Passion and Purpose

This Ebook Helps You Zero In On Your Best Work

I wrote this ebook to help you accomplish meaningful work.

Most entrepreneurs and high performers focus on job fit and doing great work by maximizing their talent usage and continually developing skills. In many cases, passion and zeal for the work and a sense of purpose are sacrificed at the altar of progress and achievement. For others, it’s exactly the opposite situation; they follow their passion in search of purpose and struggle to be fulfilled because the work seems out-of-sync with their skills and talents.

Meaningful work comes from the intersection of your skills and talents with your passions and purpose while being congruent with your values. This is work that comes from a place deep within your heart. But let’s be honest, the internal stuff is often messy and it’s easier to point to the external issues like the workplace or current projects, clients, employees or bosses when it comes to happiness, fulfillment, and blockers to great work. But, your best work comes from the inside out!

The challenge of meaningful work is to make sense of all the amazing things within you, your skills, talents, passion, purpose and values so you can truly bring about your best work.

During an unexpected job loss I found myself reaching out to Justin to help me think clearly about my next steps. I felt like this was a time to clarify who I was and where I wanted to go with my life. During our time together Justin helped me understand the difference between a calling and a vocation, how to define that calling, and then how to work towards that calling. This was important because I reached out to Justin during a time of confusion and I knew that if I wasn’t careful I could end up again in a frustrated and confusing position six months down the road. Justin generously gave an hour and a half of phone time to me each week, but I have to confess that the one exercise that really brought it home for me was the Zero In On Your Work worksheet. It took me about an hour to complete, but afterwards I felt like I had a true vision and a mission for the first time in my life. And I’ve been at this professional thing for nearly two decades. Thank you, Justin.
— Demian Farnworth

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Table of Contents:
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02
Table of Contents. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 03
Introduction, Premise and Key Insights . . . . 04 – 09
Ayn Rand Quote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Identify Character Strengths . . . . . . . . . 12 – 13
Define Purpose and Passion . . . . . . .. . . . . . 14
Define Skills, Talents, Roles & Functions.. . . . . 15
Define Your Audience & Vehicle . . . . . .. . . . . 16
Right A Wrong & Conclusion . . . . . . . .. . . . . 17
Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 18
Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
About Justin McCullough. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 20

Here are some examples of the contents of the ebook.

Helpful information and easy to read formatting.

I will admit, the original version of the workbook was born out of my own necessity to sort out my ambitions and desires for purposeful work. Like many, I searched online for a helpful guide and wasn’t able to find what I was looking for. So I made it myself. That was over five years ago and since then I have gone on to share the message of purposeful work at conferences and have this worksheet used by hundreds of people.

If you’re feeling stuck, burned out, or questioning why all your success at work isn’t giving you the fulfillment you think it should and you really want to find the best way to utilize your skills and talents with purpose – this ebook is a great resource.

Download it today. Simply scroll down and signup in the box below.

Creator’s Manifesto

By Justin McCullough

“Never, never, never give up.” said Winston Churchill.

If you’re like me, and I think you are, you create things.

Important things.
Things with words, images, emotions, and impact. Things with life and heart. Things that are not easy to create. Things that sometimes seem impossibly hard and wildly difficult. Things that cause uncertainty.
creatorsmanifesto2
And, while it’s hard to explain,
something powerful keeps pulling you…

That unstoppable urgency of creation, significance and legacy keeps pulling you.

Like a freight train rumbling forth. Or like a hero rising from within.

Like a hurricane with great force, or a flood rushing in.

You are called forward.

With great urgency you must create.

No. Not for reasons most would think.

Instead, because of something written on your heart, something breathed into your soul.

Like a dream you can’t shake free from.

You must give it all you can.

Its essence simple, true, and unfailing.

Always growing, pushing, urging forward. Once recognized, you cannot temper it.

Like Poe’s raven rap, rap, rapping at your hearts chamber door, you cannot resist answering the call.

It both possesses you and is you.

It fuels you in ways only God understands.

Like a lover to his mate, it consumes you with passion and intensity.

It sparks fire in your heart and puts words in your mouth and purpose in your actions.

It ignites a sense of great conviction and eternal contribution.

It pilfers your chest of experiences and reveals diamonds, joy, and meaning where you mistakenly stored bricks and sticks.

From it, you create.

From it, you share.

From it, bears good fruit.

Not because you seek fame, but instead, because you see significance and legacy.

You see impact and change.

In pursuit of it, you move the world inside you, around you, and beyond you.

On your heart it’s written that there is something great and wonderful within you.

