EP 5: Building your 'Purpose Portfolio'

A purpose isn't just one thing - it can be many different passions across different parts of your life. In this episode, we look at how to build your 'Purpose Portfolio', the questions to ask yourself and the importance of action and consistency.

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Hi, my name's Luke, and this is my podcast, Finding the Words. A podcast that's going to be looking at communication, culture, and purpose, as well as a few other little bits thrown in. Stick with me and let's have a good conversation. Hello and welcome to Finding the Words, episode five. So I am going to talk about a topic that I've spoken about before in this podcast series, but I feel like I didn't give it enough depth and I didn't provide enough value for those listening in to take away and really help them with that specific topic. So I'm revisiting the notion of purpose and having a life purpose and you know establishing what your own is. Is there a big main purpose that we all have and need to discover in our lives? So yeah, just talking about that, gonna provide some, yeah, hopefully some good, good value content that will help you um think about the topic and and get going with it yourselves. So I think the first question we need to look at is do we actually find purpose or do we create it? So, you know, is it something that I suppose it's more passive if you're finding it? That's kind of the idea of right, every single person on this planet has one specific thing that they're meant to do with their lives, and it's up to them to discover that purpose as it's already there. Or do we feel that actually it's something that's created by a person? Personally, I feel like it's definitely the latter. I feel like every person has a set of skills, personality traits, you know, um ways that they've developed through their childhood and life that lend them to different areas of work, areas of activity, all these types of things. So I think it's it's definitely something that, you know, is is crafted throughout your life and makes you lean a certain way, but it's for you to then make that connection between right, I have all these different skills and I have this passion. So this means I should focus in this area. And if that's what we're calling a purpose, then that's that's the right thing to aim towards. I think there's there's definitely pressure in society for everyone to have this figured out, you know. Even this podcast and the title, it's gonna draw people in and make people feel, oh god, right, I've got to do this, I've got to do that. I don't think we should view it in that way, that it's a pressure from you know, all these different influencers and uh wellness gurus, um, that guy who's the monk, is it Jay Shetty? You know, he's all about purpose. But I don't feel like he specifically puts pressure on people. I think it's just these people existing and being prominent puts that pressure on us because we're seeing it, and we're like, oh god, we should be like that person because they're successful and they've got it all figured out, and therefore I should be like that. So yeah, I think we should put less pressure on ourselves to have everything figured out. Um, and actually, it can feel intimidating if we have that pressure on ourselves and overwhelming to try and get it figured out. So I think say no to the pressure. You know, this should be fun. You know, the whole notion of a purpose is that it's your passion and your love doing it and spending your time in your life doing it. So don't feel that pressure, just relax, just live your life, just see what you're naturally gravitated towards. But we'll go into that a bit later. Um, so yeah, just in summary of that point, finding or creating purpose, I think, you know, it's definitely something that we create ourselves, in my opinion. And I don't think it's as binary as here's my purpose, that's it for the rest of my life. There we go. I think it's something that evolves. I think it's, you know, our passions change over time. I my passion when I was six is very different to what my passion is at 41. So, you know, I think there'll be different focus areas and different purposes throughout your life. Um, and you've just got to listen and to yourself, be intuitive um to what you're feeling and what's good for you, what's positive factors, and you know, activities where you don't feel bored or you don't, you know, you feel excited to do. So yeah, it's you know, and that's moving on to the next big area about what is life purpose. Um, you know, we've covered it a little bit there, and different parts that make up a purpose, but it's you know, it's not necessarily your job or a career, it's more about what gives your life meaning, how you spend your energy, and what activities feel aligned to who you are. Um, I think that point around what gives your life meaning is an important one. Um, I think in my last episode talking about this topic, I spoke a little bit about kids, um, how that's quite a lot of people's meaning in their life. So, you know, that might be your purpose. You might be naturally, you know, my my purpose in life is to have children and raise those children and etc. etc. But I think one thing that can help you frame your life and give your life meaning is by thinking about legacy. So, you know, when you're gone, when you've died, and when the world has moved on, what would you like people to look back and say about you and the things you did with your life? Do you want them to say they were a brilliant mother, brilliant grandmother? It might be that. Do you want them to say, you know, my granddad um did a lot of charity work, or you know, he did uh he excelled in this area of study. Um he really made this progress, etc. etc. So, you know, I think thinking about legacy really does help with that. Um, so yeah, that would be my one one tip for that area. Um, and you know, how you spend your energy um in your day-to-day, you know, where where are you putting all of your energy at the moment? Are you happy with that? Is that where it's supposed to be? Does it make you feel drained, um, disassociated? Then it might not be your purpose if it's making you feel in any negative kind of way, the thing that you're spending all your energy on. So really think about you know, look at your life and think, is this really where I want to spend my energy? I know we've all got factors around. We all need a job, we all need an income, so we all need to do X, Y, and Z, which might take up the majority of our