Finding your purpose

Hello Everyone,

I hope you had a great week and looking forward to another one in this journey called life.I am continuing the discussion on purpose and this week the focus is on finding your purpose. Purpose as simply defined is why anyone or anything exists, and last week I shared how having a clear purpose helps guide the choices we make in life and the outcomes we get as a result of our choices. Each time I speak about purpose the obvious next question is how do I find my purpose? I will share my own journey into discovering what my purpose is.

My journey of finding my purpose became clearer when I became Sales Director at Guinness .I grew up with a set of values because of the influence of the church and a military environment and these built in me a sense of responsibility beyond myself. I had been considered successful in my career as I had grown in each of the organisations i worked in.However the mantra of the higher you go, the cooler it becomes wasn't really showing up. Even though I "did well" in the various roles I held, progression meant life felt harder and seemed to take more effort. It was easy to fall prey to the temptation of finding a shortcut to make things easier.

As part of my leadership development in Guinness, I was assigned a leadership coach. He was younger than I was and very less experienced from a business or leadership perspective. My initial reaction was resistance. What was this young man who has never sold something , or managed any teams one tenth of what I have done ever going to teach me? We were going through a tough business period which made the initial sessions even tougher. I was looking for answers, solutions to my business problems and he couldn't provide them.

He kept pushing me and challenging my thinking and he got me to always focus on the outcome I wanted and who I had to become for that to happen. The process of finding my purpose then started as I listened more. He got me to go back through my past and find moments when I was most fulfilled and find out why.

Going through my past, a couple of things stood out. I wrote my first formal letter of resignation when I was 13 years old. I was in the boys brigade, we were in the quarterfinal of an inter boys brigade competition and the Captain of our unit hired mercenaries because he felt we were too young to win. I felt this wasn't right and I wrote a formal letter to the church and resigned my position.It created an uproar within the church and the captain who was a Corporal in the Nigerian Army threatened to deal with me.The said Boys brigade Captain was team manager of a local football club I went to play for, and coincidentally,the only times I was selected to play matches for the club was when he wasn't around.

 Also going through school, I always had good grades and my motivation was the joy on the face of my dad when I came home with my reports.I lost my dad at the start of my first year in the university when I was 17.  I wandered through life without direction for the next two years and just did enough to pass and move to the next year.In my third year in the University, some of my friends convinced me into contesting for the post of President of the Biochemistry Students association. I was hesitant in contesting because I felt that I had a burden not to let the students down. What kind of example will I be setting if I failed my exams? What if a junior student wanted help with a subject area, how will I respond?  The struggle I had was not because of the challenges of the role, but I that I would lose my ready made excuse for no sense of direction because I had lost my dad who was my source of motivation. I accepted because it offered me a source of motivation bigger than myself, and from the moment i won the election, I changed my approach to learning, seeking to understand more  and thinking of how to simplify stuff if I had to teach others. The outcome was my grades rapidly transformed with a little more effort and the seed for living a life beyond one's self was planted.

I also understood I cherished the freedom that having options gave to me when I started my career and learning that there is more within my control despite the external circumstances. I also saw that across the various organizations I had worked, I was happiest the most when I helped build people or helped customers improve their business structures and systems and deliver sustainable results.Good results came, but it was the fact the people or customers were becoming better, more independent and enjoying the freedom that came from having more options open to them that gave me joy.

Putting all these into consideration and more,I crafted a purpose over 6 months with help from my coach and also tried to make a link with my company's purpose then "Celebrating life everyday everywhere". My life and work became easier because each time spent building a customer or employee  meant I was giving them the chance to celebrate life daily and it became more enjoyable to work despite the challenges of each day. Together with the team, we went on to almost double the business within three years and it felt effortless as it was purpose that was driving my decisions. My decision to move to PZ was driven by the fact I saw an opportunity to live my purpose as the company's purpose of "Making life better" resonated with mine.

To find my purpose, I had to look back into the past and find out things that mattered to me, things I could do even if I wouldn't be paid for it.It's also important to find out if there is a need that you are meeting and if the world is willing to pay for your gift. The ideal is to find a purpose and get paid for living it. The reality is ideal doesn't happen always.Sometimes it takes a while to know what we live for and that can help us manage our current situation whilst we work towards our desired option. You can earn a living doing something else and use the proceeds to fund and develop your purpose.

 I have come to realize over time that if you build your skill level to the best possible level, living your purpose, can generate superior value for you. You only have to realize that there is no profession in the world that doesn't require hard work for you to excel and generate the most value. Having a coach helped, because he challenged me to look inside myself, focus on what i could become and not use the external environment as an excuse. In looking for a coach, find someone who will challenge your thinking, not a "God Father".

Life becomes simpler(the challenges don't go away) when you find your purpose and your choices start to be driven by it. I have realized that a purpose that doesn't go beyond you will not do enough for you. I also have found out that for those who have of faith, God creates more opportunities for you if your purpose is rooted in his purpose.As written in the Bible, "you ask and do not get because you ask with the wrong purpose in mind."

What problems are you living to solve for your family,community, nation or mankind? Who do you have to become in order to live this purpose? My prayer is that you find what you were born to live for and enjoy the freedom that comes from this. Next week, I will share more on finding my purpose and what it is.

Have a great week and God bless us all.

Kind regards,

Alex Goma aka Teranga Lion