And the choice is yours to make.

From which, you can either wrestle it to exhaustion or triumph in its embrace.

From it, you must create.

So you do.

And you do not stop.

You do not give up. Ever.

If this is you, embrace it.

Legacy, creation, and significance matter so much to me. On a recent post by Demian Farnworth, this clicked into place. We are a lonely bunch, those of us that have this burning desire to study it out, do the research, do hard work, to reach our own level of mastery, and create something bigger than ourselves. To do it boldy, in the open, not hidden away only for ourselves.

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours.” ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Celebrate that great thing within you. It’s the secret to creation and legacy that no one else has.

So I ask, do you have something within you, rumbling forth like a freight train? Feel free to share and discuss below.

(adapted – original photo credit)

Passion Trap

By Justin McCullough

What happens when you do what you love and not what you are made to do?

It’s a simple but life directing question. When you don’t know what you are made to do – your deepest talent, your unique source of power and purpose, then you run free and unfocused being drawn to the many things that have potential, have promise and fuel your passions.

Sounds good right? While this approach looks exciting and makes for great conversation about what you love to do, what excites you and what gets you fired up, you’re not on track to your greatest possible place – the place you were made to reach – not yet at least.

Is this all fairy dust and wishful thinking – perhaps it’s some new age mysticism? No not at all. It’s just that no one talks about what is behind the passion.

Why?

Well, If you are capable of many things, which I suspect you are, and you have several talents and passions, which I suspect you do, then you are at risk. A very big risk of filling your life with passions that don’t stick during tough times, activities that are so exciting today but quickly turn into work when you get more and more of it, and opportunities that turn into obligations with people looking at you saying “I thought this is what you loved to do”?

And this is the passion trap. Getting more and more of what you “love” and in turn feeling more and more stressed or overwhelmed. You may even be making money, spending lots of time, even enjoying the moments being had.

But at some point, you need to grow up (in a good way) and realize that passion is a young man’s game and a young woman’s play thing and it’s a distraction from your greatest work.

The truth is, the talent and passion and the confluence of all that you are capable of can be united and directed like a laser beam. It’s just up to you to see how it’s tied together. Passion, skills, and talents are all the wonderful side dishes to the biggest feast of your life – but it’s not the primary ingredient, it’s not the prized main course. Purpose is.

I can assure you, all those exciting things, all your skills and talents can be multiplied and amplified once you know your purpose – the thing you were built to do. Not just your passion where you source energy, but your purpose where you source fortitude and endurance of action in good and bad times alike.

Once you know what you are made to do, you can infuse all your passions and talents into that purpose. The result is a powerful place of comfort and peace. This means you know why you are doing what excites you – not because the things by themselves are so exciting, but because the purpose being served is so dang important.

Do you know what’s so important, what’s actually driving your passion? Or are you so consumed by your passion that it easily burns out and you lie in wait for the next exciting thing to come along?

Why Only 6 out of 100 People Will Truly Live

By Justin McCullough

Are you following you heart and living your dream? Have you turned your passions into a job or business?

If so, you may be completely off track with your greatest success. Psychologist William Marsten says “94% of people have no definite purpose for their lives”.

We live in a time where passion often wins over everything else.
Passion gives us immediate gratification, immediate pleasure, and one heck of a great story to tell – with tons of energy and enthusiasm. It’s fun!

But, is passion alone worth it?

Take a moment and consider what you are doing with your time:
– 24 hours yesterday (had purpose?)
– 7 days last week (had purpose?)
– 52 weeks last year (had purpose?)
– The last ___ years you’ve been alive (had purpose?)

Pause right now and think on that for just a second. What has your time really been spent on?

Did you see definite purpose in any of those times? If not, what shows promise for tomorrow, next week or next year?

Was it a foggy picture? I sort of hope so, not because I want you to be without purpose, but because only 6% of us have a definite purpose according to Marsten and that means the odds say you lack purpose too and this message is absolutely for you.

Lack of purpose doesn’t have to mean you are entirely unhappy, it simply means that day in and day out you are just making it through the day, going through the motions with no clear vision of your greatest purpose – what you are meant to do, what your greatest role to play is.

This week I’ll be in Nashville to speak at Blissdom Conference on this very topic.

My session is 90 minutes and during this session, I’ll use this worksheet (download 4 page pdf) to bring clarity to how we can center our passions on purpose and create an unstoppable business that magnetizes people and customers to us.

Purpose – A Lofty Topic?

It’s a matter of life and death as I see it. Why?

Because we can go our whole life without truly living fully with intention for greatness and it’s purpose that defines our true meaning in life.

