Your purpose lies beyond your work. It is the reason you think you exist. Most leaders do not take the time to really consider their purpose, or they lie to themselves about their true purpose. As a matter of fact, it is easy to put words on a piece of paper claiming your purpose is "to help learners learn" or whatever the latest education fad that is in vogue. Your purpose may be "to help learners learn," but you should only arrive at something like that after a lot of deliberation.Think of Purpose as a 30,000 ft. view of you. Your purpose might be "do good in the world." Mine is "be helpful to people, especially those less fortunate than me." Your purpose might be "spend as much quality time with friends and family as possible." Great. Your purpose does not have to be making world peace...it is your purpose, so there really is no wrong answer!Now you come to Mission. Mission is the planned actions that lead to your purpose. One of my missions is to help school leaders create the conditions for awesome learning experiences for every learner every day. I now have a framework of actions I can take to reach my purpose. The last item is Action...actually doing something. Writing this newsletter every week (for 20 months!) is an example of an action. What are the actions that you do that reflect your mission and lead to fulfilling your purpose?I am available to talk through your purpose, mission, and actions with you...just reply to this email, and we can set up a time to talk.
