Keen Insight From A Program Participant

Here's an insight from a participant in a Juggling Elephants keynote that we thought was brilliant. It helps explain the value of focusing on purpose in ALL areas of your life:

I attended your recent Juggling Elephants keynote. It was absolutely fantastic! I've known that we all must have balanced lives. I've also known that we all have a purpose here. Without realizing it, I thought that I had to take care of all of the separate areas of my life IN SPITE of my purpose. In the discussion of 'Juggling Elephants' and reviewing the acts to make sure they contribute to the overall purpose of the circus, that's when I realized that all areas of my life are actually connected to my purpose. Truly a light bulb moment for me! It gives meaning to the thousands of daily details called life!!!

-Debbie Morrison, US Navy CNIC

Bravo, Debbie. You get a big standing ovation from us.

Starbucks-Change In Practice, Not In Purpose

In our training programs we regularly emphasize that while purpose does not normally change, the acts conducted to carry out that purpose often do. A strong example surfaced in the coffee industry last week.

Starbucks introduced "instant coffee." Perish the thought. What about the "experience" of purchasing coffee from a Starbucks location? The baristas who serve you. The ambience... the cool music that is normally playing while you wait for your brew. They already had whole bean coffee you could have at the office or home. Wasn't that enough of a departure? It might seem that they had lost sight of their purpose. Maybe not.

While the unique experience (and some would say taste) of Starbucks coffee is definitely part of their purpose, one must not forget profit as another element of it. With their new VIA line of instant coffees, people can now replicate at least some part of the experience almost anywhere. Their marketing material states: With Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, you can have great coffee anytime, anywhere and any way you want. Also consider this: According to an article in Businessweek, the instant coffee industry outside the US is a 20 billion dollar industry-with no Starbucks presence.

I would imagine that few people will use VIA to supplant the genuine experience, but instead will use it when they can't have the full experience. And that means people will partake of the product MORE often-which means higher profit for Starbucks. And once again, purpose is fulfilled.

On what change to your lineup are you "brewing?" If it will help you better accomplish your purpose, maybe it's time to "pour" it into your lineup.

Focus on Key Values

Focus. Our lives are full of distractions. There are so many opportunities and so many demands on our time. Typically it isn't a matter of not having anything to do but of making the decision of WHAT to do.

Organizations create mission and value statements, tag lines, buttons and badges with a few key thoughts or concepts of what is important and what they want employees to focus on: "Customer First", "DIRTFT" (Do IT Right The First Time), "Save Money," "Clean, Fast and Friendly," "Safety Now" to name a few. When decisions need to be made or some action needs to be taken the organization typically measures the potential response to the organization's focus. Thomas J. Peters & Robert H. Waterman, Jr have said, Excellent companies focus on only a few key business values…. The focus on a few key values lets everyone know what’s important.

Apply this strategy to your life. Do you have a personal mission statement that you measure against your focus? Does the mission statement include each of the 3-rings of your circus? Are you measuring your daily activities and focus against that mission statement? What if we change the Peters/Waterman quote to say, "Excellent individuals focus on only a few key values…The focus of a few key values lets everyone know what’s important". Maybe we need to go as far as creating a button or a badge to remind us: "Super Dad!", "Results Driven", "I Choose to Be Happy", "Physically Fit", "Friend." What would your button say?

The Lottery and Purpose

While checking out some morning headlines I saw a Yahoo article entitled, How to lose 3 million in 6 years. Out of curiosity I read the article and had to laugh. While it highlighted one young lady's fall from riches to almost rags, the article mentioned a larger issue: Why so many lottery winners often wish they had never even played in the first place. They squander such a "rich" opportunity and feel huge remorse that they didn't spend the money more wisely.

In some ways I'd like to have their initial monetary excess for just a few moments, but their plight is similar to many of us. We are given a full day, week or other period of time to accomplish what is most important, but often squander it on less than critical tasks. We allow our choices to be made based on convenience, laziness or the emotion of the moment. And like those lottery winners (now losers) we feel bad that we didn't spend our time and energy more wisely.

The answer for us-like them-is to act with purpose. Making wise investments of our time and energy based on purpose "pays off" in dividends of satisfaction, peace and confidence that we have done the right thing. I bet lots of those lottery winners would like a piece of that kind of action.

The Impact of Purpose-4th of July

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day in the United States, it's a good time to reflect on the value of purpose. We passionately make the point in both Juggling Elephants and in our presentations based on the book that we need to base our actions on purpose. And the Founding Fathers of the United States definitely worked from the perspective of purpose.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence knew they were risking much when they created and signed the document declaring independence from Great Britain. Many were wealthy landowners who knew they would lose their property and money by standing up for freedom. They could lose their lives and the lives of their family members could also be in jeopardy because they stood up for this "soon to be" new nation.

As is often the case with purpose, however, they knew their actions could result in a better life for all people-and 233 years later-we live in the greatest country in the world. One of the most rewarding benefits of acting with purpose is that the impact lives on long after we do.

What about your purpose? Few of us face the risks of our Founding Fathers as we live out our lives. In fact, we can thank them for making it easier for us to live out our purpose. May we never take our freedoms for granted, and may we live lives of purpose that make the world a better place for future generations.

America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.

-Woodrow Wilson