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We are all fundamentally the same. We all want peace, loving relationships, a sense of meaning and truth in our lives, and to feel in our autumn years that the world is somehow richer for our presence. So where does this sense of fulfillment come from? And do we have to wait until it’s nearly all over before we realise what is truly important to us?

What’s your Purpose? lets you to find answers to these questions, by helping you to define and live what is most important to you. Purpose is a focus, an intent. What’s your Purpose? asks you, what do I intend to give to the world? Do you wish to leave this planet with things untried, undone and unsaid? In our heart of hearts, each of us wants to live life deeply in Integrity with who we are and our highest vision of the world. Every time we go against this deep sense of knowing and “rightness” we eat away at our own energy source and we become compromised human beings … someone who has settled for less than their best, who has become jaded, tired and believing more in limitation than in possibility.

Purpose is the acupuncture point of Integrity. When we live it, everything that is meaningful to us, our values and our highest beliefs come into alignment and we become the expression of the best part of ourselves.

A friend of mine, who eventually died of Aids, told me the following story: back in the days when it took 6 weeks to get the results of an Aids test, a man was convinced that he had contracted the virus. One of his previous partners was HIV positive so during the 6 weeks that he was waiting, he made lists of all the things he wanted to do with his life: the places he would go, the people he would meet, and those with whom he would make amends. When the day of his results came he was clear about what he wanted to do. It turned out that he had not contracted HIV. He was overjoyed and had his friends round to celebrate. Over dinner he produced his lists and was just about to burn them over the candles when someone asked him what he was doing.

‘I'm burning my lists. I'm going to live now. I don't need them anymore.’

‘But now you know what you want out of life,’ his friend exclaimed.

‘Yes,’ he replied.

‘Then why not live it? If you were going to die in a year you would have lived everything on that list. Now that you have 60 years left you may as well spend your whole life living what you want. That is the most valuable list you could have.’

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I was very inspired by the story. What was really important to people when they faced the end of their life? The answers seemed clear: that they had lived according to their core values, meaning how much love did they give and receive in their life. They also, wanted to feel somehow that the world is richer for their presence. Don't we all want that? What would we do if only we gave ourselves the time and authority? How much of what we truly wish for ourselves do we pursue? And do we have to be on our death beds to know what's important?

What’s Your Purpose? is your map and your guide to finding out your answers to all these questions.

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Discovering my Purpose was the most profound experience of my life… and in some ways, the simplest. I started my love affair with life. Every part of my life improved. I became more settled, confident, creative and most important of all, peaceful. As I was experiencing these changes I continued to work with groups and individuals, delivering presentation skills seminars. I would give participants subjects on which to talk but because of the discoveries I made through living my Purpose, I invited people to speak on what was most important to them. The changes were dramatic. People who had previously been tongue-tied and often terrified of speaking in public suddenly became charismatic, passionate and compelling presenters. Their fears simply dropped away. Was it tapping into their Purpose that was so liberating?

As I experienced more of what I felt now that I’d started living with my Purpose, I knew I wanted to help more people discover theirs. What could be more important or compelling? What would a world of Purpose-driven people be like? ,. Since starting to put my Purpose into action, I have encountered a wealth of synchronicity and a surging tide of coincidence which has deepened my faith and commitment to the actions I’d taken to change my life to an unshakeable degree.

I realised that discovering our Purpose was a key into self Mastery but I had no idea of how that could be triggered in others. I felt it was impractical to suggest to people that they spend three years of their life listening for two hours per day and contemplating their navels. It had taken me a substantial amount of effort to find my Purpose and I had to refine it to be able to pass it on. That's when I found out about geese.

My friend Dani showed me a video one day, called ‘Lessons from Geese’. I had been asked to design a seminar to help a disparate group of individuals with conflicting ambitions. There were 45 executives in all, living and working in different geographic locations - sometimes thousands of miles apart - who were too busy building their own empires to collaborate effectively. How to get them to want to work together as one was going to be a challenge. Just as I was struggling with this, Dani showed me the video. It told me:

The reason why geese fly in 'V' formation is because as each bird flaps its wings it creates an uplift for the one that follows it. This way the whole flock achieve an extra 71% flying range. 71%!

