I love being a purpose coach! There is nothing like witnessing a Purpose Peep connect with a soulful truth about his or her existence that sets them free.
Free from what?
My clients experience freedom from:
- Being a version of a recipe for success (which means the accomplishment of something on purpose) that does not connect or resonate who the person is, and/or
- Doing all the things and yet all the things do not fulfill them and burns them out, and/or
- Other people’s expectations–family, cultural, society, gender, race, religion and/or
- Survival and existing as a lifestyle. When survival patterns, the things we do to make it through challenging times but are not ended when those times end, they become a way of life when they were meant to be fight or flight responses.
During the first conversation after my clients receive something that disrupts the way they see themselves or how they view their life experiences, they almost always see a connection to an inner truth they knew as a child and departed from it, or see a pattern woven through life experiences with clarity.
In the 2019 Workforce Purpose Index by Imperative, CECP & PWC, 83% of Purpose Peeps know that they own fulfillment in what they do rather than a boss or something or someone outside of themselves and yet it still alludes them. This trend made me wonder, what if instead of building the programs and systems to support adult Purpose Peeps in unlocking fulfillment and their path to purpose, why not invoke a Yes And Strategy?
Yes And Strategies respond to calls to adventure with yes and what else. My what else is focus on the youth, too. What can I do to support a purpose mindset in youth so they do not have to grow up to become clients searching to reconnect with what they understand about themselves as children? Empower the children, too!
Why Empower Children To Be Super?
- Because cultural conditioning and societal norms define the path to an appearance of success rather than the path to authenticity is what builds the walls of the boxes that my clients are enclosed in. These invisible boxes start in childhood.
- There are also varying forms of emotional trauma that cause the boxes to form. When at young ages we develop adaptive strategies to cope with challenging stuff as we grow up these strategies are ineffective but have become habits.
- There’s so much focus on performance and doing, why not intentionally focus on being? Understanding being unlocks expressions of ourselves that inform and impact our doing across roles and situations.
- Our cultural reward system rewards maladaptive behaviors, a lot. Our culture largely, not solely, rewards busy versus impactful, the outward appearance of success rather than inside/out success, role rather than purpose, and fitting in rather than standing out. Unicorns that stand out are largely, not solely, celebrated after they attain a measure of outward success.
And yet A Shift Is Happening
With the growing focus on purpose both individually and within systems of purpose peeps, a new possibility is emerging. This new possibility celebrates being intentional, the path to IKIGAI (reason for being) and the purpose of organizations being redefined to include the soulful aspirations of its people and its contributions beyond product and/or service.
To be a thriving part of this emerging ecosystem, understanding at a fundamental level what makes us come alive, how we connect to the answer to what the world needs from us is a thrilling exploration that I propose begins and is promoted as part of being a child.
A 4 Year Old As a Teacher
I recently read an article about a 4-year-old child who dresses as a superhero who weekly feeds the homeless in a movement that he calls #showlove. How is this possible?
- His father heard his heart. As they watched a news story about a panda being homeless, the father heard his son’s heart melt at the thought of an animal being homeless.
- The father responded to the call of adventure and took his son to a shelter to have an experience. Because his son loved being in service and showing love to his homeless community, Dad decided to make it a weekly event.
- The son realized he really loved showing love throughout his homeless community.
Being Super Requirements
For the son to have the impact and soulful purpose he is experiencing required:
- Presence of the father,
- Response to what the father observed happening within his son, and
- Commitment to his son’s adventures getting to know what makes him come alive. Look at the picture in the article. Do you think he’s alive with purpose?
The Be Your Type of Super Movement
Originally, I designed customizable shirts for my grandchildren for their creative playtime. I wanted them to not only explore what it’s like to be superheroes they know and love, but to also unlock what they know about the emerging hero inside of them. I hold the belief that we all have one or more supers that we can experience during our lifetime, so why not share the shirts with others?
Then I thought, how can I share a discovery experience with younger Purpose Peeps so they can own and celebrate what they understand about being super? My grandson went through the Be Your Type of Super Coloring And Activity Workbook and defined his type of super as being fast. We use what he understands about his super to teach him when to be super and how to create space for his peers to be super too! My granddaughter is super at being, “the finder.” She is extremely observant and we celebrate that about her. Two different children with two very different expressions of being super that have nothing to do with the adults in their village except that we recognize and celebrate what makes them come alive!
My high school-aged son wears the Be Your Type of Super apparel but felt that his expressions of being super were not extraordinary and just ordinary to him (if this were a movie, we would hear the hero theme music). I developed a middle school and a high school version that is appropriate to their developmental needs, aspirations, and experiences These editions support exploration and leverage what they are learning about themselves and how they relate to life through new experiences.
Join The Movement
- If you are a Purpose Peep that identifies with the experiences of my clients and has the fortune to reconnect with your mode of being super, pay it forward and support the next generation in being with their super as it unfolds and reveals the true nature of its power.
- Are you a parent who would like to be more connected to the super adventures of your child or children? Use the workbooks to explore a new way to support our amazing youth.
- Are you a member of the village that supports and empowers our youth? Are you a teacher, counselor, social worker, administrator, daycare provider, ministry or foundation that serves our youth? Consider hosting Be Your Type of Super group events using the workbooks to have shared experiences creating safety to express who they really are while celebrating our youth expressing their soulful truths.
- Do you support our youth in college preparedness? The high school version of Be Your Type of Super is designed to unlock purpose clarity to be leveraged in intentional activities, clubs, and post-graduation pursuits,
Download a sample here.
If you are in the Atlanta area this weekend, August 31 – September, please stop by the AJC Decatur Book Festival! We will be in the Children’s Zone, Booth 623. We have a limited supply of Be Your Type of Super Gear for the parades that kick off the festival.
Dena Wiggins is a Transformational Author, Consultant, Certified Purpose Coach & MBA. She takes an unwavering stand for your purpose. Dena unlocks purpose in sparked Purpose Peeps facilitating businesses and organizations to transform into lighthouses that shine solutions into the marketplace, no matter what. As a Purposed Resultant, she combines her experiences and passion for spark, purpose, and strategy to create impactful solutions that deliver your results that matter. Learn more about her Unlock The Keys To Your Success And Turn Them Into Results® programs and A Life of Purpose® Products that shift your sparks (or ahas) into action at www.denawiggins.com.
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