I am convinced that authenticity in people’s accounts of their careers is what sets apart a well-told, memorable and motivating story from one that brings few emotions or ups and downs, and fails to connect. I reached this conclusion after hearing innumerable executives narrate their careers as part of my work and throughout the research for my master's thesis on authentic career narratives.
Throughout my research, authenticity – in turn – has been underpinned by three pillars: reflective thinking (self-awareness), emotional presence, and authoring. With the evolution of the studies – and experiencing the matter in practice – I further examined the pillar on which I found the fewest definitions already elaborated in my bibliography: authoring.
BUT, WHAT EXACTLY DOES AUTHORING MEAN?
It is about playing the role of author of one's own career. It is about the one who writes and the one who is the authority on the stories that forge your path toward an ultimate goal. It’s no coincidence that the words authenticity, authority, and author come from the same root. And authoring as well. The proof of authoring is authority; to know it deeply.
Authoring requires a system of self-governance based on your (intrinsic) values, which guides your career and life decisions to your greater goal, your purpose. This word – purpose – has been used routinely for many years now, but it is still the one that seems most appropriate to define what guides a life with authoring.
Purpose is, in the literal sense, an objective, a resolution, a meaning. It refers to the intention to accomplish something that is at the same time meaningful to the self and consequential to the world beyond the self. Therefore, having a purpose, and being able to communicate it, is one of the main drivers of authoring. And, consequently, of a more authentic self.
“Purpose is the intention to accomplish something that is at the same time meaningful to the self and consequential to the world beyond the self.”
THERE IS NO STORY WITHOUT A GOAL
The first step to authoring is to know what your greater goal is. Although you can express your purpose in different ways in different contexts, a good exercise is to reflect on your story and try to identify a pattern that gives meaning to it. Another way is to investigate why you do what you do and how, or even what the impact you want to make in the world and your contribution are. The strengths and passions you bring to the table no matter where you’re seated. It's what everyone close to you recognizes as uniquely you and would miss most if you were gone. It’s who you can’t help being.
“The first step to authoring is to know what your greater goal is.”
Discovering your purpose requires you to dive deeply into your inner self. Paradoxically, it is difficult to go through this process alone, without the support of a partner who sees and hears from the outside – without judgment – and who will help you identify and discern what you are unable to see, but nonetheless guide your choices. Because we are constantly bombarded with messages about what we should be and do.
Part of the work I do today is to help people on their journey to discover their purpose and express it in a statement that will guide them for a long time in life.
The people who, through my work, I could help discover their purpose were fascinated at the moment in which past, present and future begin to make sense, connected by a common thread that links their entire journey.
Discovering what’s behind the choices helps you do so more consciously from that point forward. My clients report that having a clear purpose helps them making decisions with more conviction, such as saying no to jobs or tasks that are not aligned with what they want out of life and to be more available for what is in keeping with their wishes.
PURPOSE IS NOT CAUSE
A common mistake is to confuse purpose with cause. A cause is, in fact, the expression of the purpose – not the purpose per se. Just as the company should be the place where people express their purpose. Purpose oriented people, when working at companies that allow them to express themselves, are more likely to take on leadership roles, have longer tenures, receive better performance reviews, and promote their company as a good place to work.
They have a higher level of fulfillment at work. They want to feel that the work they do has an impact – whether for their customers, co-workers, company, or for society as a whole. Despite growing discussions in the media, academia and business community about the importance of having a purpose, everyone should effectively encourage each person to actually pursue their purpose, translate it into words, and put it into action, so they can genuinely impact and contribute, and choosing authenticity.
"A cause is, in fact, the expression of the purpose – not the purpose per se."
KNOWLEDGE CHANGES PEOPLE, AND PEOPLE TRANSFORM THE WORLD.
One of my clients, after years of preparation while working his way up the corporate ladder, including earning a PhD, recently became a professor. In the first class, he felt awkward, as he told me later. That feeling of being “blocked” stayed in his head. "Why did I feel like that?" – he wondered for some time. Then he opened his e-mail inbox and came across a message from me, in which I had written a draft of the statement of purpose he had made during our last session together. "That was why I decided to be a professor!" he reminded himself.
So, he modified the whole program and his way of teaching the next class. "In the second meeting with the students, I was myself and I felt good. I knew why I was there and made it clear, even without saying that was my purpose." He described this discovery as an anchor that does not leave him adrift regarding what is most important to him.
All his life, he – like all of us – knew what his purpose was, even though he thought he didn’t. It was there; it always had been. Then, from the moment he made it clear, he moved on, with a new level of understanding, increasingly aligned with what essentially moves him.
“He described this discovery as an anchor that does not leave him adrift regarding what is most important to him.”
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