Discovering your true purpose will have the greatest impact on your personal legacy. Living your life’s true purpose requires clarity over your identity; to create a powerful legacy, you first have to know exactly who you are.
By Craig Goldblatt, Life Coach
For the last 20 years, I have been teaching and encouraging people, especially professionals, to live a “Challenge Life.” A Challenge Life is a life in which we embrace trials and tribulations as a gift, where we stand up for what we believe in, throw caution to the wind, accept our fears and embrace change, viewing life as a rich tapestry of experiences and growth while we are alive.
With the current state of COVID-19 and the global chaos it has created, it is more important than ever for individuals to live a Challenge Life in order to face this crisis head-on.
Why live a Challenge Life? Those who do have a deeper understanding of the reason they have chosen the path they did in life and business. It helps individuals create clarity as to who they are when they are at their very best. This calms anxiety and provides a firm foundation for trying times. In living a Challenge life a person is able to prioritize what is most important to them in their life, and know the steps they need to take to create a true impact in their life and in the world at large. To do this, those in the Challenge Life create short, medium, and long-term goals.
There are two major ways to view events in life, which is by viewing things through our internal world or through our external world. While both views are inextricably linked, there is a vast difference between the two.
Society is addicted to the outside world. In other words, people often think they have to sort out their external circumstances before they can face their internal reactions; in fact, it is quite the opposite.
When viewing things from an external perspective, a person loses control of their life and situation. Viewing things from an internal perspective, however, allows an individual to have control over their life through their response and reaction.
Gregory Bateson, a philosopher who made significant contributions to several sciences (including anthropology, cybernetics, psychiatry, and linguistics), pioneered the new interdisciplinary field of cognitive science. In the process of his work, he developed the levels of “learning and change,” which are:
- Identity,
- Beliefs & Values,
- Capability (or Skills),
- Behavior, and
- Environment.
Living Your Life’s True Purpose: Defining the Levels of Change
After studying Bateson’s levels of change in-depth, I adapted them to show how people go through the following levels to change their internal and, by default then, their external situations and world. One of the keys to living a Challenge Life is to understand the levels of change and where you fit in for any given situation.
- Intention
- Purpose
- Identity
- Values & Beliefs
- Skills
- Behavior
- Environment
1. Intention: Our deepest value
In order to reach a goal, we need to have a deep feeling that we will gain from taking action. All great leaders have an emotional driver for their cause. A classic example that we understand is that of Martin Luther King. He had a deep intention of freedom for his people, this sat behind every decision and behavior he delivered. It benefits us enormously to know what these drivers are, as knowing allows us to inspire ourselves, our clients, and all others to take a certain action.
2. Purpose
The reason we work so hard to achieve In order to truly motivate we need to understand the following; there is only one thing human beings want in our lives and that is to experience our deepest feelings, to feel a strong sense of security, excitement, self-worth, connection, growth and giving to others. Everything we do and buy is to meet an emotional need. To create leverage we need to realize what emotions we feel are missing and which ones we have in abundance. Purpose-led exercises can help both ourselves and others to experience more of what we want.
3. Identity: Who we are at our best
Over the last two hundred thousand years, we have evolved greatly and continue to do so. At the level of identity, we are very complex. We use labels to describe ourselves. Even though language cannot truly encompass all that we are, it is an extremely powerful guide and gives us real clarity.
To analyze our unique qualities shows us how to showcase who we are to all around us. There are many archetypes that we display and a few of those really speak to our most authentic self. If we were to ask our people in the business or at home who know us best what would they say our greatest qualities are? Knowing our true sense of self has many benefits, but most of all it creates a real value of trust in all who surround us.
4. Values and Beliefs: What is most important to us?
Our core values such as Trust, Honesty, Integrity, Compassion, Health, etc., form the foundations for our emotional compass. They allow us to make the right decisions for ourselves and others. When we recognize what values are crucial for us it supports a strength to make decisions, carry them through and attract the right clients who share these qualities. Understanding and living our values at the highest level through introspection is very powerful to ascertain if we are showcasing ourselves in an authentic way.
5. Skills
Simply put, your skills are what you know and the information you have, that makes you great in your roll. Whether that roll is performing a certain way as a parent, or spouse, or at your job.
6. Behavior
How you actually choose to act!
7. Environment
What you have created that surrounds you in the physical sense.
Once you have gained knowledge around the levels of change, you can start to figure out where you currently fit at on the various levels. This knowledge helps you gain clarity and understanding of yourself and your processes and allows you to give yourself grace for past decisions. It also allows you to gain a better understanding of others, and where they may be in their processes, which allows you to work more seamlessly with others.
When people work together they have the ability to create a deeper impact and are more likely to achieve their individual missions, but individuals have to be clear on their individual missions and how they are progressing through change in order to have the greatest impact.
So, work to gain clarity on your individual mission. Allow yourself to have the greatest impact on your personal legacy by taking the time to determine the heart of your real, true purpose. Living your life’s true purpose and vision requires clarity over your identity. Give yourself the opportunity to implement the steps to create your legacy by knowing exactly who you are. Nothing is more fundamentally important than that.
Craig Goldblatt is an international life coach who thrives on helping others – especially entrepreneurs, CEOs, charities, and volunteers – find the way to living their higher purpose. He has delivered over 700 inspirational keynote speeches to major corporations around the globe and also founded the charity “Giving Africa”. www.craiggoldblatt.com
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