10 Principles of Purpose for Innovators | Pri 1: Heart and Mind.
What is RIGHT FOR YOU
Heart + Head = action
The goal is to find ways to work from both your heart and your head, collapsing the divisions between these two aspects of yourself in your work as often as possible. It is the only way to achieve what’s called innovation.
Understand that eternity and significance arise when and where the heart and mind intersect to achieve a goal. As the saying goes,
“The longest journey is between the heart and mind.”
It’s not the journey to the depths of the oceans or the far reaches of space that transforms you but the journey into your inner man that determines what you will achieve in the world.
Be More As You Do More
Derive more identity and purpose from WHO YOU ARE than what you do and have or what society expects from you. Your real purpose in life is about being and living more. What remains at the end of your life is the quality and depth of your being. You may lose your possessions and be resigned from what you used to do, but you will still face the man or woman in the mirror. Was it all worth it?
Let achieved goals be about who you are, not a vain attempt to try prove who you are. Vain pursuits are like chasing the wind, they eventually lead to emptiness.
Life and innovation overflow from your identity, as you make a dent on the world. When you embrace the power of your innate potential, your true purpose is born. Who you are on the inside determines who you will become on the outside. The world sees a manifestation of your true self in your decisions and actions.
Complete the following sentence as many times as you want, make bold declarations about who you are, “I am ____________________.” Write them down, repeat them to yourself in the morning and declare them to your soul.
Your realized purpose is about who you become after achieving all you set out to do.
Are you more peaceful, righteous, faithful and hopeful?
Are you more loving? Has something significant changed in your heart and mind?
Have you acquired new wisdom or ways to appreciate life?
Do you have much more of yourself to give?
The purpose of life is to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, and to make some difference in that you have lived and lived well. Ralph Waldo Emerson[1]
Aim to achieve the highest call on your life. Vaclav Havel says
“The real test of a man is not when he plays the role that he wants for himself but when he plays the role destiny has for him.”[2]
Destiny is more than just doing what you want and whenever you want. It is to step up to the plate and do what you were born to do. Your purpose is not something merely discovered, it is something you walk in. It is the legacy you cast in the foundries of active and purposeful day-to-day living.
[1] Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/64541-the-purpose-of-life-is-not-to-be-happy-it
[2] Christina Abby, Flippin’ The Script,(Friesen Press 2013