A purpose-driven life, really.

If we let our problems define our situation we are unlikely to see the opportunities that come when we focus on “purpose.”  Clarifying our purpose can lift us out of our problems and give us meaning, direction and energy.  ~Robert Quinn

Ten years ago, Rick Warren wrote The Purpose Driven Life, which became the bestselling hardback non-fiction book in history, and is the second most-translated book in the world after the Bible.  I've often wondered how much the name of the book influenced its sales.  Are we all clamoring for purpose so much that we'll collectively catapult a book to the top of the bestseller list if it will give us a glimmer of life with purpose?  I'm certainly not disregarding Warren's writing ability or insights, but that name—Purpose-Driven Life—did it strike a chord with us because we're not quite sure how to get from a life focused on problems to one focused on purpose?

Learning to go from problem to purpose, as Robert Quinn suggests, may be the ideal way for all leaders to start a new year.   

Quinn believes that we need to be asking, "Is it a problem or a disrupted expectation?"  A disrupted expectation is exactly what it states.  In any given situation, we expect things to go a certain way, but sometimes they don't and then we're faced with a different situation, or a "disrupted expectation."  If this really matters to us and it's difficult to close the gap between our expectations and the reality we're facing, then we tend to label this as a problem.  This implies that our response should be to solve the problem or to restore the situation to its expected state.

Solving a problem is a reactive state.  Sometimes reacting is the right thing to do.  If my refrigerator stopped working, then I should react and attempt to solve the problem and restore the frig to its working state. 

But not every situation is a problem to be solved, many times it's really a disrupted expectation and our expectations need to shift.  Quinn quotes Robert Fritz who many years ago suggested that we move to a creative state (as opposed to reactive) by asking the question, "what result do I want to create?"  By refocusing on results and creating, it changes our expectations, creating new purposes.  We're now positioned to take purposed-center action.

I recently discovered a very applicable example for this idea in my own work.  A client suggested a book to me entitled, Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?  In consulting, we tend to focus our thinking on helping clients solve problems.  But, what if I shifted my thinking from reacting, to creating, and asked myself, who do I want my clients to become?  That brings a level of meaning, direction and energy (to quote Quinn) to my work that isn't even in the same ballpark as merely "solving problems."  It puts the focus directly on "what result do I want to create" or purpose.

Rick Warren says that he meets a lot of people who are very smart and say, "why can't I figure out my problems?"  Well, maybe that's the key; what if they are not problems but disrupted expectations.  When I think of people who have risen to great heights of leadership, they are people who are asking, "what are the results I want to create?" and then they move forward with purpose and are lifted out of their problems.  A purpose-driven life?  Yes, really.