Know Your Life Purpose & Then Write An Inspiring Story


3E Story Blogathon Post #16 by Tom Grimshaw

For Day 16 of the 3E Story Blogathon, Tom Grimshaw shares how he helps his clients discover their passion and life purpose. He uses very simple yet practical approach which helps people become clear at what is the best contribution they can make to our world.       



At age 23, I became a commissioned salesman. 

In my sales tools there was a graphic that was reputed to be the result of a Harvard study of 100 young men leaving university at age 25 and their path through life. At age 25, most had no idea of what they wanted to do in life, four had pretty clear, unwritten goals and one had clearly defined, written goals. 

The story goes that at age 65, 1 was rich, 4 were wealthy, 5 were still working, 18 were dead and 72 could not support themselves, they would need government assistance or charity to survive. 

No prizes for guessing the punch line, “If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.” 

Did I follow this advice? No. 

Am I the poorer for it? Financially yes. 

But then making a lot of money was not on my basic purpose line and never a goal. 

So, my recommendation to you, dear reader, is this; If you want to attain your goals, work out what they are and write them down, clearly and concisely. 

In order to help you set goals, it is advisable to work out what is your basic purpose. What product it is you would get the most satisfaction from producing. 

A young lad came to do some work for me as a computer programmer. After two days I could see that he would never make it as a programmer. I shared this insight with him and asked him if he knew his basic purpose in life. He did not. I helped him using technique 3 below and within a week, he had embarked on a career much more aligned with his basic purpose. 

Apparently, talent, personality and basic purpose are a package. I sometimes observe that when a person is working on their basic purpose, progress is like a hot knife through soft butter and when they are not, it’s like walking through molasses in winter. 

I have a couple of techniques I use to help people work out what their basic purpose is in life and get them moving in that direction. 

One technique is to get them to list all the talents on the left side of a piece of paper and on the right side, to list their personality characteristics. I then get them to look over the two lists to see what basic purpose that combination of talents and personality characteristics would move them forward. 

Another technique is to look at all the things in the past at which they have excelled or thoroughly enjoyed and get into communication with them about what purpose they had at the time or what purpose would align with that activity. 

Yet another technique is to explain the concept that each occupation has a beingness associated with it (BE), the person performs certain actions (DO) to produce a product (HAVE). For instance Be = baker, Do = bake and Have = bread. 

I then ask them to make a list of 50 occupations. 

That done, I ask them to write next to each occupation what product each produces. 

I then get them to put a line through each that they would not consider doing. 

Similarly, to put a line through each that they are currently not suited or could not get themselves qualified to do by physical or mental capacity, education, funds etc. 

I then ask them to look over the remaining items and put a tick next to the profession-product combinations they would most enjoy doing-producing. 

If there is one occupation or product that they are grossly more interested in than the rest, there's the one that's best suited. And I ask them what purpose creating that product would satisfy. 

Otherwise, I get them to pick a couple of occupations and get into communication with them with the purpose of finding out what the income potential is, the qualifications required to start, the number of positions available etc. 

The more into communication you get with an area, the better you can make an informed judgement. 

Then it becomes a lot easier to set your goal in life directly aligned to your basis purpose.

You will still find times when you lack motivation… … but I’m over my word count. 
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Tom Grimshaw’s basis purpose is “To Understand” 

His secondary purpose is “To bring others up to understanding.” 

His product in life is, “A more aware being.” 

He has interests in software development, making the healthiest food in the world and has written a book on How To Live The Healthiest Life.

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