Breakthrough

CHAPTER 6Q4: Tasting Why: Breakthrough Purpose

Once you know yourself and your team, and you are serving the world around you, your breakthroughs are so close that you can almost taste them. We've covered the who, what, and where, but the “why”—why are you playing?—is a deeply personal question. The answer determines how meaningful and fulfilling your breakthrough life will be. In the words of Viktor Frankl, “He who knows the ‘why’ for his existence … will be able to bear almost any ‘how.’”

Your breakthrough purpose is why you exist. It determines what you pursue with relentless consistency at all times. It's what you're driven to pursue even after a day full of disappointments, disagreements, or miscommunications. It is not what you're “sometimes interested” in doing; it is what you have to pursue all the time, in order to feel the most whole. Exploring your confidence, cooperation, and service will lead you to your purpose. What you need to develop now is “relentless consistency.”

Are you someone whom others would automatically characterize as being consistent? Are you consistent in who you are, and in what you stand for? Can others rely on you consistently? Or are you like a chameleon, constantly changing with your surroundings and reacting to whatever the world throws at you like it is bigger than the breakthrough you want to achieve?

The most important player you can be in the NBA, the real gold standard, is the “clutch player.” That's the player who is still focused, ...