Last week in my newsletter I talked about setting clear goals is the first essential step in goal attainment. The second step is tapping into your sense of higher purpose, AKA your WHY.
Let’s face it, modern life is busy, complicated, and full of distractions. Sources of instant gratification (the reward of a quick hit of dopamine – the motivation and pleasure chemical) surround us… food, social media, online games, watching videos, etc. These can make achieving your goals much more challenging because working towards your longer-term goals is often not gratifying in the moment. The reward is sometime in the future, not now as your brain and mind demand.
Tapping into your sense of higher purpose allows you to bring the future reward into the present moment, to help motivate you, especially when the going gets tough. When faced with a choice of what to do, your mind is asking, what will make me feel good? Unless you train your mind, it will often choose the quick hit of instant gratification… do something fun, rewarding, easy, or engaging.
A quick story. I hated doing laundry for many years. So I was curious to talk to a friend who loves it. She’s busy like me, has a family, runs a business, and has many competing demands on her time, energy, and attention. We were walking one day and I told her how much I hated doing laundry. I expected her to reply “I do too”, but she replied, “I love it”. I asked her “do you not think it’s a complete waste of time, it’s never-ending”, she replied “NO! When I’m doing laundry, I love the feel of the warm clothes as they come out of the dryer. I think about how lovely it is to put on clean, fresh clothes. When I am folding and hanging the laundry I think about the smiles on the faces of my family when they take out their favorite t-shirt and put it on and it makes them feel happy”. You see she had found a sense of higher purpose in the task of folding laundry.
To your mind, there is little difference between what is real and what is imagined. So if you can bring the future pleasure of task completion to the present moment, it gives you as much pleasure (happy chemicals: serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin (connection/bonding)) as if you had completed it. One way to do this is to create a “Purpose Statement”.
The Miriam Webster dictionary has a few definitions of the word purpose:
- “The reason why something is done or used: the aim or intention of something”.
- the feeling of being determined to do or achieve something
- the aim or goal of a person: what a person is trying to do, become, etc.
People often believe they need to have a “Life Purpose”, but few people have just one. Instead, they have a sense of purpose for the things they do.
How to Create Your Purpose Statement
If you have a goal, outcome, or New Year’s Resolution you want to achieve try this exercise.
Step:
- What is your level of commitment to your goal, outcome or New Year’s Resolution? Give it a score 0-10, 10 = extremely committed.
- Close your eyes, put your hand on your heart, and take a deep breath. Think of something that makes you feel happy.
- Next, think about your goal, outcome, or New Year’s Resolution. Imagine you have just achieved it. You made it happen. You put in the work. You overcame challenges, you pushed through.
- Why was this so important to you? Why does it matter?
- What emotions do you feel, having achieved it?
- How will it impact you or other people?
- Who will you have become in the process? E.g. a better leader, a stronger person, a better version of yourself, a badass, a laundry folding ninja.
- Write down your “purpose statement”. Exaggerate the positives, make it compelling. Add powerful language that will inspire you. Put your “purpose statement” somewhere you will see it often.
- What is your level of commitment now? If it has not gone up… ask yourself “Is this something I want to spend my precious resources of time, energy, and attention on?”
- On the days when your goal, outcome, or New Year’s Resolution seem hard work, out of reach or life is getting in the way, repeat steps 2&3.
Armed with your sense of purpose you may be able to overcome procrastination and busyness to take command of your mind and do the things that really matter to you.
If you need support in achieving your goals, please reach out. I am here to help.
