The Power of Purpose

Hello sunny friends,

I have been being a learner for the whole of my life and I have been working in business and social sectors for many years. The most valuable lesson that I have learned is the Power of Purpose. 

Oxford dictionary’s definition: “Purpose is the intention, aim, or function of something; the thing that something is supposed to achieve”.

A purpose helps us to be more efficient, more productive, more authentic, and more connected. With purpose, we can live a better life, create more value for the society, and make the world a better place. One common mistake is that we think that the purpose is clear, but actually not. We start learning at school and keep learning as a habit, without knowing why we are learning these subjects, topics, or languages. That is one of the reasons why learning is not effective since students are not engaged and most of the knowledge is not applicable to their real lives. Another example is the repeated frequent meetings, these meetings are on our calendar and we often come to the meeting without purpose. In the end, it turns out that 80% of the meeting contents are not relevant to us. How could we afford to be so inefficient? 

A purpose can also transform every single daily activity. A purpose enables people to bring love into the conversation, talk heart to heart, listen attentively, and have an enjoyable and meaningful time together. Without a purpose, we are not engaged, even in our own lives. For instance, when we are having dinner together, a basic purpose is limited to enjoying the food and having energy for the evening. But when people are not clear about such a purpose, they grasp some fast food, which harms their health, they eat hastily without taking joy in eating, they are angry about what happened today, or worrying about tomorrow, etc. With a clear purpose, they can pick nutritious dishes, and leisurely enjoy a meal. Building closer relationships, enriching understanding are other purposes of eating out together, but when such purposes are not clear, people check their phone, focus on their food, talk without taking into consideration if the topics are relevant for the listeners, and they don’t listen to each other closely. How can we afford to be so surficial? 

So, define a purpose for every learning activity, business project, social events, etc. as clearly as possible. It is the guide for our awareness of where we are and where we want to go. It is the filter for us to make better decisions and perform better actions. It also arouses/ awakens our passion, keeps us motivated and resilient during the progress. And more importantly, it allows us to live a life that we want.