Running your business aimlessly is a great way to get stuck. Oh sure, you’re stuck with a healthy six-figure business, but you’re still stuck. You can tell you’re stuck because the work you’re doing isn’t anything you have a passion for. You don’t like your clients, and you question why on earth you’re even in business.

The problem is that you don’t have a purpose to your work. You have no reason to roll out of bed in the morning other than to pay some bills. That’s not good enough.

If you’re looking for your purpose here are four questions that will help get you there.

1. What makes me breathless

Have you ever had that feeling of breathlessness? You talk so fast that you can’t keep up with your words. People have to ask you to slow down so they can keep up with you. If you’re on the phone and people can’t see your face, they stop you to ask if everything is okay?

What are you talking about then? What leaves you in that state of excitement where you don’t notice how excited you are? What type of projects are you talking about, or what aspect of a project are you talking about?

2. If I had no commitments, what would I choose to work on?

This isn’t one of those times you tell me you’d stay on the beach all day sipping some drink. The type of people that run businesses don’t sit around like that. When you’re sitting around on Saturday and don’t have any client work to do, and the kids are playing what do you do? Which project do you pick up? What activities do you choose in your down time?

Out of those activities, look for a common theme they hold. If you read books, what type of books? What topics do the cover? When I did this exercise, I realized that 80% of the books I read by choice were about business.

3. When I’m at my best, the thing I love most about it is …

When you leave work on a high note, what is that thing you’re excited about? What’s the one activity in the day that makes you smile for weeks or months to come?

I figured out that when I can help someone get new insight into their business problems, I’ll smile about the breakthrough for years. I still smile when I remember helping someone in my mastermind group realize that they were jeopardizing their business with a hobby. The hobby had potential to become their full business. It wasn’t there yet, and if they kept treating it like it was a full business, they’d soon end up with no income to speak of.

Stop and think about the times in your life that you made a difference and you still swell with pride when you think of them. What is it about that situation that makes you proud of your actions?

4. What items do others seek my advice on?

When people call you, what questions are they asking? One of my friends had been laid off his job and was working on getting a new long-term contract. When it came to the negotiation part, he called me to ask for advice about how to approach his prospective employer.

I have another friend that calls me for advice on how to handle different situations in his work from dealing with managers to dealing with union representatives.

When friends call me for advice, it’s about running their career’s and businesses better.

If you go through this exercise, you should have a decent idea of the things that may fit into your purpose. Once you have those, the job isn’t done. You still need to keep refining what you do. As you refine, it will align more and more with the purpose you’ve identified for yourself.

Have an awesome day

Curtis

PS: We cover these questions, and much more, in my 8 Week Business BootCamp. Once you finish that course, you’ll have a handle on your purpose, and know the actions you need to take to start stepping towards it.

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