During these unique times, you may be experiencing some emerging truths. These truths bubble up on the inside and shake up our lives. You may be thinking, do I really need any more disruption during a global pandemic and unprecedented social justice uprising, and whatever else is on our watch? It is during these times you can gain clarity on what you take a stand for and tap into what will sustain you during the marathon required for significant change.
Like the lotus flower that grows through muddy waters, these emerging thoughts are unclear, perhaps nudges that something is shifting. And this process does not come with an instruction manual and can be beautifully messy!
During this episode, we have Purpose Peep, Brandon Peele with us. Brandon lives and breathes purpose. Listen as Brandon takes us through some recent inner shifts. We touch on some of the inner work that is happening within us that is shaping our responses to the clarion calls for we hear sounding loudly for change.
Purpose Peeps, there is homework! Apply Brandon’s heart-centered advice to arrive at your authentic and intentional action towards your vision of flourishing.
Brandon Peele (he/him) is a Midwesterner, best-selling author, international speaker, the Vice President, People Science at ion Learning. He has written / co-written 4 books on purpose activation and worked with many organizations to activate purpose-led and inclusive cultures. He has also taught at several universities and has had his work featured in media outlets such as Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and Conscious Company Magazine.
Brandon is a PGI Certified Purpose Guide™, Imperative Certified Purpose Leader™, serves on the Council of the Global Purpose Leaders and has an MBA in Leadership from Columbia Business School. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Stephanie. To connect with Brandon, visit his website www.BrandonPeele.com.
Dena Wiggins (she/her) is a Best-Selling Transformational Author and MBA informed Purpose Doula. She wholeheartedly believes that purpose is the birthright of humanity and intentionally refers to all of humanity as Purpose Peeps. Dena’s sweet spot of service is to transform the many ways of living survival as a lifestyle into the many ways of living thriving lives of purpose. This shift is vital to members of BIPOC communities who have experienced systemic oppression as well as doing our individual and collective parts to the end intentional oppression that is the antithesis of thriving lives of purpose. Her style is to be a voice of shared experience meeting clients where they are on their sacred path to purpose journeys with empowering frameworks reflective of her lived experiences, Divine guidance, and learnings in–spirituality, facilitation, purpose, and strategy–all working in service of clients delivering their purposeful expression into the world. Learn more and grow in connection at www.denawiggins.com.
When the unthinkable happens, we are built to respond in fight, flight, or freeze. Our bodies are wired to slow down, conserve energy, and limit our view to what is right in front of us. Remarkably, when tragedy happens, there are some Purpose Peeps who shift to evolve tragedy into some of the most purposeful action. Somehow they shift to see possibility in the middle of impossible grief.
As we are months into the world’s response to the COVID19 pandemic, many of us are experiencing the extreme stressors of the attack on human life as well as the painful requirements to reduce its impact. During this time, the ailments of our time are revealed in full view as the capacity of the world is too full and stretched to cover them.
During the last weeks, the world mourned with the family of Ahmaud Arbery as we watched the video of his murder amongst intense public outcry. Let me ask the question that is the elephant in the room, does the sparked life matter and exist within such difficult and challenging times? While the world is in survival mode, is thriving an option?
Thanks to a friend sharing his heartbreak about Ahmaud’s murder, I was reminded of a part of my purpose story, my family history, that is so painful I locked it away. Locked away with that pain and trauma is also the story of a family hero who in the face of indescribable pain, weaved an amazing story of love, purpose, and social advocacy.
I am thrilled that The #Sparked Life Podcast’s first interview format features a painfully complex and beautiful purpose story that will help us answer some of the big questions many have during this challenging time of history. Please open your hearts and hear a story of a tragedy that birthed purpose and societal change with Mr. Kenneth Barnes, Sr., Community Leader, Purpose Prize Fellow, Founder of Reaching Out to Others Together (ROOT Inc.) and father. Here how the unthinkable allowed him to coin the term, Chronic Traumatic Stress Disorder™ (CTSD) that built a platform for change in how we view and treat youth who are repeatedly traumatized by gun violence.
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.
