Honing In On Our Purpose

While accepting similar positions with different companies wasn’t necessarily moving me toward a fulfilling purpose, working just nine or ten hours daily in those companies provided something I hadn’t experienced in years: time to pursue the things we had gotten that glimpse of purpose and fulfillment from previously! I mentioned before that Cindy and I both started digging into any resource we could get our hands on that would provide us with tools we could apply as we worked to gain influence with the folks we were working with; the ones we needed help from to achieve the results required in our roles but had no positional authority to mandate that help… I can’t remember the first things we read or studied but I distinctly remember the first time I read John Maxwell’s book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and worked through the audio course that went with it (on cassette tape). That was late 2000, just a few months after we were married. I also remember being angry that nothing like this had ever been mentioned at any time while I was in high school (at least not while I was awake) or in any of the community college classes I sat through. Not only could I absorb the information John was sharing, I could understand how to apply it in my role. We certainly worked through other material, but John’s work was a staple from that point on.

Not long after parting ways with the manufacturing company, the nudge Cindy gave me was to get licensed to use John Maxwell’s content officially. The change from being in my office for twelve to fourteen hours each day and taking calls until I passed out each night to working a normal day and not carrying it home with me was almost like working part time so I jumped at the chance! I had been sharing what I learned through his books and audio lessons with the folks I worked with for years; that certification just gave me the option to charge for it - not that I had any significant aspirations of doing so…

I wasn’t sure what to expect through the certification process, but I couldn’t imagine that it would be all that involved since I had been studying John’s work so closely for almost a decade and a half. I was wrong! While there was no hard and fast requirement to dive in at the level I did, that Driven behavioral style I refer to frequently took me all-in from the day one. From mid May 2015, right after I completed the prep course and exam for the human resource credential I still hold, until early Aug that same year, I invested three to four hours each day into the resources that were suggested for me prior to arriving in Orlando to complete the process. That made my days very similar to what I had been doing in manufacturing, with one major difference: I was beginning to hone the purpose I was working toward!

The investments we had made into developing ourselves so we could get results in our jobs opened door after door to better roles in our careers. As we worked through those roles, making ongoing investments into that growth process helped us move, ever so slightly, toward our clear purpose. While each position we held didn’t always tie directly to achieving that purpose, I’m convinced that all of them helped us hone in on what that purpose really was - which created the need for even more growth, which is where we’ll pick up next time!