time. And to be honest, the majority of people will have a job that they don't enjoy just so they can live. But look at your broader life and think, okay, you know, unfortunately, my job isn't something that I feel passionate about or isn't a purpose, but what outside of that does? Um, so yeah, have a little think around around that. Um, yes, and what feels aligned with who you are. So maybe look a bit back at your childhood, your teenage years. What did you love doing when you were, you know, six, nine, twelve, fifteen? Was there something that you really enjoyed that fell away for whatever reason, or you stopped doing for a specific reason? It might be good to explore that again and see, okay, uh, is that who I am? Is that what you know, is what I enjoyed doing back then still resonating now? Or, you know, or look at yourself at this exact moment. Am I someone different? What do I love doing? Who am I, and what are the activities that align with that? Um, okay, so another thing I just wanted to pick up as well is yeah, which I touched upon earlier. So the myth of one true calling, the idea that everyone has one thing they're meant to do. And actually, I feel this belief can hold you back um quite a lot. You know, you look at people and you pigeonhole them, you say, Oh, you know, it might be something actually that that person loves doing and is their purpose that time. So, you know, she's an amazing pianist, that's what she was put on this earth to do. But for all we know, in 10 years she might want to be a stripper, she might want to do something completely different that she loves doing, but a lot of people feel pigeonholed into that area. For me, you know, I've for the last 20 years I've been working in digital corporate communication for large companies and agencies. I do really enjoy my area of work. Is it the only thing that I'd feel passionate about doing? No, I reckon I'd be able to do lots of different career types and really enjoy it. So, you know, I think that idea of pivoting careers is an interesting one when establishing a purpose. You know, don't feel held back around what you've traditionally done. Of course, starting from scratch in a new industry is tricky. You'll have to start on a lower pay point, probably. Um, have to learn the ropes. You might feel your age in the way, you know. I'm in my 40s, and you might feel, oh god, am I too old to do this? To all of that, I say no. Um, anyone could do a career pivot anytime. One of my friends, he was worked in uh the pub industry quite successfully. Then at the age of 43, decided he didn't want to do that anymore, and now he works for the police in a really you know quite high up position now, which he's done very well over the last three or four years and worked his way up quickly. So, yeah, it can be done and at any age. So I think don't let that hold you back. And you know, people do have multiple passions. So, for example, you know, you might have your creative endeavors, you might have fitness endeavors, you might have social endeavors, you might have financial endeavors, which are all purpose um or passion areas in your life. So they might all be different mini purposes for you. So I suppose that's one soundbite I think I quite like, which is looking at purpose as a portfolio and not a single role. So you can open up your portfolio of purpose areas rather than saying I do this one thing, you could have this whole suite of purpose uh areas that you want to spend your time doing. And I don't know about you, but I struggle to remember these things. So even though it's a passion area and a purpose, I feel like my brain's been a bit melted by social media, so I just get a bit dazed sometimes. I don't remember what I like to do, and I just do other things. So maybe just make an effort to set up a physical space where that's really clearly laid out. Remind yourself of what you love doing and make sure that you make the time to do it, and have that portfolio maybe on a mood board or somewhere on your phone, something like that, just to make sure that you see it regularly and you make sure that you make time to do it. Like me with this podcast, like I could have given up doing this, to be honest, because I have lots of other things going on that take up a lot of time. Um, but I make sure the setup's very clearly there every day, so I can just sit down, record this, and yeah, and that makes me happy. Even if no one listens, I'm still very happy that I get to to chat in this way, build my skill levels around this, and yeah, and just have a nice time communicating um with this microphone. So, yeah, so I think um just a couple of other little things to to to flag around this, and one thing that I think is quite valuable to take away. So there are a few questions you can ask yourself to figure out what is my purpose portfolio, um, which I think I might call the episode the title of this episode purpose portfolio. I think that's quite snappy. Um, so number one, what makes you lose track of time? And don't, you know, don't say TikTok. It's something outside of that, or it could be TikTok, your purpose might be TikTok, but don't default say social media because that makes everyone lose track of time because it's a brain brain drainer. But um, yeah, what's that thing you do that you just love doing and makes you forget what the time is? And yeah, you get so engrossed in it that that's the only thing going on in the world. Number two, what do people naturally come to you for? So this is an interesting one. So, you know, friends or family, do they come to you for advice on a certain topic or help with a certain activity or process? Because if you're known amongst friends and family for being this source of knowledge on a particular topic, then you know that's something that's obviously emanating from you or emitting from you without you maybe being aware of it. So, for example, if people come to you for advice on cooking for a big group of people, is that your purpose? Is that setting up a business that's for event catering? Or people come to you for advice on planning a party? Are you a party planner? So, yeah, just ask yourself that question, see if there's anything that really stands out. Question number three What frustrates you about the world? Is there a problem that you could you'd really like to solve? Is there something that you could fix? You know, that's often where the best inventions and ideas come from is is solving a need that's probably there right in everyone's faces, but no one's really put the finger on how to solve it. So, you