working in a variety of companies, I finally found one where I can fully use my gifts to contribute and add value with purpose.  It’s a work environment that lends itself to inspiring people and letting them soar beyond their own abilities.  I’m happy to say, at last I have found my place and a company that not only inspires me to a higher purpose, but it teaches other companies to achieve the same kind of power and the same level of success.

At HEASLEY&PARTNERS, we practice what we preach. We work with companies to help build their brands; and one of the ways we do that is by creating work environments that inspire people to want to do more, where employees like to come and work every day and are moved by a higher purpose.  Unless your brand is happening inside your building it can’t happen outside it. When you have employees who are inspired, they work harder, stay longer and you know what…they sell more stuff. Your company becomes more successful.  Here through the work we do, I’ve realized the secret to creating a strong brand, a strong company, and to making life a whole lot easier.

Does your company inspire you to a higher purpose?  As a business owner or leader, what are you doing to instil higher purpose in your business?

Megan Erickson published this article on Big Think. Check it out.

 What’s the Big Idea?

For all the talk of trailblazing, the most successful businesses of the 20th century made it to the top by maintaining an edge in the same singular pursuit: maximizing shareholder value.

The dominant mode of thinking at the time was, “Keep your eye on the prize” – profit, of course – at all costs, whether that meant to the environment, to other companies, to some employees who saw their wages drop even as they became more productive. Forget that profit is your raison d’être, and you risked being perceived as self-indulgent, wishy-washy, irrelevant. What’s the matter with this picture?

Shareholder value maximization theory leads to a disconnect between companies and customers, resulting in a lot of action with little purpose, says Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management. What’s more, it’s boring – especially for employees. Be honest. Have you ever actually been motivated to serve someone you’ve never met?

Millenials, the first truly “21st century workers,” are here to call our collective bluff. The generation that has been simultaneously lauded for its civic engagement and derided for unabashed (and usually undeferential) idealism is bound to shake up the way we do business, according to Martin, who articulates the 20-something perspective like this:

Let me get this straight. I’m supposed to come to work with you and work every day with the singular goal of maximizing the value for faceless, nameless people who could blow us off in a nanosecond if they had a bad hair day. Am I right?

He believes the answer is truthfully, yes.

What’s the Significance?

Like a precocious adolescent, the business community has landed smack dab in the middle of its first real existential crisis. The global nature of both capital flow and financial lock-downs in the 21st century – as well as an increasing sense of the urgency and scale of issues like global warming – has caused some business leaders to question old assumptions about value which now seem decidedly stale. (For instance, can it really be measured in dollars alone, with everything else counted as an externality?)

Gen Y is entering the scene just in time to offer fresh answers. “If you want to make better products in an environmentally-responsible way that makes consumers’ lives better? That I could get excited about,” says Martin, paraphrasing his theoretical Millenial worker. Indeed, study after study has found that a primary concern for young workers is finding jobs that are meaningful, even at the expense of receiving a high salary.

It’s almost a cliché – to attract forward-thinking talent and start speaking directly to customers again, businesses of all kinds, from the smallest startup to the largest corporation, must do as the churches and schools and non-profits do: inspire people with their mission.

And as modern businesses search for a soul, who better than Millenials to help find one? These ambitious idealists may not have invented vision, but they seem to be particularly good at getting companies to start taking the word seriously.

You got to have a dream,
If you don’t have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?

What were some of your childhood dreams?  Were you a movie star, a rock singer, a major league footballer, pro golfer, astronaut?  Whatever it was, I’m sure it was something big.  You didn’t dream about being a filing clerk in a government department, did you?  Your dreams weren’t mundane, boring, repetitive and depressing.  They were exciting, inspiring and action-filled, weren’t they?  And they occupied a lot of your imaginative play time, no doubt.

Can you even remember what your childhood dreams were?  What happened to them?  Did you listen to the people who said your dreams weren’t realistic?  That you should get a good education, get a secure job, save for “a rainy day” and not take risks?  Have you put them off to the “one day” category, waiting until you have more time, more money, more energy, more enthusiasm?

You can’t live for tomorrow – the only time you can be certain of is now, today.  Tomorrow might never come.  This is the perfect time for you to tap back into your dreams and begin taking action to make them a reality.  If you rediscover your dreams and how they connect you to your higher purpose and immediately take baby steps towards achieving them, it will transform how you experience life.

As Henry David Thoreau said:

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Some questions to get you dreaming again:

1. What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
2. If you didn’t need to earn an income, what would you do with your time – just for the love of it?
3. If you only had one wish, what would it be?
4. Whose life would you like to be living?  Why?  What particular elements of their life do you want?
5. What one current world problem would you fix if you had unlimited power?

