Truth. Growth. Repeat.

Chapter 17 exercise e: purpose on a page

Okay, now that you’ve done the exercises, it’s time to find the themes that tie them together. Actually, it’s time to have a break and a strong coffee. But after that, ask yourself: ‘What are my answers to those exercises telling me about the motives that are actually driving me? In my role as a business creator/owner … and in my career … and in my life overall?’

The next workout is to condense your responses to those exercises to just one key statement. That’s not easy. You’ve just spent a few hours (or maybe days?) pouring out the unedited contents of your soul. But in order for this to work, it’s essential that you now focus your passion.

What we’re aiming for here is to complete a template called ‘Purpose on a Page’ — that is, a linear description of what authentically motivates you written on one side of one piece of paper. Let me help you edit down your responses to find the most powerful one for each exercise. Then we can fill in the template.

editing your soul

The first task is to go back through all the writing you did in each exercise in the previous chapters and decide on the key thought — the one response in each exercise that most resonates with you. This is always hard, but don’t worry — I’m not asking you to throw away all that valuable soul-searching. You just need to focus. A bow on a ship needs to be pointy, otherwise it takes ages to get where you want to go.

So let’s go through each exercise and see if we can refine ...