Power Words: A Tool to Help Identify Your Purpose
Welcome to a supremely unscientific and non-exhaustive exercise to uncover your purpose 🙂
If you approach this with a light and curious heart, you may find some interesting fodder for self-examination.
What is purpose? An ultimate aim or goal that guides your actions.
Why bother learning about your purpose? Because it will shed light on what you want to be doing and the impact you want to have. This insight applies to the big picture (your sector and type of work) and the details (finding daily tasks that actualize this purposeful word)
Below are some POWER WORDS that link back to various purposes. If one of these resonates with you, consider how you can incorporate more of this in your life. You can bring this purpose to the forefront:
through re-education,
through a pivot to a new role, or
by focusing more on specific tasks and opportunities within your current work.
Your purpose is prone to change. Rather than thinking of purpose as a grandiose, unchanging compass point, think of it as a guideline that will evolve with as you progress.
With the caveat that we are not trying to lock ourselves in to a single path or stream or vocation, let's reflect on the principles and actions that drive you.
Which of the following action-oriented power words appeal to you?
HEALING
You want to repair human bodies and relationships. When you see people in pain, you want to help.
Perhaps this leads you to medical sciences, where you are not squeamish or shy about working with the human body. Physicians, nurses, massage therapists, physiotherapists, and other health-related trades may appeal.
Maybe your healing motivations are directed more toward relationships. In this case, working in therapy, counselling or mediation may appeal.
The ability to heal others involves sitting with them in their pain. If you can be present and support people through this discomfort, you will have a transformative impact on many lives.
CONNECTING
People, people, people! You are a people person. You love the challenges and rich rewards of collaborative work. You enjoy bringing together different groups and individuals to work toward a shared cause.
You are enthusiastic about people coming together, but make sure not to force consensus in your haste to achieve collaboration. You will best fulfill your purposes by learning to listen, especially to the outliers and dissenters If you keep an open mind and facilitate the bridging and connection of differing perspectives, you will forge partnerships, relationships and tactics that meet the needs of many.
Connectors are needed across a range of sectors and trades. You may enjoy a career in project management, negotiation, teaching or hospitality.
CALMING
You love peace, order and a quiet environment. You appreciate opportunities to exercise focus, meditation, precision and reflection.
While you are comfortable being autonomous, be careful not to isolate yourself from others. Your ability to create a calm and tranquil environment can benefit others, so be sure to push yourself beyond your solo comfort zone and incorporate interaction and collaboration in your work and life.
The range of careers for this trait are diverse. You may working in spiritual disciplines, such as clergy, meditation or teaching yoga. Perhaps you prefer careers that allow independence and call for meticulous attention to detail, such as research, archival work, custodial work or website design / development.
WINNING
I recently watched the Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance, which was a great reminder that some people, e.g. Michael Jordan, are driven by success in competition. Even outside of direct competition, they will craft competitive dynamics and narratives to motivate and inspire their best performance.
If this is you, you may thrive in competitive fields like athletics and sales. You may also enjoy adversarial trades like law. You embrace having your performance measured and compared to others.
Your love of winning can make you an asset to an organization. BUT to ensure sustainable benefits to your wins, avoid becoming ruthless or making others look bad to make yourself appear better. The lone wolf high performer is great. But if you find ways to motivate performance across a larger team and support others to achieve at their highest levels, then you will be truly invaluable.
BEAUTIFYING
You have the gift for assembling a perfect outfit or organizing a functional space. You care deeply for visual arts and photography. Or maybe you've always enjoyed make-up and personal care. Either way, you are transfixed by beauty around you -- and repelled by drab, dreary or chaotic spaces.
Appreciating aesthetic beauty is a gift -- if you use your skills to create more beautiful experiences for others. Be careful not to turn your appreciation of attractiveness into judgemental attitudes against those who do not share your inclination and talent for transforming their appearance or spaces. If you can escape getting caught up in shallow notions of beauty, you can help people find their signature style and create timeless work.
Design work will light your fire, including interior design, graphic/web design or furniture design. Fine and visual arts like painting, sculpting and photography may appeal, as may careers in curation or the arts & culture sector. Fashion and costume design, or other work in the performing arts or entertainment industry, will allow many opportunities to flex your skills in creating high impact looks.
COMMUNICATING
You love sharing ideas and conveying information. You pride yourself on your ability to put things simply. Maybe it is through the written word, or public speaking, or video presenting, but you love to communicate with others.
Born communicators can sometimes fall into the trap of talking more than they listen. To become a truly effective communicator, embrace the old adage "Big ears, small mouth." This does not mean silencing yourself, but it means spending more time listening before you speak or craft your message. By tuning into your audience -- what they truly appreciate and engage with -- your communications will land better and reach more people.
If written communication is your forte, careers in journalism, digital communications, marketing, creative writing or public relations will provide many opportunities to put pen to paper. If you love presenting, you may enjoy careers in facilitation, teaching and training. If you are looking to reach big audiences, you can consider broadcast journalism, YouTube or other forms of show biz. Whether it is stand-up comedy or theatre, opportunities to interpret the written word to amuse and impact others will inspire you.
MAKING
You want to work with your hands and build things. Your materials may be diverse - wood, electronics, metal or clay. Your outputs could be equally eclectic - a serving utensil, a building, technology or pottery. Whatever the modality, you want to generate a physical structure that can be used and appreciated. Perhaps you enjoy fixing and repairing old and worn down things so they continue to be useful.
Maybe you also enjoy the intricate processes of planning, or maybe you prefer a more freeform approach, but makers are needed in our society. Those intrigued by the physical and how pieces fit together to form the buildings we live in or the technology that eases our life.
Like the "Discovering" category below, your career will be enriched if you remain curious and stay aware of new resources, approaches and techniques. Keeping your skills sharp will ensure you bring improvements to a wide range of areas.
Makers run the gambit, and can include jobs in construction, high tech or agriculture. Traditional trades (carpenters, plumbers and electricians) are optimal for people who want to make and repair. High tech also requires people with practical skills to advance new tech and craft new tools. Makers may also include trades with more ephemeral but very important outputs, such as chefs, florists/landscapers/gardeners and farmers.
DISCOVERING
You crave novelty. You want to dismantle the status quo and rebuild it in a better way. You want to explore new terrain.
People inclined to discovery push society forward. Their willingness to take risks leads to life-saving and life-improving technology, medication, vehicles and knowledge. Yet you need to be cautious that your love of the new doesn't cause you to dismiss valuable and long-standing knowledge.
Careers in social and scientific research may appeal to those looking to translate knowledge into applied benefits for society. Investigative work in police services, security or intelligence may appeal to some in this group. Others will prefer space and freedom to work independently rather than in hierarchical organizations. Some discoverers are most at home in the natural world, working in biological research and conservation to better understand and protect fragile ecosystems.
MOVING
You have a hard time sitting still. You are comfortable spending long stretches of time on your feet and prefer a job that has you on the move. Movers will find long stretches at the desk stagnating and boring.
This trait encaompasses a huge range of people. Being aware of your strong preference -- or need -- for movement will help eliminate careers where you spend all or most of your time at a desk.
Instead, you may prefer work in a dynamic environment - such as medicine or working with children and youth. Work in the trades that requires travel, varied job sites and physical movement will attract movers. This highly energetic type can thrive in fitness, recreation and athletics.
That's it for our list of power words. I hope this helped you gain insight into what superpowers you can bring to your work and your life.
