A career story with a twist

Here's how I lost & regained my purpose.

Movies with a plot twist. I love them.

Primal Fear with Richard Gere and Edward Norton is a great example.

Spoiler Alert...

Based around a murder. Gere plays a Lawyer, Norton is on trial.

You end up believing Norton’s innocence until the end of the story. He reveals his evil side in a sudden turn of events.  

The change makes you sit upright. The hero doesn't win this time and it's confusing.

Our perceptions can change in an instant.

It's shocking. That’s why we like this stuff. There’s a twist. It creates emotion that you don't expect.

How does this apply to your career?

When you realise you’ve lost your purpose at work, it’s a similar feeling. Almost like you’re being slapped around the face. you think: ‘what am I doing here?’ 

Who are these people? Do I know them anymore?

Kind of like that party where you’re standing in a crowd of people. The night is going ok until you realise: ‘what the hell am I doing here?’

The feeling is weird and you decide to jump in a taxi and get out there. Your feelings change in an instant. You make a move. 

These situations are 'awakenings'. When you see the picture for what it is. After you felt another way. 

Back in 2018, I started to question what my career was all about. Why couldn't I enjoy my job like I used to? Why couldn’t I hit any of my bonus targets any longer?

Questioning myself in this way was scary. I had a feeling in my stomach, similar to the switch in Primal Fear. 

I knew I was a good people manager, but my team wasn’t responding to me. I knew I had expertise in recruitment, but I didn’t find it exciting anymore. 

I’d lost my purpose. 

This 'find my purpose' stuff gets banded around a lot, especially by coaches (!), but for me, it was a critical question at the time.

A question that I couldn't answer for another 2 years. But I had to act on the feeling.

I couldn't ignore the twist in my story.

How did I re-find my purpose? 

• First, I set out with the intention to have a purpose in life. A ‘thing that I do’ that gives back to the world and gives meaning to my life. 
• Second, I started to reach out. I read books on personal development, meditated, and even tried a hypnotherapist (this is an interesting story for another day!). 
• And once I knew what I AM NOT, and started to explore ideas of who I wanted to be, I started to TAKE ACTION. Regular, repeated action - in a direction that I wanted to go in. Nothing else. 

Now over to you...

▶️ Do you feel like you have a DEFINED PURPOSE for what you do? 

▶️ How would life change for you if you did live with purpose? 

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