FCB #015: Your Purpose

Your Purpose is very important.

Here I speak of your Personal Purpose as well as your Business Purpose.

Hopefully the two intersect and are not mutually exclusive.

Hopefully they are mutually inclusive.

Your business is meant to serve your life, not the other way around.

If you are a servant to your business, it's not working, in my opinion.

But I digress.

Once in a while, the owners and leaders of a company should get away for a formal Strategic Planning Retreat. I've helped facilitate two in the last month. It is an eye-opening process. For me. For everyone involved.

But, again, I digress.

It is as if not more important for you to get away and do your own Personal Strategic Planning Retreat.

To discover:

• Your Why - Why are you here? What is your life's purpose here on earth? Were you made to just live and breathe, to work and play, to build a business or work in a business, or is there something more important for you and your life? Your Why.
• Your Calling - Were you called to do something more special than you have been doing in the past, than you are doing in the present? Were you called to do something more important and special with the precious little time you have left in this life? With the personal gifts you've been blessed with? Your Calling.
• Your Purpose - Is there a bigger reason for your life and all that you have gone through, both positive and negative? Could it be that you are actually an integral part of a larger master plan? If so, do you have an inkling of why you personally were put here on this Earth and what possibly could be the bigger purpose you were meant to fulfill? Your Purpose.

If somehow, this feels kind of airy fairy to you, and you're wondering, "What does this have to do with Calvin's passion for helping small business owners transform their businesses so those businesses can help them and their people live the life of their dreams?"

Well, it's not airy fairy.

It's spiritual.

And, I'm sorry for mixing spirituality with business.

But not really.

We aren't just physical beings.

We are physical, intellectual, emotional, sexual, and, yes, spiritual beings.

Oh, and, yes, some of us are businesspeople beings too!

So, it's all kind of wrapped up together in one big interwoven tapestry.

And to ignore any one part of our multifaceted dimensions is done at our peril.

So, I ask a simple question, ... or two, or three:

• What is your purpose?
• Your Personal Purpose?
• Your Business Purpose?

And, as humbly as I can, I must say that I can't really help you with these questions.

That is beyond my pay grade, my experience, and my skill level.

But I believe that if you will carve out some quiet time, away from the maddening crowd, the answers will start to come to you.

That process of slowing down, getting away, even stopping what seems so important temporally, is very important.

Take that time. Make that time. Get off away. Get off by yourself.

Contemplate the deeper meanings. Of Life. Of Business.

Let the answers come to you.

From beyond you.

The best businesses have a purpose.

The best people have a purpose.

May you find your purpose.

That is my prayer.