What is purpose and how do you discover and embody it?

​​FIVE KEY FRAMEWORKS

FRAMEWORK #1
​THE 4 TRUTHS OF HIGHER PURPOSE

The Four Truths of Higher Purpose is a framework to illuminate how awaken and embody one's higher purpose.   For more on Truth #1, see the The Purpose Tree below.  For more on Truth #2, check out scientific benefits of purpose.  For more on Truth #3, check out The Stages of Purpose below.  For more on Truth #4, check out The Four Phases of Purpose Discovery and Obstacles to Higher Purpose below.

FRAMEWORK #2
​THE PURPOSE TREE

The second framework is The Purpose Tree, which offers a high-resolution understanding of  the ten aspects your higher purpose.  A high-resolution understanding of your purpose grants you the clarity and confidence to take bold action and be fully self-expressed.   ​The foundation of your purpose is the tree’s root structure, containing the immovable, ever-present, unseen elements of your purpose, your deepest sense of identity as an individual (core and virtues).  As the tree ventures upwards and the branches venture outwards, you increasingly express your purpose, answering your call and vision and focus your actions towards a desired impact (powers, craft and mission).  These are the unique ways your purpose interacts with, contributes to, enjoys and is rewarded by the world.  All of these sit within your narrative of life (story) and your understanding of how the world works (worldview). 
The 10 Aspects of the Purpose Tree
  1. Call - what most breaks your heart in the world, what most moves you to sadness or anger, the emotional pain in the world you recognize from your own life and pulls you into action.
  2. Vision - your picture of the world perfected, the most evolved expression possible for humanity.
  3. Powers - your natural, full-level gifts, talents and strengths that make an enormous contribution to yourself and others.
  4. Craft - your life's work, your opus, your genius, the unique way that you transform others and will spend your remaining years mastering and developing, the heart of your true calling and profession, relying on a number of your core powers.
  5. Flow - the activities that bring you most into the present moment, activities where you lose self-consciousness, experience incredible immersion and fulfillment and are fully inhabited in your body.
  6. Mission - your near-term goal, the single most important thing you must accomplish now, to be followed by many more missions once complete.
  7. Virtues - the enduring principles, standards, values and ideals for which your life must be known, the guidelines by which you answer your call, realize your vision, perform your powers and craft and achieve your mission.
  8. Core - your most essential qualities, the natural, effortless radiance of your being, who you are without doing anything.
  9. Story - the overarching narrative of your life, including your hardest fought battles, most important lessons, your failures, challenges and victories; your personal mythology, the empowering narrative that ties your whole life together.
  10. ​Worldview - the broadest and most elegant understanding of reality you have, that constrains and confine the scope and scale of the other 9 aspects of your purpose.
Dynamics:
  • The Purpose Tree contains a vertical tension along the trunk, creating an upward pull of increasing energy and movement from above by The Call/ Vision and generated from below by your Core/ Virtues. 
  • The Purpose Tree also contains a creative vs. receptive horizontal tension.  On the left are the more creative and ascendant aspects of purpose.  On the right are the more receptive and inscendent aspects, what Thomas Berry refers to as “inscendence” a going within and fractally inhabiting of one’s life from a place of soul.
The Purpose Tree is a revised, revisioned and augmented version of the Purpose OctagonTM, created by the Founder of the Purpose Guides Institute, Jonathan Gustin. ​

FRAMEWORK #3
​THE STAGES OF PURPOSE DEVELOPMENT

The third framework is "The Stages of Purpose Development", which explores the four types of relationships people have with their life's purpose, from having no relationship to your purpose (Stage 1 ), to simply declaring one (Stage 2 - High-Achievers), to having a higher purpose, (Stage 3 - Purpose-driven Leaders) to fully embodying your higher purpose (Stage 4 - Industry Leaders).  My work focuses on helping folks move from stages 1 and 2 into stages 3 and 4.

FRAMEWORK #4
​THE FOUR PHASES OF PURPOSE DISCOVERY

The fourth framework is The Purpose Discovery Journey. It moves through four phase, where one moves more deeply into their life's purpose, gain tools to overcome resistance to living it, gain the clarity and courage to take bold action in leading with it and leave the program having completed a project that expresses your life's purpose.  

FRAMEWORK #5
OBSTACLES TO HIGHER PURPOSE

The fifth framework illuminates why it's often hard to hear and act upon your higher purpose - you have an ego that just wants you to be happy and safe and largely silences your highest self, the keeper of your purpose.  Tim Kelley's 2009 book, True Purpose, best illuminates this dynamic and offers pathway to overcoming internal resistance to hearing and acting upon your higher purpose.  Below is a visualization of these inner voices / ego parts and their relationship to your purpose.