Set aside time to allow yourself to dream.  Write down your answers to these questions.  Look for common themes.  Then pick one or two dreams that you can and will pursue.  What might the first baby step be?

Some actions you can take:

• Write down your dream and review it frequently, including your reason for wanting to achieve it.
• Make a list of baby steps and tick off one of them every day (or week)
• Read a book on the topic
• Look for part time or voluntary work in alignment with your dream to build your skills and experience
• Find a mentor – ask someone who has done it to share their knowledge with you.
• Pray. Or meditate. Or whatever you need to do to be inspired.

While you are taking action, be sure to -
♥  Maintain focus on your dream (the outcome)
♥  Believe you can do it (become your own biggest fan)
♥  Ignore your critics (even if they are friends and family)

It doesn’t really matter how small your first baby step is, what is important is that you take action.  If all you do is dream your life will not improve.  So go for it. Keep moving forward with baby steps.  Don’t give up and you WILL get there.  Remember:

You got to have a dream,
If you don’t have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?

“It’s giving me purpose,” said a beaming Davis. “After a while, your life cannot be about hair and make-up and what film you’re doing next. It’s got to be about something bigger and larger. Especially when half your life is already gone and you look back at what are you leaving behind. For me, it’s a child. That truly is the key.”
Source:  USAToday.com

If you are concerned with trying to find your purpose in life, you may be wondering how to know for sure when you have found it.

There may be a number of strengths and passions you have, and you could choose to follow any one of them.  Your values may indicate a particular direction as being of primary importance to you.  There are so many opportunities out there.  How do you really know what is the right path to take?  How do you know that THIS is it?

Good question.! You will notice that the focus of my blog, and indeed my mission in life, is about CONNECTING to higher purpose – it is not about FINDING your life purpose.  Your purpose in life is not one particular thing that you have to find, because it has been lost, mislaid, not recognised or bypassed or so far undiscovered.  There is no one right thing, one and only opportunity that you should pursue to arrive at one final ultimate destination.

I believe that there are multiple pathways to your higher purpose.  It is not a matter of going through a lengthy process to discover your higher purpose, getting absolute certainty about it and then setting off on that singular path.  It is about making the CONNECTION to God (the universe/universal consciousness) so that you come to an internal knowing about what is the right path for you.  Armed with this information you take action, setting about the next task or opportunity that presents itself to you that you know to be in alignment with your higher purpose.

It does not necessarily mean that your first course of action will lead you directly and immediately to the achievement of your ultimate goal.  Life is a journey.  Is there one straight road to get from Perth to Sydney, London to Edinburgh, or Washington to San Francisco?  No.  There are multiple routes that you could take with lots of twists and turns and obstacles to navigate.

So you may initially set off on a route that you thought was a major highway, only to find that it really is just a meandering track that doesn’t seem to take you very far very fast.  You feel disappointed at where it leads you and you choose another route.  Was that first route you chose wrong?  Did you “miss it”?  No.  If you took the time to CONNECT to your higher purpose, then that was the right route for you at that time.  You probably grew as a person or learned a skill or established a relationship that will be vital to you on the next stage of your journey.  But you can’t see that now.

If you stay CONNECTED to your higher purpose then you can feel confident about your next step, trusting that God (the universe/ universal consciousness) is guiding you.

So CONNECTING to your higher purpose is not a one-off event, a cataclysmic life changing realisation that takes place at a certain point in time.  It is an ongoing process.  It is about being connected and staying connected at every point along the journey.  It is about taking the time and making the effort to CONNECT, align yourself with what God (the universe/universal consciousness) reveals to you and then taking action. The key thing is to stay CONNECTED, trusting that as you do your part the universe is doing its part to bring about the desires of your heart.

Creativity is both a way to discover your higher purpose and an expression of your existing connection to your higher purpose.  Creativity is vital for success in every part of life.  If you’re feeling stuck or uninspired, here are some ways to kick start your creative genius. 

Create the right environment
This will be different for everyone.  Some people need complete silence and solitude; others need crowds and noisy activity.  Go with whatever works for you.  Include some visual stimulation in your creative work space.  This could take the form of some art work, “knick-knacks”, inspiring posters or pictures.  Set the scene with candles, fragrant oils, indoor plants or waterfalls.  You may prefer light, bright and airy with an open outlook or dark and secluded where distractions can be reduced or eliminated.  Try rearranging your work area – a new spot for your desk can give you a whole new perspective.

