Purpose is About Maximising Your Impact
Posted on 4th May 2022 at 15:05
When I started out, I thought long and hard about how I would structure the business. I had plenty of ideas but the word I kept coming back to was ‘Impact’. How could I maximise my impact in the world? Speaking and writing were obvious business lines for me. I have been speaking and writing all of my professional life. They enable me to make best use of my strengths, my experience, and my expertise. However, what was most important for me was their role in my quest for impact; speaking and writing help me share my ideas to the widest number of people while still allowing time to work with individual clients. In investment, we would have called this a ‘barbell approach’. I use my finite resources to focus on opposite ends of the size spectrum; large audiences and 1-1. In more simple terms, I made a choice that enabled my impact.
Impact starts with clarity. In my experience, purpose-led people and leaders are not short on ideas. They see all the needs and problems in their life, industry or the world and can perceive multiple ways to make change. Choosing where to focus attention is the greatest challenge. Impact shouldn’t involve relentless work schedules. If purpose is about change and birthing new ideas into the world; these ideas and the capacity to make change will dry up very quickly in any overworked entrepreneur, leader or individual. Purpose, at its core, requires choice. There were so many business lines I could have added, so many things I am interested in but I kept coming back to the idea of maximising impact. Seeing choices in my life and work through this lens still helps me today.
Maximising impact is also about playing the long game. Longevity is the very nature of purpose. Purpose is always about the long term, your legacy, answering a call to make change, overarching life or business goals. Purpose-led business, projects and pursuits take more effort and, thus, take longer. You can’t take short cuts in your pursuit to be ‘on purpose’. That statement itself infers intentionality. The fact that it is harder is why so many people and companies struggle to embrace true purpose.
This emphasis on the long term necessitates a focus on self-management; how you will action your vision while protecting and conserving your energy. Burnt out people, business owners and leaders diminish their impact. Unrealistic deadlines do not sit in purpose-led business models or lives. You must not get drawn into the hustle of traditional business models and false deadlines. To understand that your approach will be different to what you see others doing. It HAS to be different because purpose and leadership are always about breaking new ground.
Each of us desires to have maximum impact in the world; through our business, our life, and our relationships. Significance is an existential desire and an important pillar when creating meaning in life. Whether you have acknowledged it or not, you have a vision for yourself and your place in the world. Impact is the unique combination of your strengths, your passions, your choices, and your time. How you map them together will define your legacy and what you are here to contribute.
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