This is not a lofty idea, but a reality. How many movies and stories have we heard about folks questioning the meaning of life and what they contributed to this world?

It’s easy to hide your purpose, but with a little focused effort you can work through your passions, skills and talents, ideal environment and come up with a clear understanding of your purpose.

With the clarity of purpose, you’ll be able to measure all your opportunities against it and ask yourself if today’s schedule, opportunities and projects are or are not advancing your purpose. And you might just discover how far off track you really are. Isn’t that a discovery worth having?

Odds are, you need this NOW not later or you’ll be asking where the time went and what you did with it.

If you’ll be in Nashville this week, come visit me and sit in on my session Friday at 4:30pm.

Are you one of the 94% of purpose-less people?

Living Your Dream

By Justin McCullough

Living Your Dream

When I was a child everyone approved.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my childhood and how my parents and friends parents seemed to encourage me to keep dreaming and using my imagination. I suppose it’s “what you do” when you are an adult listening to a kid. I was always the kid and pre-teen who was mowing yards, selling lemonade, and bartering for money. I was identified as a business minded youngster with imagination and talent with the gift for gab.

From about 10 years old to about 19 years old I heard this line from friends and family: “your so ____ (smart, talented, advanced, wise, etc) for your age”. I heard it so much that I often wondered when I was going to finally be “as smart, talented, wise, etc as my age”. Turns out, for me it was about 28 years old. I still get the ‘wise beyond years’ comments, but otherwise I guess I’ve finally aged enough to match my ideas. I’m 32 now.

The shift.

Reflecting on my life, I spotted a shift where I went from being encouraged to dream to being discouraged by the majority of people around me.

It happened when I fell out of line, out of the status quo, and demonstrated my independence. I was 20 years old and quit my management job at Gateway Computers to start my own web company. Suddenly, everyone around me wasn’t so sure about my entrepreneurial dreams. Why? Because I was actually acting on it, not just talking about it. At 20 years old, this is where I crossed over to the other side no longer a man with potential and promise, but a spectacle for others to watch silently hoping I would fail and continually surprised that I wasn’t.

I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s obvious now, almost no one wants you to live your dream.

Now everyone disapproves.

Unlike my child self, as an adult, any time I ask someone else what they think about my idea, everyone, even the people I trust, love, or respect are quick to tell me how it’s not a good idea. How frustrating and disappointing this is.

The truth and what you can do about it.

If you have a dream you want to make a reality. An idea you want to act on. A goal you want to execute. Do it.

Don’t ask what your family and friends think because they can’t and won’t ever be able to embrace your idea – it’s not their idea, it’s not their passion, it’s not their life, and it’s not safe to them. That’s why you don’t need their input or permission to live your dream.

If this scares you, it should. It means you have to act for yourself and you have be willing to go your own direction regardless of what anyone else thinks. It also means there may not be a safety net below you or a shoulder to cry on. If you dream it, you believe it, then own it and do it. Know that others will judge, discourage, and speak against you because its not their idea, it’s not their passion, it’s not their life, and it’s not safe to them.

A few tips to emerge victorious with your dream.

Don’t give up just because it’s tough
Don’t be afraid to change directions to reach your goals
Cut free from the anchors that hold you back
Surround yourself with people you can learn from (as it relates to your dream).
Put people with experience and passion in places you lack experience and passion.
Be persistent. If you hit a wall, go under, around, through, or connect with someone who has the ability to move the wall.
Be open minded.
Seek out answers and don’t kid yourself to think you have all of them all the time.
Keep moving. Action equals results.
Measure (track, review etc) what you want to achieve or improve.
Don’t keep yourself a secret. Tell others what you want and eventually you’ll find someone who can help.
For as much as you want, be willing to give twice as much to get it.
“No” is not forever. Keep asking.
The experience of failure means more than easy successes so fail often and keep trying.
Appreciate what you do have. It could be worse.
Be willing to share.
Invest in yourself (books, experiences, seminars, whatever it takes).

I’m still dreaming and you can too.

Knowing all this makes it so much easier to dream as an adult.Now, I don’t expect others to embrace my dreams or my ideas and I’m better for it. It also means I don’t fault the ones I love or respect because I understand the fact that it’s just to hard for them to consider my dreams or encourage them.

Keep dreaming and stop looking for permission. Go ahead and step out of line, do something counter the status quo and I’ll see you on the other side.

Passion and Purpose

If this is you, embrace it.

Purpose – A Lofty Topic?

Are you trying to figure out what to do next with your career?