Being intentional and purposeful to use your strengths, voice and capabilities to contribute to meaningful change is the source of creating energy and vitality.
Vitality is not the result of life being comfortable and living with ease. Our vitality is the result of choosing to direct our efforts in alignment with care and purpose. To take a chance, feel the tension and know we are alive. It is not the path of least resistance, although sometimes flow happens and synergies emerge. But more often, the way of the purpose-driven changemaker is a course lined with unseen mud pits and often paralyzing resistance.
There’s no guarantee when you decide to take a chance on doing purpose-driven work to affect change that others will want what you offer. Instead, it’s on you to risk it, to be a designer of your path, and to choose to face the muddy mess of uncertainty. The edges you face when you commit to your bold course are personal growth inflection points. As your tenacity grows, and as you deepen your commitment to stay the course, your confidence expands in your capabilities to make change happen.
Leaning into your purpose and carving out a bold and intentional path is the source of creativity, freedom and vitality. You get to choose what you want next, and you don’t have to wait for someone to extend permission for you to share your idea, offer and be a contribution.
I’ve been coaching women entrepreneurs and changemakers for over a decade, and, like them, I’ve faced frequent, if not daily, resistance in the pursuit to bring new ideas and contributions forward. I’ve learned that one of the most crucial barriers we face is falling prey to the external drivers of success and abandoning our desire to lean into our deeper ambition to make a radical contribution. It is so much easier to fall in line, get busy and lose sight of why we started on this path in the first place. The cost of giving up on finding and committing to doing meaningful work is ambivalence, depletion and often resignation. Whether your career ambitions are fizzling or your enthusiasm for your business has flamed out, you are likely in a crisis of purposeful conviction.
I can tell when a woman I am working with has doubled down on productivity to quiet the internal saboteur, stay relevant, or appease their desire to please or keep the peace. I recognize the call to reimagine a different future when they dig to find a connection between their pressing daily agendas and why they do what they do. The drain of daily activities amplifies the disconnect between doing work and doing work that matters. Often this disconnect is paired with a quiet yet persistent niggling that this can’t be it, that you have more to offer. When your unique talents feel untapped or stagnated, it can compound a feeling of ambivalence in your work and invariably robs you of your vitality.
Reclaiming your vitality, creativity and purposeful conviction happens when you connect your care to intentional committed action. While it sounds simple, it isn’t. But this choice is the ride of a lifetime and worth every moment of fear-induced nausea that results from putting up your hand, making an offer and taking a chance. Figuring out what you care about and intentionally taking action to pursue it is laced with potholes. Your purpose can feel evasive and hard to pin down. With so much noise and calendars jammed with activity, it is hard to pay attention to the subtle hints your purpose drops.
To pursue work that has meaning, it’s imperative to pause and find moments of quiet to reflect and listen to what your heart has to say. Be curious and bring awareness to your more resonant, more intuitive knowing. There is no one or right answer, only a deepening awareness of your cares and desire for change. Your purpose can be as simple and as being a gift to others in your business partnerships or leveraging your strengths to find a new solution for food insecurity or by helping your team have courageous conversations, or making someone’s day a bit better.
Shifting from success to meaning and significance is energy-giving, generative and expansive. And, if this year has taught us anything, it’s that tomorrow isn’t a given, and there is an endless supply of complex challenges looking for purpose-driven changemakers to dive in and be a force for good. Make time to listen to longings and nudges of your heart. There is never a better moment than this moment to make a difference with one person, one team, community or the world.
If you’re a visionary woman leader and changemaker and ready to create an impact I invite you to schedule a strategy call and learn more about The Impact Incubator and how we can help you chart a bold course and flourish in 2021.
