Reading an article on LinkedIn, “Designing Your Organization for Purpose and Impact,” I found some helpful takeaways. Although Mindy Grossman is addressing the business community, I think we would all benefit from the “purpose filter” philosophy.
Inspired by this concept, I see applicability in different areas of my life that require focus; health, finance, career, study and joy. Here is my personalized version of Grossman’s business strategic vision, which she refers to as her company’s “Impact Manifesto”:
- Foundation: Lay out a clear and actionable purpose.
- Design for impact: Develop standards and the how (processes and protocols).
- Impact: Ensure all decisions and actions align with the purpose.
- Commitment: Run all that we do through a “purpose filter.”
I am thinking about the contradictions that undermine my efforts, like reading emails in the morning when I had committed to a workout, putting together a budget and then blowing it on something I don’t need, and complaining that I’m burnt out while my vacation entitlement is egregiously ignored. I start out with the best intent but then travel down a different path. It’s clear now that I’ve missed one of the key steps – forgot my purpose, did not work through how I’m going to get it done, behaved in a way contrary to my purpose or did not take the time to consider if my actions made sense based on what I really wanted.
I use the first person perspective because I am tying this to my own experience, but I believe everyone can relate to this. We often ask ourselves what went wrong / how did this happen? Maybe this is a way to figure it out, not by chance but on purpose.
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This is definitely germane to my own life. I’m not sure I’ve ever lived with a clear intent in mind. When I was younger, I never really had goals; I just sort of assumed that everything would work out. They say that you should always have clearly defined goals that you can visualize. Mine have tended to be murky: I’d like to be successful, I’d like to have a nice home, etc. I think my purpose going forward is to have a purpose. 🙂
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Thanks for your comment, Colane. I’m with you on the murky goals. When I was a young girl, my goal was to have loving boyfriend, get through school and then get a job. I never had a vision for my life. On interviews, I dreaded the inevitable question of where I saw myself in five years. I guess the difference between then and now is that now I have more appreciation for time. Time goes so fast these days that I see it as a precious commodity. So I want to make sure I spend it doing stuff that makes sense for me in terms of how I want to live whereas when I was younger, time seemed to be endless.
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