"More men fail through lack of purpose than through lack of talent"

- Billy Sunday

If you are clear about your inner purpose you can jump to step II
right away. But if you are not clear about your purpose or need to
revisit it, here are some steps to help you reflect on your past,
present, and future as a guide to connecting with what is important to
you and finding your inner purpose.

I Reflections on your past, present, and future to find inner purpose

The Past…

1) Make a list of activities you have participated in the past that you felt most inspired to do so at the time.

(Hint: Think about things you have done in the past, which made you
push your comfort zone or extend yourself in ways that you normally do
not and you were able to do this because you were inspired. These are
activities that make you feel most energized and empowered. Inspiration
here refers to an inner urge, belief, or drive and is not related to
external motivations related to financial, social, or ego gains, even
though the latter may be an outcome.)

2) List people who inspire you and what are the qualities in these people that inspire you.

(Hint: There are many inspiring people in this world but who
inspires you tells a lot about what is meaningful to you. Specific
traits and talents in these people are important to you because they
reflect values that are important to you and are likely to be the ones
that will influence your business practice.)

3) Think of the challenges in your life that have impacted you profoundly – what did you learn from those challenges?

(Hint: we learn most from challenging situations because it forces
us to find new solutions to deal with them; they push our mental
limits. Often the challenges have a recurring pattern because they are
meant to teach us something of value that we can then share with others
– what have you learned from your personal experiences that you would
like to share with the world?)

The Present…

4) What are you naturally curious about?

(Hint: What are the things you enjoy learning about, what kind of
documentaries do you enjoy, what kind of books do you read? Answers to
these questions point to your natural inclinations and interests. Your
ambitions can be influenced by external factors, but your natural
curiosity is something inherent to you and it doesn’t lie.)

5) Make a list of things that you enjoy doing most. These could be related to your work or not.

(Hint: Be honest in describing what you enjoy doing with your time
and resources. These could be activities completely unrelated to your
current work. You could make a good livelihood out of activities you
enjoy such as music, art, and cooking. But even if you did not pursue
these activities as a career, a comparison across such activities will
point to some underlying themes that reflect your inner purpose. For
example, I love to read and learn about how the mind works, I love to
help people find their purpose, I love to meditate, I love to create
healthy and tasty foods, I enjoy finding solutions to unique business
challenges, and I love my research. These activities do not seem to
have much in common on the surface, but they involve creativity,
mindfulness, self awareness, and problem solving and all of these feed
into my work of inspiring purpose and finding profitable solutions that
are mindful.)

6) What characteristics or traits do you love most about yourself?

(Hint: Ever so often we get intimidated by the accomplishments of
others. At times like these, it is important to reconnect with what we
love about ourselves and what we can uniquely bring to our work. Again,
it is not important that these qualities do not seemingly relate with
what we do at work. For example, you may be a nurturing mother, an
adventurous cook, and innovative shopper. Now you can bring all those
qualities of nurturing, adventure, and innovative thinking into your
work Authentic entrepreneurs are integrated people and who you are at
home and with your family is the same as who you are at work with your
employees and customers.)

The Future…

7) What is the one change you would like to see in this world?

(Hint: What sort of things that you see or read about that make you
angry, what is the change that you are most passionate about seeing in
this world? The transformations that you want to see are opportunities
for you to find your purpose.)

8) If money and any other limitations were not a problem, what work would you dedicate yourself to?

(Hint: Often we set artificial barriers to doing what we truly
love. If you could imagine that none of these barriers exist and you
are free to dedicate your life to doing one thing – what would it be?)

9) How do you want to be remembered?

(We postpone things that are important to us and before long it is
too late. Use this time to reflect on what really matters. How do you
want to be remembered as a partner, a parent, a friend, in your
community, and as a human being? What difference did you make in the
lives of others during your lifetime?)

Once you have answered these questions, highlight important terms
and note them down. Look at the noted terms for patterns that reflect
what is meaningful to you, what is unique about you, and what is your
unique purpose. You are now ready to write your mission statement.


II Writing your mission statement

A good mission statement helps to build authentic communications
with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. It provides a broad
framework defining your purpose and values within which you run your
business. It is particularly useful in challenging times as a reminder
for what the business stands for so people don’t lose sight of what is
important. It also provides a unified focus for all members in the
organization to move towards a common goal. Communicating your mission
statement clearly will help in attracting the right kind of people as
your customers, employees, suppliers, and other collaborators.

In order to write down your mission statement, refer to the list
you created of terms that reflect what is meaningful to you, what is
unique about you, and your unique purpose. Use that list as a guide to
write your mission statement. An authentic mission statement has five
parts:

1) Your core purpose - the overall mission

2) How will you achieve your purpose - your products and services

3) Who will you benefit - your target market

4) How will you benefit them - specific benefits you provide

5) What is unique about you - your core competencies that make you unique

For a good example see Ben and Jerry’s comprehensive tripartite
mission statement including social, product, and economic missions. For
a more detailed example, I would like to use the mission statement that
I am more intimately informed about because I wrote it for my
consulting firm. The mission for iAM Business Consulting reads as
follows:

The mission of IAM Business Consulting is to inspire people to find
their purpose and give it expression in ways that are profitable and
meaningful (1) We assist individuals and organizations (3) in reaching
their professional goals by helping them clearly articulate their
purpose, recognize limiting beliefs, and bring mindfulness into their
business. (4)

Our workshops and consulting services (2) offer both cutting edge
marketing expertise, and mindfulness techniques to bring awareness to
inner workings of the psyche. Through this approach we help
organizations develop a clear vision and innovative solutions, a
healthy and inspired environment for employees, and authentic
relationships with customers. (4) Our work is founded on a combination
of research in business, science and ancient spiritual wisdom to
provide new ways of thinking about business challenges. It is our goal
to offer innovative consulting solutions to our clients by staying
abreast of and contributing to research that is shaping the new
business paradigm in conscious capitalism. (5)

In writing the mission statement, I addressed all five points that
are necessary for an authentic and clear communication. (1) Clearly,
the over all purpose is to inspire people to find their purpose and
find innovative solutions to express the purpose profitably. (2) The
specific products include consultancy and workshops. (3) The target
market comprises individuals and organizations in a professional
capacity. (4) The specific benefits to the target market focus on
helping them reach their business goals via innovative solutions for
mindful marketing, creating an inspiring environment, and authentic
relationships. (5) And our core competencies comprise an integrated
approach founded on latest research in business, science, and
spirituality and the effective combination of marketing expertise with
inner workings of the psyche.