Do you know your defining purpose?
For some time, my goal or defining purpose has been to work with as many like-minded entrepreneurs as humanly possible. Not just any like-minded entrepreneurs but those who actually want to take action and implement the ideas needed to work towards their success. I wrote it down 13 years ago. I hadn’t looked at it in about 13 years and not too long ago I was at a seminar, where they had us write down our purpose in life. What is it that drives you? I wrote something down almost verbatim. The reason I know it was verbatim is because I moved offices recently and I moved some boxes and I started going through some things. There it was, in one of those boxes, my defining purpose that I wrote 13 years ago. I looked at it and said, “You have to be kidding me!” I went through the notes I had from the seminar and there they were side by side. Identical!
When you get it right, it doesn’t change. Who you are and why you are doing what it is you do doesn’t change, your defining purpose in life. You have to figure that out for you. It doesn’t have to be a business. You could be a business owner, but it doesn’t have to be about this business. It’s about you, who you are. When I wrote those 13 years ago, I was not in the business of coaching and consulting. I just loved being around like-minded entrepreneurs. I wasn’t even in a mastermind group 13 years ago.
I was just an entrepreneur and knew I felt alone. I didn’t want to feel alone anymore so I was searching for something and thank God I found it. That is part of what this is about.
If you haven’t done this, there’s no time like the present. I hope that you take the time to think about this and write it down. Take it step-by-step and learn more about yourself. As you do, you will peel back the layers of that onion and you are going to learn enough about yourself that as you go through the next piece of the puzzle you will be able to ask really intelligent questions about how they pertain to your defining purpose. This is a great first step to know more of who you are. The next step is to develop your goals and your mission.
This month, we will launch ABR’s new staff training program. The first item on our agenda is to train staff to identify the defining purpose of the law firm, to develop the staff’s own defining purpose and how they intersect.