Journal
Journaling can be both a creative activity in and of itself, and a way to clear blockages that may be interfering with your creativity (see the article on resistance).  Journaling does not have to be just free writing.  You can use pictures and other creative mediums (a lot like scrap booking).  Think about including drawings and diagrams.  Mind mapping is a good technique for your journal.  Begin by writing your idea or problem in a circle in the centre of the page, then spider diagram it until you get a breakthrough.  With this type of brainstorming technique it is important to put all ideas down without judgement or censorship.

Get moving

• Visit a museum, art gallery, or craft fair – get inspired by the creativity of others.
• Get away for the weekend – you will be rejuvenated by the time out, impacted by the immersion in nature and stimulated by the change of routine.
• Take a class – in painting, drawing, writing, singing, craft – anything!  Just get around others who are willing to learn and be inspired.
• Clear out.  Have a massive de-clutter at home.  Go through your cupboards, donate unwanted items to charity.  Clean out your desk and tidy your drawers.  Reorganise your creative work space. You will be amazed at how this makes room in your life to receive something new.

Input
Expose yourself to new people, new places, new foods, new ideas.  Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, watch “arty” movies, listen to music outside the realm of your normal taste.  Try new activities that challenge your limits – have you ever been rock climbing, abseiling or hang gliding?  Tackle regular activities in a different way.  For example if you ride a road bike, go trail riding on a mountain bike.  Take a different route to work.  We are creatures of habit and tend to take the path of least resistance, settling down into a routine that makes life easy.  Mix things up a bit, change them around, do new things to get new input and see what effect this has on your creative output.

Give it time
In our busy lives we are often so preoccupied with the multiple tasks that need to be accomplished each day that we don’t set aside time for creative pursuits.  Schedule a block of time for creativity and allow yourself to engage in some creative activities without having the expectation of  an immediate result.  Sometimes the creative process that you have begun will bubble away on the subconscious level for some time, and inspiration may come through in random unrelated moments, like while you are in the shower or out walking.  Be sure to have a journal or notepad handy to capture any unexpected moments of inspiration. Try to schedule creative activities for your times of peak performance.  Do you do your best work first thing in the morning, or during the later afternoon?  Get to know your own body clock and discover what works best for you. Persist over time.  Realise that it will take more than one creative session to release the powerful creator within.

Some other ideas:

• Relax – use techniques like grounding and meditation to get you into a good space and change gears from the fast pace of every day life.
• Dream – if you can dream it, you can become it.  Day-dream, use your imagination, visualise.
• Integrate – if you have two opposite ideas, can you do both? Is there a new way to bring them together?  Can you merge something old with something new?
• Fail – if you are not failing, you are not trying anything new.  If you try and fail, you’ve learnt one more way it doesn’t work – what’s next?  Move on quickly to the next idea.
• Play – be childlike, have fun, enter into the world of fantasy.
• Be curious – ask:  Why? How? What’s missing?
• Trust your intuition – go with your “gut feeling” and inspiration.  See where it leads.

Got more ideas to add?  Leave a comment below, I’d love to include your contribution.

But don’t think of creativity as just art, music or dance.  Creativity is broadly defined as:

the ability to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.

Creativity is basically problem solving, and we can all do that.  We all NEED to do that, so creativity becomes crucial for success in every aspect of your life.

Get rid of your pre-conceived ideas about creativity, your ability to be creative, and your judgements about the quality of your creative output.  A creative work cannot be right or wrong – it is the expression of your unique perspective at that moment in time.  It is not about technical excellence or skill, it is simply about self expression.  So welcome whatever comes, and just allow it to be, recognising that at another moment in time it will be different because you will be different.

People talk about creative flow, which is an effortless yet highly focused state of consciousness where you lose all sense of time and become one with the task in front of you.  Ideas and inspiration may seem to come from outside yourself, or may rise up from deep within and enter your realm of consciousness.  This is the kind of connection you seek.

If you are not feeling very inspired or creative, check out my post on Kick Starting Your Creative Genius for some ideas.

The interesting thing about Creativity is that besides being an expression of your connection to your higher purpose it can also be a way to discover your higher purpose.

How does creativity help you to discover your higher purpose?

Entering into a creative state can get you thinking about things in a new way, open you up to new possibilities and put you into a receptive frame of mind so that new ideas are perceived and considered afresh.

Giving yourself the time and space to be creative will also open the channels of communication for God (the universe) to reveal the nature of your talents, strengths, passions and how these relate to your higher purpose.

Creative pursuits you could try:
•    Journaling or story writing
•    Painting or drawing
•    Scrap booking or similar crafts
•    Sewing, knitting or crochet
•    Playing a musical instrument

What do you intuitively write, draw or sing?  This could provide a clue regarding your higher purpose.  Just the process of being creative may allow ideas to come to you at unrelated moments.  Be ready to capture these ideas – have a notebook with you to write down flashes of inspiration when they happen.  Creativity can unlock your connection to the divine, leading to more creative ideas and/or inspiration as to the nature of your higher purpose.

