2. Understanding Your Purpose

What purpose actually is

Welcome back. In Chapter 1, we established that purpose isn't a nice to have for leaders. It's essential for sustainable impact. Now, let's dig into what purpose actually is and how to discover yours if it's not crystal clear yet. This is Chapter 2, Understanding Your Purpose. Let's start with what purpose actually is, because there's a lot of confusion around this concept. Your purpose emerges from reflection, lived experiences, and challenges you've overcome. It feels like clarity, alignment, and truth when you connect with it.

It anchors to your core values, not the values you think you should have, but the ones that actually drive your decisions when no one's looking. Purpose acts as your personal why, the reason behind your choices and commitments. It's not your job title or even your career goals. It's deeper than that. And here's what's important to remember. Purpose is not one size fits all, and it can evolve. If yours feels unclear right now, that's completely normal. Start with your values because they're the foundation.

Reading your calendar for clues

So here's a reflection question that often reveals more than people expect. Why do you spend your time the way you do, and does it align with who you want to become? Look at your calendar from last week. What patterns do you see? Where did you feel most energized? Where did you feel the most drained? Often, the activities that energize us, even when they're challenging, point toward our purpose. So here I'd like you to take a second and go into your course workbook and exercise two and pause the video and take a moment to write down your observations.

And now let me share how this played out for me. I was marketing director at a tech company, climbing the ladder successfully, but I felt increasingly disconnected from my work. When I looked at my calendar, the meetings that drained me most were the ones focused purely on metrics and optimization. The ones that energized me were when I was developing my team members or problem-solving with cross-functional partners. Even tough conversations with underperforming team members didn't drain me the way status update meetings did. And this helped me realize my purpose wasn't about reaching the next level of management. It was about developing people and solving complex problems that mattered. And once I got clear on that, my approach to leadership completely shifted.

Learning from challenges you have overcome

And now, I love this quote here from Helen Keller. True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. This connects to something crucial about purpose-driven leadership. It's not about what feels good in the moment. It's about alignment with something meaningful that sustains you through difficult seasons. I think of purpose as the deep personal driver that shapes your leadership decisions and energy. It's what makes you come alive even when the work is challenging.

So now let's take some time and think about some challenges you've overcome in your life, both professionally and personally. What patterns do you see and what themes emerge? Because sometimes our biggest struggles point toward our purpose. The person who struggled with confidence becomes passionate about helping others find their voice. The person who navigated a career transition becomes committed to helping others through change. So pause here, go into your course workbook, and write down two to three significant challenges you've overcome and what they taught you about what matters to you.

Starting with your core values

And if after taking the time to do those exercises your purpose still feels unclear, don't worry. Start with your values. They're often easier to identify and they form the foundation of purpose. Think about times when you felt most proud of a decision you made, even if it was difficult. What values were you honoring? Think about times when you felt frustrated or disappointed in yourself. What values might you have compromised? Because your values are like a compass. They point you toward your purpose, even when the destination isn't completely clear yet.

So for the next exercise, I want you to list your top five core values. You can see some examples here on the screen that might help you push in the direction. And when you're thinking about your core values, don't think about ones that sound good or that you should have, but the ones that actually guide your decisions when you're under pressure.

So again, go ahead into your course workbook here. This is exercise four. And for each of the five values that you identify, write down a specific example of when you honored it, even when it was costly or difficult. What this does is it helps you identify which values are truly core versus which ones are aspirational. So take some time and really think about what your core values are.

Now, like I mentioned in the last course, purpose isn't something you find once and never revisit it. It's something you discover, clarify, and refine as you grow. The key is starting with honest reflection about what energizes you, what challenges have shaped you, and what values you're not willing to compromise. In our next chapter, we'll take your emerging sense of purpose and turn it into a compelling vision that guides your decisions and motivates action. See you there.