When the lead goose tires it drifts back into the formation and another moves to the lead position so that they all benefit from the extra lift.

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It seemed to me that nature had the perfect model. These birds were working better together than any other human group I had ever met or heard of…. and they have brains the size of olives. ‘If geese can do it,’ I thought, ‘I'm sure people can.’ I based the seminar on the Geese model and found a way of helping all the participants unite behind a common Purpose The seminar was a huge success, and I was on the way to explaining Purpose.

I learned that day, in the seminar, that there is no relationship between Effort and Effectiveness. If you or I were to swim two lengths of a swimming pool we would use much more effort than an Olympic swimmer covering the same distance. The refinement in the Olympic swimmers’ style means that they can get more done with less energy. Their effectiveness is determined by their technique and the relationship between themselves and the element they are in, rather than through effort alone. Harnessing the subconscious exploits the principle that there is no relationship between effort and effectiveness. In our example of the swimmer – he or she glides effortlessly through the water because they are fully at ease with the element they are in; the aerodynamics they cause through the actions of their body. In the same way, the quality of the actions we take through our thoughts and intentions creates greater or lesser effectiveness…. It’s cause and effect. Our ‘water’ is our inner environment. Kicking with our legs is the movement of our conscious and subconscious minds. The movements of our arms, are the pull of our intuition and our quality of intention. Aligning them, bringing them into the same dance brings about this effortless effectiveness.

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In this book we rely heavily on the place where the subconscious mind and the intuition overlap. I call this “The Yes Spot”. It is the acupuncture point of effortless effectiveness. People sometimes have trouble accepting this principle. We innately seem to feel that the best way to succeed at things is simply to work hard at them. However, if we had as much sense as geese, we might understand that there are ways of using our energy to give us great results and which require very little effort. In their "V" formation, for example they put in 29% effort, and get 100% out. If they fly alone, out of Integrity with their highest good, they put in 100% effort to get 100% out. People are the same; if you think of your ‘inner geese’ as the collective point around which all your values collect, when we ‘fly’ with our inner geese out of alignment, we are wasting the best part of ourselves.. Whether collectively or individually, when we focus our efforts around a single Purpose, we accomplish our goals faster and with a greater sense of fulfilment and morale. If greater effectiveness and well-being comes from a single point of focus, how can that principle be applied to us all as individuals? In other words, how do we get our inner geese in order?

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When I asked people the question "what's your Purpose?" they found it very hard to answer. However, when I asked them questions that indicated their Purpose using their creative mind i.e. "What would you do if…." they found it much easier.

So, I put together a series of questions appealing to our imaginations, to help people discover what is most important to them; their values and what they would like to have given in this lifetime. As they knew their answers to be true, their values became aligned and they started to experience the 71% extra lift in their life as their inner geese flew in formation. This 71% extra lift means different things to different people. What would it look like in your life? The head of the "V" is Purpose.

I help people listen to their truth by putting them in touch with what is meaningful to them; their Purpose. The Inner voice is located in the same place as your Purpose. When you find one, you find the other.

Over the time I have worked with my Purpose, I have learned that I am more than my job or the role I play in society. I have learned that as I live and give my values, I become Value-able to the whole. What I do is far less important than the focus and intention that I give to it, that becomes my experience of the world and therefore my life. I am not my job, my home, my relationship, my car. Everything I have and everything I am is an extension of me and the more I live my Purpose the more meaningful my life becomes I have had plenty of money and I have had none, but in the end it is of little consequence. The only thing that matters is the meaning I give to my life. That is my true richness; the life-source of which is my Purpose. Were I my childhood hero, Tarzan, life would be no greater an adventure than the one I am currently living.

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