self

Necessity for My Life: Purpose Beyond Myself

Excerpt from my journal on 03Nov2020…shared via blog on the day of inauguration of President Joe Biden:

Today elections around the USA came to a close. As I was working at a polling location in Indianapolis, I realized and felt a purpose beyond myself that I have not felt often before.

I was helping people live out democracy. The freedom to speak for what you want and demand what you believe is right.

I helped people who voted in the same way I did as well as people who I would disagree with. When I helped each person, I felt the power of democracy.

Even those I disagreed with, I felt the purpose of giving them the chance to make their vote heard. I wanted them to have just as much of a chance to demand what they believe is right…even if I disagree.

This is the power of a purpose beyond yourself. We have something to stand on which unites us.

This idea of a purpose beyond ourselves recalls to me John Maxwell’s framework of Level 5 Leadership. The most effective leaders are those who lead with a purpose and on principle. We follow them, they follow us, because of who we are and what we are on mission towards. It is not because we have authority, nor because we have their permission, nor because of what we have done for the group or for them. It is because we have respect. Because of what we represent beyond ourselves.

3 Needs in a New Venture

As we transition our career or move into a new role or start a new business I find a few necessities as we round these corners in life.

ONE: RELATIONSHIPS
We need to have sustainable self-fulfilling people and community around us.
This is not necessarily about your business but it is especially about you. Co-workers, family, friends, peers, mentors.
Support and bedrock.

TWO: A PRODUCT
Must be robust and of quality. It needs to fill a need in the a world around you.
Ultimately it should be something that connects to the best of you.
Needs to be clear yet must be designed with nimble flexibility. Ready to mold as you change, the world changes, the product changes.

THREE: AN ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
A viable audience or a group who value the product and generate financing for it. Maybe they buy the product or service or maybe they lead to an economic opportunity. Stretch your expectations and thoughts here.
You should be specific as well as continually asking (and not necessarily changing but simply asking) “Who’s not here?”

It’s best to begin the new venture if you have at least TWO of the THREE.

Personally I’d want to be sure RELATIONSHIPS is ONE of my TWO. They are needed for sustainability.

A good PRODUCT will beget AN ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY.
A bedrock of effective RELATIONSHIPS yield a market.
AN ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY can lead to a quality PRODUCT.

TWO of THREE will ensure the THIRD will come.

Because RELATIONSHIPS take intentionality, sacrifice, and love to gain, you ought to have those before you begin or be willing to slow down and sacrifice to build them as you go. Or else you may burnout and blow up.

Scan to Notice Emotions

My default is to suppress and minimize my own emotions. They may get in the way of my reasoning. I don’t want to seem unreasonable.

But in reality skirting our emotions can be the thing that makes us unreasonable. Our emotions are there for a reason. They are there as attention magnets, to help us notice things. To point out where we might need to focus.

We do need to ensure to manage our emotions but we cannot get used to suppressing them.

Emotion assists with reasoning.

At times we may find it easy to notice and actualize our emotions. Put words or images to our emotions and know what to do with them.

Other times we may miss them entirely. If you sense there is emotion present but you cannot recall it to the front of your head, try to simply scan your body.

Scan your body inside and out. Take note what is there. Wonder what the emotion behind that noticing is.

Allow emotion to assist in your reasoning process.

This idea is new to me. I learned it from Ed Batista’s Post on Antonio Damasio on Emotion and Reason.