Find Your Why

In October of this year, I mentioned to my coach that I felt like I needed a change. There was a certain level of satisfaction that seemed missing from my work and life. I had been meaning to start on creative work and suggested I might start on that. She had an idea to take my plan to the next level.

Since it was early October, she suggested I come up with a theme around what I wanted to accomplish by the end of the year. Three months is a great timeframe for cultivating new habits and reaching milestones for larger goals or projects.

We spoke for a while about what I might want to accomplish in the upcoming months. I mentioned I wanted to build a habit around creative work and to rejuvenate the excitement for my career. There was more conversation around the idea of rejuvenation, and that is what I ultimately decided on for the theme of the next ninety days. So started my fourth quarter rejuvenation plan.

I won’t bore you with the details of my goals, as I suspect they will not inspire you to work on your plan for the rest of this year and start of the next. I am going to share an overview of the process I am using, a challenge I encountered, and how I made a huge discovery that changed how I thought about most of what I do.

The Process

The system I am using is a part of Tony Robbins’ RPM system. Specifically, I am using RPM blocks, which help me visually organize actions, outcomes, and purpose in a way that makes each block more powerful than the sum of its parts. If you have experience with any Agile project planning practices, this will seem familiar to you and will include extra distinctions.

Each block consists of three columns. One column contains your specific desired outcome. For example, I wanted to learn something, or do something creative every day by the end of 2019. That was my outcome.

The second column contains the actions necessary for realizing the outcome. Each action has a description such as “Figure out what my interests are.” Actions also have one or more tasks to complete. For example, one of mine was to “Create a list of interests or projects.” Finally, actions have time budgeting information, including how long they will take to complete and when they will be finished. That might look like “2 hours by November 1”.

The last column in the RPM block is the purpose of achieving the outcome. It describes the impact of achieving the outcome and how that achievement will change your life. Who will you have to become in order to make this purpose part of your reality? How will you have to grow?

In many ways, the purpose is the most important part of the RPM block. It provides the focus needed to reach outcomes when obstacles and doubts appear. How many times have you come home from work exhausted, wondering why you kept going back to a toxic environment day after day? Could you find something more rewarding to do with your time? Probably. So why don’t you? In my experience, we stay stuck because we don’t have clarity about why we are doing the things we are doing. When we have deep, powerful meaning attached to our outcomes, we are able to see opportunities that are invisible to us when we are on autopilot.

The Challenge

I have used this system many times over the last few years. For me, the hardest part of completing an RPM block has always been determining a compelling purpose. This time was no exception.

I knew I wanted to do more creative work. Why? Because I knew it would be fun with a purpose. I love to learn new things. Being able to marry creativity with learning seemed perfect to me. Still, it seemed to be a superficial purpose.

When I mentioned that to my coach, she asked me some questions around what learning meant to me. I mentioned that learning always represented the ability to grow and solve new, interesting problems. Everything I learned allowed me to experience the world in a new way. Really, learning was my identity. I saw myself as someone who was a continuous learner.

Then she asked me what it meant to be creative. It took me a while to answer this question. I did not consider myself particularly creative. So this was a step outside my comfort zone. Ultimately, being creative is the ability to express who I truly am. I get to bring more of myself into the world. I get to be a more authentic person.

I thought we were done. I wanted to develop a creative practice so I could solve interesting problems and be a more authentic version of myself. That seemed like a worthy purpose. But there was more.

My coach asked me what it meant to be a continuous learner. Who did I become as a result of continuously learning. I told her learning gave me the ability to continue pursuing my interests. It gave me the freedom to choose new projects to work on without being tied to someone else’s plans or schedule.

She asked me what that level of freedom meant to me. That is when I got goosebumps and my world shifted a bit. I was instantly very clear that one of the highest purposes of my life was to be able to be completely self directed. Developing a creative practice allowed me to solve new and interesting problems in pursuit of realizing greater levels of self direction.

It has been nearly a week since that conversation, and I still have not assimilated all of the things I learned. Now I know what I am looking for as I work on the purpose for the rest of my fourth quarter rujevation outcomes. I hope the process is equally surprising and rewarding.

If you want to know more about using the RPM process, reach out to me on Facebook or contact me here. I would love to help you renew your excitement for the next part of your journey.