Again, I recommend you check out my post on Kick Starting Your Creative Genius for some ideas.

Question for you:  How do you use creativity to enhance your business success?  Leave a comment for me with your answers.

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Return to 9 ideas for connecting to your higher purpose.

While I don’t like to focus on the negative (because you get what you focus on) if we want to move a fallen tree on our pathway we do usually have to look at it in order to chop it up and move it aside.

You will know if you are experiencing resistance.  While on a conscious level you know, believe and affirm one thing, the physical manifestation in your life will be something else.  Have you for example tried the “law of attraction” and come to the conclusion that it just doesn’t work for you?  Do you think that there must be some hidden secret, some extra piece of knowledge that is missing, and that if you could just discover what it is then everything would fall into place?  Or have you decided that while it works for everyone else it will not work for you – because you are not worthy?

If you have already connected to your higher purpose and your blockage concerns an apparent inability to manifest success, it may be possible for you to move past it without ever knowing what caused it.  I will discuss the techniques for doing that in another blog post.

However if your blockage manifests while you are attempting to connect to your higher purpose it may prevent you from feeling grounded, entering into a meditative state, fully experiencing your emotions or being able to tune into your passions, strengths and values.  Making the connection to your higher purpose before moving forward is key, because it brings about a special kind of synchronicity.  So it is important to remove any resistance that is preventing you from connecting.

In this post I would like to share a method of deconstructing blockages that I found very helpful.  It cleared the debris so that I could see the pathway ahead (focus and get direction).  It is based somewhat on Byron Katie’s “The Work”.

STEP 1 –  your story.  We all have a story.  It is about the things that have happened to you in your life journey so far and the reasons why you are where you are in life.  Identify the major milestones in your story.

STEP 2 – the meaning you gave it.  Looking at your major milestones, have a think about the underlying meaning for each one.  What have you made it mean?  For example:
Milestone:  My partner left me
Meaning:  I am unlovable

STEP 3 – ask the questions.  Take the meaning associated with each of your milestones and (for each one) write down your answers to the following questions:
1  Is it true?  Do I absolutely know that it is true?
2  How do I feel and act when I believe it is true?
3  What is the pay-off to me in believing this?
4  What is the cost to me in believing this?
5  Who would I be without this belief?

STEP 4 – turn it around.  Write a statement that is the opposite, for example:
Milestone’s Meaning:  I am unlovable
Turnaround = I am lovable
Now find three specific examples of how the turnaround is true in your life (it is amazing how easy it is to find the examples when you think about it).

That’s it.

The process seems almost too simple, but it works.

To quote Byron Katie:

I don’ let go of my concepts—I question them. Then they let go of me.

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Return to 9 ideas for connecting to your higher purpose.

However the full range of emotions exists for a reason.  Imagine if you were driving a car that had no warning lights to let you know that your oil was dangerously low, your radiator overheating or the battery running out of charge?  These are small items that can be easily fixed but left unattended they turn into major repair jobs.

Emotions are like the indicator lights on our car dashboard.  They give us a clue as to what is going on internally.  It is always a good idea to acknowledge our emotions – if we try to push them down they have a nasty habit of popping up (vastly magnified) at very inconvenient times.  Tuning into your emotions is the smart thing to do.

In trying to connect to higher purpose, I suggest that you look for the extremes of emotion.

• What makes you feel happy, light-hearted, full of joy?  This may be a passion that you could pursue in order to experience greater fulfilment in life.
• What makes you really angry?  What do you feel the need to fight against, or stand up for?  What values does your anger highlight?  If you had the power to change one thing about the world, what would it be?

These are not questions that you can successfully intellectually analyse to arrive at the most logical response. When you take time to reflect on your emotions, meditation and grounding can help. You need to be internally still and quiet and simply allow the answers to these questions to rise up from your belly.  You may find the answer a bit surprising when you receive it.  You may wonder “where on earth did THAT come from?” but you will also know irrevocably in your soul when an answer is the right one for you.

When we finally connect to our higher purpose we know that THIS is it.  We know that this is what we are supposed to do, and it removes the fear.  We stop thinking about success or failure and start to think about “what contribution can I make”.  Doing what you love is a success in and of itself, and the amazing thing is that the lack of concern about the results, having an attitude of giving without seeking to get, leads to us receiving far more than we could ever have hoped.  And it comes to us in ways we would never have dreamed of.  It really is a beautiful thing.

That is exactly what connecting to your higher purpose is all about.

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