YOUR PURPOSE TEST RESULT
“Meaning”
You are here
#Need Senser
#Clear Intention
#A vision that moves people
What Your Result Means
DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU ARE ON THE PURPOSE TEST
You scored highest in “the world needs it”. In fact, you scored so high that in comparison, “you’re great at it”, “you are paid for it”, and “you love it” only seem to play minor parts in your current reality. And that is great, because you have a keen sense for “why” and, in your life, are likely to easily discern the important from the unimportant. You are motivated by interventions that benefit the greater good and, by contrast, have a hard time pulling yourself off the couch for tasks that do not pass your finely tuned impact-filters.
Perhaps you are standing at a life beginning, clearly perceiving a problem (or various?) that urgently needs to be addressed, with no clue where to start. Or perhaps, you’ve been successfully working in your field for years, but are so overworked, underpaid and/or undervalued
that the other elements pale in contrast to the significance you fervently hold onto.
Before you frustratedly gulp down 5 vegan brownies because you “didn’t score higher in the other fields”, please remember that this test is just a snapshot of your right now and does not attempt to establish any kind of typology. In fact, Meaning is a powerful place upon which to build a purpose-driven career. You have a clear sense of direction and the question is how to align yourself with it in sustainable, joy-drenched ways.
Keep reading to see what has held other people back at this stage plus some practical advice for moving forward that I invite you to take with a pinch of salt (and perhaps a good bite of that juicy brownie).
What’s Holding You Back
MEET YOUR BULLSHIT MONSTERS®
No matter which stage you’re at, we all have a little voice in our heads that tries to keep us safe by keeping us un-extraordinary. I lovingly call this self-deprecating chatter “bullshit” and it’s best dealt with by visualising it as coming from a little monster, a bullshit monster!
People who find themselves in Meaning usually encounter Bullshit Monsters® that discount their ability to do anything about the things they care about and enforce any trace of inherent “weltschmerz”, a weary pessimism about the state of affairs in the world.
Wailing Weasel
Meet the Wailing Weasel for instance, who interrupts pragmatic thoughts about getting ahead with your project with intermittent sobbing and sniveling, and dramatically waves its pawed tentacles proclaiming that we’re all doomed and nobody cares. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s focus is to overwhelm you into a sense of powerlessness.
The Forget-you-nots
If you’re in the midst of a project and you’re having a rough patch, you may encounter the The Forget-you-nots, a group of little monsters with very sharp teeth disguised as innocent flora. They are fascinated with humans’ ability to get absorbed in something and like challenging that ability.
They pretend to care about your wellbeing and remind you to “stop and smell the flowers”. They have a valid point, you probably should stop and smell some flowers from time to time. But they insist you smell all of them instead, and when you do, you’ll completely lose track of what you are doing and come to your senses between three to nine hours later with a focus hangover.
IF YOU THINK BACKWARDS SIDEWAYS AND UPSIDE DOWN, HOW CAN YOU CREATIVELY BRING PEOPLE AND RESOURCES TOGETHER TO BENEFIT THE CAUSE YOU CARE ABOUT?
WHAT COULD A CRAZY CAMPAIGN IN THIS DIRECTION LOOK LIKE?
WHAT KIND OF TALENT WOULD YOU NEED BY YOUR SIDE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN?
WHAT KIND OF APPEAL WOULD YOU HAVE TO PUT OUT THERE, TO MOTIVATE THE KIND OF PEOPLE YOU’D NEED TO STAND BY YOUR SIDE?
What to do?
First off: Have you been taking care of yourself? Because you’re not going to be much use to the world if you don’t!
Other than that, people who are at the Meaning stage sometimes have trouble with taking action, because they have the ambition to address the core of very large issues, which can lead to overwhelming to-do lists. It’s important to remember that your voice is a powerful tool, if you dare to use it and that you can significantly affect people within your sphere of influence, equipped solely with what you have.
Rather than considering the issues you care about from a giver and receiver perspective (which is one that will often fall short because you could easily stop in your tracks if you feel you don’t have the funds/power/connections), it may make sense to think indirectly: An interior designer who cares about the disappearance of our rainforests doesn’t necessarily have to drop everything they’re doing to mount Amazonian barricades. Instead, they can sell sustainable bamboo chandeliers, of which 10% of the profits go into reforestation projects.
Consider approaches and small actions just like that. A small initiative well-implemented is more impactful than a world-changing idea that was never put into practice.
And now what?
Go and be your brilliant purpose-driven self. You are on your path even when it doesn’t feel like it!
Plus, I’ve got your back. I’ll be in your email inbox in the next few days to help you contextualise your results and put them into action.
All you have to do is give me permission to land in your inbox by confirming your subscription. If you can’t find the email, check your junk folder and whitelist me.
With ease and confidence,
Anaïs
Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll be getting
Why asking yourself “what’s my purpose?” is one of the most useless ways of going about working with purpose (even if you really want to know)
What to do instead
How to deal with Bullshit Monsters® when you meet them out in the wild (procrastination, fear of ridicule, perfectionism - I’ve got you covered!)