Purpose

“He who has a ‘why’ to live for, can bear almost anything”

Victor Frankl

The French talk about having a ‘raison d’etre’ which literally means ‘reason to being’. The Japanese have a similar concept known as Ikigai. Ikigai is a whole philosophy, but a key part of it holds four key parts as shown below, with the ‘sweet spot’ being in the middle. This Japanese philosophy holds these four key ideas together and helps introduce this section:

• Passions are the things that make you happiest when you have them, and the things you lament the most when you don’t.

• Abilities are the things that come most naturally to you.

• Needs are things that are happening in our world or communities that need some action.

• Wants are the needs that others also value, and are willing to invest time, money and resource into.

Inspirational speaker Simon Sinek says your ‘why’ is the purpose, cause or belief behind what you do and he says it’s essential that any organisation that wants to be successful communicates this ‘why’ to it’s members. I wonder whether it’s also true that for us to be ‘successful’, (or well, or flourish) we also have clarity on our ‘why’? Your ‘why’ will be about your underlying motivations. Your ‘why’ Your changed circumstances might mean these things have now changed since the beginning of the pandemic. They may remain the same.

We hope these resources will help us consider your sense of purpose …