Power of Purpose to Guide Your Priorities
Why do you get up every day and go to work?
What is your purpose?
We tend to ask ourselves these existential questions at the beginning of a new calendar year. It is an exercise that can shed light on decisions about what our next role or company to which we want to dedicate. As we spend the majority of our life at work, it makes sense to question our purpose. When we have a strong sense of purpose, it helps us prioritize the never ending routine and challenging tasks that make up our to-do lists.
What is worthy of our time and effort?
Today, I facilitated a group discussion about this very question. As a facilitator, I don’t provide answers. That is a blessing! My role is to ask people to think about how they prioritize their time, energy, and resources. Many in the group shared that they are embarking on new careers that take them to new places, even different countries. They all seemed thrilled to be taking on new things, notwithstanding a measure of fear. Their decision to make the change is firmly rooted in their belief about their ultimate purpose.
Investigating your purpose can also lead you to greater clarity about how to organize your day, week, and month. If you ask yourself: “At the end of the day/week/month, what do I need to accomplish to feel a sense of satisfaction?” Getting clear about what is important, how you want to show up in your work, in your relationships, in your career can make the act of prioritizing a simple exercise. When there are competing demands for your time, knowing your work’s purpose can give you a quick answer to what you say yes to and what you decline.
Once you have given the question of purpose some thought, what choices will you make about your time, energy, and resources?