While many will struggle to “find” their sense of purpose. A better plan may well, in fact, be to create or build one yourself. To do this, we need to have an inkling of what feels like purpose to us. What I call a purpose anchor. Before getting to this tricky subject in our next post, I feel it is important to better define what we are really in search of when we talk about pursuing purpose.
As discussed in the last post, Leah tried to fill her life with big audacious goals. She co opted other’s version of purpose and often found herself tripping over the lack of agency to make these dreams come true. This was a prescription for feelings of inadequacy, failure, and ultimately purpose anxiety.
Leah was living deeply within the scarcity mindset. Not because she didn’t dream big, but because she set her life’s journey in the direction of all or nothing goals that were only possible due to the right mix of luck, skills, and timing. Often we have one or two of these ingredients, but rarely all three at the same time.
Instead, to truly feel connected and purposeful in her daily activities, Leah would have been much wiser to pursue a completely different type of purpose. One much smaller and yet full of the abundance that ultimately she was hoping for. In fact, she might have taken a page from Chad Carson’s book Small and Mighty Investor.
Chad is a perfect example of someone who chooses abundance instead of scarcity when it comes to his real estate portfolio. Unlike Leah and her mentor, Chad uses his real estate portfolio in a small and mighty way (sounds a little like Little P Purpose…doesn’t it.) He has no aspirations to own a thousand doors nor to become a billionaire. Only a very small few can reach such heights.
Instead, Chad uses his knowledge and income from real estate to do something that is much more abundant and attainable. You see, Chad didn’t acquire his nickname for nothing. He is called Coach Carson because his purpose is intimately tied to teaching and coaching. A purpose that requires nothing more than a joy in the doing and then an intentional process of creating a life around it. There is no possibility of failure here as long as he stays sticks to doing things that are deeply important to him.
Small but mighty. Abundant. Powerful.
While you may argue that becoming a billionaire might have more impact on the world, I would say the exact opposite. Each time Chad helps someone successfully navigate a real estate transaction, he is potentially impacting generations of that person’s family members. Every book and course sold, he is teaching someone a life skill that could change the world.
One person at a time. Handed down from generation to generation, a little ripple in the ocean that carries on for miles over years.
Don’t you want to have this kind of impact? I certainly want to. The path is lined with Little P Purpose. But to get there we have to make one last detour.
We don’t find our purpose, we build it. But in order to do that, we have to understand how to connect to our purpose anchors.
Which, of course, will be the topic of my next post.
In the meantime, give us your opinion on this week’s poll:
Did you catch this week’s episode on Earn & Invest? (Click to listen)
Comments from Facebook
Loved this episode. I need to listen to it again because there were so many gems of wisdom! More Rich Talk!!
The video struck a cord with me regarding working more hours. I have definitely fallen prey to this, I think because of autopilot. Through practice, failure and experience I have won at the corporate term efficiently. Just like figuring out how to be successful in school I adapted to entering the workforce. Throwing more work on my plate keeps myself occupied since finding I can work multiple full-time jobs and go through the motions of my trade. This is really a wake up call that I need the next evolution, something to adapt to and broaden my experiences.
Path to Purpose Coaching
Over the last year, writing my new book The Purpose Code, I have spent a huge amount of time thinking about, writing about, and discussing purpose. I have offered one-on-one and group coaching to my mastermind group, Wealth With Purpose. These discussions stem from my real life encounters with dying hospice patients as well as the numerous interactions I have had with people after reading Taking Stock.
What I've found is that most of us who listen to the Earn & Invest Podcast struggle with three basic issues:
How do I define purpose in my life?
How do I transition to a more fulfilling career?
What is enough money look like? Enough life?
To help navigate these waters, I have decided to offer the Path to Purpose coaching program. This is one-on-one coaching with me to help you further define purpose, direction, and career. Sessions will be spread over five weeks with a goal to provide a more concrete and enjoyable path to crack the purpose code and start living your life now whether you are broke, pre financial independence, financially independent, or beyond.