know, that might be an idea for a business or a product, a way of doing something. So, yeah, what frustrates you about the world? And number four, final question What did you love before you started overthinking it? You know, we often get in our own ways around these things and how we approach passions and purpose areas. We have our, as RuPaul would call it, our inner saboteurs who make us question ourselves, make us doubt ourselves. And yeah, maybe do a bit of digging your in your brain and see where what's happened with that, um, where that's gone. Um, is there anything that particularly stands out around that? Um, and yeah, remind yourself of what what that is. So those are four questions to ask yourself. Uh the next thing I just wanted to touch upon as well is action. Now it's all very well and good, me saying all these different things. Ask yourself these questions, think about this, question X, Y, and Z. But you don't think your way into purpose. You try things, and trial and error is essential. So, you know, even if you aren't 100% sure, you know, this is your passion, this is your passion topic or subject, just start doing it, start exploring it, start being messy, start saying yes. You learn by doing things, and if you don't try things, you'll never discover if that is something that you love doing. So be experimental, you know, get out there, go to classes, do an online course, um, go out and talk to people who are doing these things already. You know, there might be someone local to you who you could talk to in person. Um, and you know, I think that connection and bouncing ideas off other people is super important. I myself, I can be quite in you know, insular and think about things without chatting ideas through with people, but I think you can, I think there's a lot of value that comes from getting another person's point of view, and it's important. So, yeah, be messy, take action, just start trying things and see, see where you end up. And you know, that takes me to my next point, which is you know, passion is great, but it's not always there all the time, and you need to make sure that any action you take, there is consistency there. So, for example, I've started writing a book, I'm writing a detective novel series. Um, I've written about 10,000 words, but I haven't for the last two weeks because I haven't felt in the mood or in the right frame of mind. But I know that's even though I'm not feeling that passion at the moment, I should just be writing a few words, and then it'll probably spark off that motion of writing. So I know that I'm not doing the right thing at the moment because if I just made sure I was consistent and said to myself, right, you're at least going to write 200 words a day, then I would definitely write more than that because I'll get going with an idea and it'll start coming out a bit more and it'll be exciting and spark that passion again. So just make sure that you know, when you start exploring these areas and if you stumble across something that you feel is something you'd like to do, don't be put off if your passion dies for a little bit or takes a dip. It will come back if you keep taking action and consistency is key. So you don't always feel person, but you build it. Um okay, to make it a bit practical for you guys, maybe try these four different things. So try one new thing a week that you feel might be something to do with your passion, purpose, area. So try it, mark it out of 10 if it feels like the right thing. You could try four or five different things in a month at the end of the month. You might be like, oh, that's something that I do really like doing, and take that one thing that you explore or you liked doing the best a bit further. At the same time, continue with a journal on what energized you versus what drained you. So, you know, each day you could say, you know, my work task of X drained me, but I loved doing Y. And as you go on over the weeks and months, that again will give you a bit of an indicator of where you should be spending your energy and time. Make sure you talk to people who are doing the things that you're curious about. I just touched upon that, but you know, make sure you're having these conversations, and you know, it could be chatting in person, it could be chatting in a in an online space, just make sure you're communicating around what it is and then getting those those other viewpoints back. And do all of this without a great load of pressure on your shoulders, so you know, focus on direction and not the destination. As it's a purpose, passion should be in the process rather than the passion just being the end state or end destination. You know, if it if the only positive thing you're thinking of is the end, then it's not really your purpose because the passion should be in the process, even if it does. take a dip every now and again like I've flagged with my novel writing you know you should still be it should still be within the process so yeah reduce pressure on on the end goal so I think that's the main stuff that I'd like to give give to you all I think for me um from a personal point of view I'm not sure if I've found my purpose um my purpose portfolio yet I think I've definitely got some elements in there I think um I think I'm in the right direction but I don't think I've fully nailed the full spectrum of the things I love doing I think I can get in my own way sometimes I think I can make excuses and weirdly the one of my key excuses and this sounds probably ridiculous is my dogs so my three dogs like even when I was gonna when I was sitting down to record this I was almost stopping myself because I was like oh the dogs are comfy in the living room then I have to get their beds put them around my feet get them up move them when I know they just want me in the living room but that's ridiculous so I don't know if that's really you know I I think that's an excuse that's not a real thing that's a problem that's something I've made up in my head to put that barrier in my way to stop me doing this for some reason. Um so yeah explore those things that I've I've discussed and see how you get on I'm gonna work on my purpose portfolio this week um I might actually get them on a mood board or some kind of uh or present them in a in a visual way so that I can really I can just really aim for them and and make them a reality this year or over the next year or two. So yeah thanks for listening I hope that was useful in my follow up on purpose but yeah hope you all have great great rest of your days and speak soon bye