Planet on Purpose

Reason #1 to read this book: Your purpose is a highly effective and efficient path to creating an exciting life, a legendary career and a better world. This book will connect you to your life’s purpose and empower you to passionately create a purpose-driven career. I recognize that this is a bold claim and all too often an abused promise by authors and agents of personal transformation. This book is different, in that it attempts to be the most scientifically informed book on the subject to date, and it includes instructions to access a proven online low-cost purpose discovery course (with a 95% effectiveness rate). As you’ll discover in Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7, research from leading institutions such as Harvard and Stanford, suggests that your life’s purpose will add up to seven years to your life, quadruple your engagement at work, increase your fulfillment at work by 62%, increase the likelihood of you being a leader by 50%, and increase your experience of abundance by 47% and love by 31%. In Part One of this book, you will explore what purpose is, what it feels like to discover it, and the overwhelming evidence in favor of putting your purpose to work in your career. You will discover what George Bernard Shaw meant when he said: This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. (Shaw, 1903) As Shaw knew well, purpose is critical to a successful and fulfilling career. The reason for this is the relationship that purpose has to flow (being immersed in a personally meaningful task with short feedback loops and moderate difficulty). A 2013 McKinsey & Co. report established that when executives are in flow, they are 500% more productive (Cranston, Keller, 2013). Imagine getting a whole week’s worth of work done in a day? This powerful upgrade fuels extraordinary leaders, entrepreneurs and enterprises the world over. Purpose is what drives numerous visionaries, like Eileen Fisher (Eileen Fisher Clothing), Elon Musk (Tesla), Oprah Winfrey (OWN), John Mackey (Whole Foods) and Seane Corn (Off the Mat), to change millions of human lives and create billions of dollars of wealth. They continue to create massive change in their industries and yet, these visionaries are but the tip of the iceberg, a few of the more notable members of our one billion-strong inner uprising. Companies and customers all over the world are using this power to lead, succeed and create a world that works for everyone. Companies that lead with purpose, such as Johnson & Johnson and Canon, on average outperform the stock market 15-to-1 (Collins, Porras, 1994), and have a growth rate that is triple that of their peers (McCleod, 2012). These companies leverage the 55% of global customers who choose products that have a higher purpose, all else being equal (Nielsen, 2014). Part Two of this book invites you into your purpose, your inner uprising, with the Global Purpose Expedition. When you go online to register for the Global Purpose Expedition, you will join a global community of purpose awakening leaders and move through numerous highly effective purpose discovery exercises, empowering you to create a life, community and career that express your purpose. As mentioned, 95% of people who completed the Global Purpose Expedition (and its predecessor, the Purpose Challenge) reported a deeper connection to their life’s purpose, and recommended it to their friends and family. They have reported outstanding results including, but not limited to, new purpose-aligned careers, homes and relationships, healing dysfunctional family wounds, losing weight and overcoming addictions. The exercises will give you new insights into your life’s purpose, as well as the fuel to lead and accelerate your career. They will provide you with tools to overcome resistance to living your purpose and empowering you to take consistent action as you move your purpose out into the world. In Part Two, you will explore a roadmap to create a career that expresses your purpose and awakens your Shambhala Leadership. Reason #2 to read this book: This is happening. By virtue of having picked this book up, you are part of a global awakening of people who are finding and living their life’s purpose to create a purposeful life and stepping into their Shambhala Leadership to create a planet on purpose. When you step forward with your purpose, you will actively participate in an unprecedented evolutionary advance in human history, one that I believe has a greater capacity to accelerate human flourishing than that of the Enlightenment. Edelman, a leading global communications strategy firm, has declared that “purpose is the new paradigm” in our global economy. Edelman’s 2017 Trust Survey revealed that 87% of global consumers believe businesses should put at least as much emphasis on social interests as business ones (Edelman, 2017). In the last five decades, we’ve transformed our economy, realizing numerous efficiencies, such as manufacturing operations (1970’s), capitalization structure (1980’s), organizational development (1990’s) and information technology (2000’s). The fifth transformation, in the decade in which we now find ourselves (2010’s), is that of the inner game, connecting the purpose inside of every business person with the purposes of the world’s customers, investors, partners and employees.