What’s Your Purpose Statement?
I am a brand. And so are you.
In case you missed it, we’re living in a super-paced, hyper-connected world. It blows me away to think about how much the world has changed in the past five years. And if we want to stay relevant as professionals we need to keep up pace.
Keep up pace how?
It’s becoming more important to think of ourselves and our careers as brands unto themselves. To set ourselves apart from the hungry pack we need a clear purpose. And, like it does with most successful companies, living with a purpose starts with a purpose statement that defines our mission for the work we do.
A purpose statement will:
• Make decisions easier. You do only what aligns with your purpose. Everything else, forget it.
• Set you apart. People will notice you because you stand for something unique.
• Make you happier. Without purpose, it’s work. With purpose, it’s fulfillment.
• Get you more money. Having a clear life mission shows vision and self-awareness, things companies kill for.
I spent the past week writing a personal purpose statement. Below is what I have (for now. It’s ok if it changes in the future).
That’s it. Something simple to remind me of why I do what I do, re-connect me with my strengths, and act as a vehicle to bring me closer to my goals.
What’s your purpose statement?
BONUS PERSONAL UPDATE
In addition to my day job, I’m also the new Art Director for Minneapolis fashion organization MNfashion. This is a cool opportunity for me to dive headfirst into the fashion world (something I don’t know much about) and contribute to (the underrated) Minneapolis culture. I’m super excited.
Also, I’m enjoying Google+ (yes, for me it’s starting to replace Facebook). Add me to your circles!
Connection is All That Counts
I’m in the business of making things. Websites, videos, brand stories and platforms, presentations, strategies, etc. My time is spent thinking and building; analyzing, then creating. One part dreaming. One part doing.We’re crafting a new and exciting digital world, in the same way city planners and architects long ago began shaping the brick and mortar world that still stands around us.
But of all the things my peers and I make, one is by far the most important, and without it none of the other stuff would be possible, or even worth it.
Connections
When it comes down to it, the most important thing anyone can make is a connection — a real, honest, emotional connection that cuts through the clutter to create a shared experience. I understand you, and you understand me. When this happens, money exchanges hands, contracts are signed, products are purchased and friends are made. When this doesn’t happen we get frustrated and start pointing fingers looking for fault. Usually, when we get stressed or upset at work (or life in general) it’s because we’re interacting with people without actually making a connection.
Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.
–Paul J. Meyer
Every interaction or project is an opportunity to make connections with your:
• Co-workers
• Clients
• Customers
• Community
With no connection, interactions feel like a cheap transaction and no one feels satisfied. But the feeling of a real, human relationship adds a perceived value that leaves everyone feeling good in spite of everything else. We learn from each other and grow.
Make money. Make noise. Make a new friend. Make a great campaign. Make whatever your passion drives you to make. Just remember to make a connection. Because in the end, that’s all anyone remembers.
The Problem With Planning
Over the weekend I visited my parents with my girlfriend and, in typical family fashion, in between grilling dinner and settling down a pack of wild nephews, we played games. Well, we played one game. Speed Scrabble.
Speed Scrabble is a simple game. It starts with cards for each letter of the alphabet spelling out any four letter word, followed by players taking additional letter cards and spelling as many words as they can by placing their letter cards on top of the four letter word, at the fastest speed possible.
It’s confusing to explain. You kind of have to be there.
The point is you are always thinking of new combinations of letters to form new words. When I started playing, I would plan my first word while the cards were still being dealt. I thought this was a good idea because as soon as the game started I would have a new word ready to go. Guaranteed point!
The trouble with this strategy, and planning in general, is that circumstances are always changing. Every handful of seconds there was a new series of letters in front of me, a whole new game, that my initial planning did nothing to prepare me for. I had to think fast.
It turns out that, instead of planning, what worked best was to remain in a flexible state of mind that allowed me to adjust to the always-changing game. Such is life.
Plans are nothing; planning is everything. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
I was a Boy Scout and I will never forget our motto: Be prepared. Great advice, but maybe the best way to prepare is a way we never really considered: meditation.
Maybe taking 10 minutes of silence before your next important meeting will go a long way. Maybe, instead of cramming for tough questions before your next job interview, it’s better to get your mind in a peaceful place and let that energy carry you.
Intuition does a lot to guide us in the right direction, and it speaks loudest when the mind is quiet enough to listen.
Planning can be too loud.
That’s So 2011
What else do you got?
It’s hard to keep people’s attention. People are over it before it even goes public. The world moves just that fast. So how do you design a message that matters? How do you keep your career and business relevant in a fast-paced world? How do you find the job that provides not only security, but excitement?
By creating the future.
We already do. You, me, all of us. The future is only the result of choices we make today. If we want a better, more successful future we need to start building the foundation now. When we as professional creators and communicators stop initiating a new and better world, life gets boring. Not only for us, for everyone our work touches.
The world moves fast. Media moves faster. New media redefines what it means to be fast. Remember this: the tools of our trade are the most sophisticated and fast communications platforms the world has ever known (by an incredibly large margin). Our ideas should do this technology justice. The world will be different when your idea finally comes to life. Plan accordingly. Predict the future, then create it.
Consider how your ideas can drive change over the next couple years and influence:
1) the market
2) the culture
3) the world
If you’re thinking with a 2011 mindset, you’re already behind. The year 2011 is a manifestation of old ideas. The present is already outdated. The ideas we have in 2011 need to set the tone for the years to come and create the reality we will one day live in.
STUCK IN A ROUTINE
Are you sick of your job? Are you following trends instead of creating them? If we don’t take initiative to create the future, we end up in a holding pattern of reaction and routine. Our actions merely go through the motions as dictated by external forces like media, other opinions, and tradition. We start relying on past success and repeat once-revolutionary, now-stale concepts. It’s lifeless; inspiration is gone.
The only way out is bold initiative.
The world doesn’t change. We change and the world follows. We need to take responsibility for our influence.
Thinking outside the box is not enough; start thinking outside time.
2011 is already over.
Where’s the after party?
Stop Working
Our fast-paced, hyper-capitalistic business culture can drive us crazy. Me especially.
I can be a workaholic.
I can be a control freak.
There have been times when I’ve taken the old adage “if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself” a little too seriously.
Sure, this can sometimes be a good thing. It’s necessary to care about the work we put into the world. It’s important to have passion and commitment to the tasks we undertake. But it’s also important to know when to let go, when to sit back and let things take care of themselves, when to exhale and trust that we can’t control everything.
Sometimes our hardest efforts just get in the way of things working themselves out.
Things You Don’t Have To Do
The following passage comes from Frederick Dodson’s inspired work “Parallel Universes of Self” and articulates the wisdom behind non-action and trust.
A common misconception of most people is that they have to take care of and do everything. This is a fear based concept — that life itself will go out of control, and they can’t trust anything to happen by itself. Realize that life will continue working just fine without you. Many things that happen in your life happen by themselves — naturally, automatically. You do not have to control and do everything. You can trust others to do things. You can trust life to take care of things. You can trust synchronicity, which is another word for meaningful, universally orchestrated coincidence, to take care of things. There is an invisible energy orchestrating things, and there is a higher, invisible aspect of you bringing things into your life, a universal manager to whom you can delegate desires.
A world in harmony is much more effective than a bunch of one-man armies.
Start intending, trusting, and collaborating.
Stop working.
James McCrae is a creative strategist, culture addict and writer broadcasting from Minneapolis. 