Last week was something–actually, the entire month was something. From car breakdowns to weird stuff happening around the house, to creating entire posts that just disappeared like how socks disappear from the dryer to the laundry basket–something was up. The question is what is the something that was happening? What’s the story I would create around the something?
How we relate to the issue, is the issue. – Tori Hartman
Do you go into autopilot when the expectant happens? Do you have a strong fight or flight response? That was my survival hack for most of my life and in a good way until I realized sometimes my survival gets in the way of my becoming.
There are benefits to “keepin’ it moving.” We meet with Divine timing. We show up in boldness, understanding what it really took to get there, you know the things we often do not reveal until the Goalcast Story. We also meet with kairos opportunities that we experience through the lens of synchronicity. Man, those are great elements of a good purpose story.
And then there are times when a bunch of seemingly unrelated things occurs in rapid-fire sequence that cause us to pause. It’s not that the things are necessarily huge, but because of the speed and timing of the events, our survival mode failsafe switch is not activated. This is especially true if we are already a little tired because of recent events, workarounds or unexpected interruptions.
What do possums, computer and software glitches, bees burrowing into external doors, major flooding and outages have in common? Yep, they are events that are distractions. They are distractions from life, our plans, and what we were focused on before they come.
The thing about distractions is that they all have expiration dates. When distractions jump you or pile onto you at one time and at a time when you are already outside of your normal rhythm, they can seem like giants. When this happens, I usually recognize it when I feel that déjà vu knot in my stomach. I learned this is a signal to check out of survival mode and into check-in mode because something beyond distractions is happening.
Prior to adding Pause and Check-in to my path to purpose toolkit, when bombarded with distractions, my old story or scripting would kick in. They sound like, “this always happens when I am on a roll.” “That’s it. I must be on the wrong path.” Or quietly think, “maybe the universe does not have my back or maybe things work out for other people.” Recognizing and healing this script is how I discovered I am passionately for our purposes.
Bombarding distractions reveal our old stories and scripting that are ready to be faced and released. Distractions power up when they plug into our old stuff and commiserate with our old stories or false proof of limitations, Distractions have no power unless we empower them through our responses.
Five days with no internet, cable and limited cell coverage offered the space to witness my old responses to disruptions and decide to unplug. Unplugging took place with a different response. It did not happen immediately. Truthfully, I wore myself out resisting and trying to draw on survival hacks. But when all options failed, I was left with my thoughts. At that point, a squeaky door to myself quietly opened and revealed a new awareness to be with before clarity began to reveal herself.
The next time your version of possums, glitches, outages, storms, and bees comes your way, consider a Pause and Check-in response. See what is really coming up. Distractions are going to happen. Try this analogy when distractions feel like flood and overwhelm to you:
Flip Over – Switch Up Your Auto-Pilot Survival Programming
Float On Your Back – Recalibrate & Meet Possibility
Give Yourself the Space to Recognize What Part of You The Distraction is Attempting To Plug Into
Free Yourself – Unplug And Take Your Power Back
Swim on in Freedom – Rejuvenated & Recharged
Dena Wiggins is a Transformational Author, MBA Resultant, and Certified Purpose Coach. She takes an unwavering stand for your purpose. Dena unlocks purpose in sparked Purpose Peeps who transform businesses and organizations into lighthouses that shine solutions that transform our world. Stay connected, join the conversation, take inspired action.
What are you graced for? After a chance meeting with a sparked Purpose Peep whose light was so incredibly bright that it filled the room, I realized the experience was not just something to revel at, it was unlocking something for me. But what was it?
After recognizing this as a spark experience, I responded by reflecting. Quietly the answer came. I could see what this person was graced for without a business card, without an elevator pitch or a title or letters behind a name. I saw what this person was graced for by how he served–passionately & without reserve. Then, I learned the other stuff that most of us lead with.
But that aha is not the nexus of this episode. We each get to figure out how to authentically extend purpose. Beyond the example of service and within short purpose stories, I observed how it looks to know what you are graced for and give it away. The timing is amazing because I spent a lot of time creating freemiums to serve and get to know Purpose Peeps but what this person was doing was showing up, giving himself away, having experiences like you would not believe which opened doors of opportunity like you would not believe.
In this episode, we unlock what we are graced for, and end in an activity for you to see the “graced for” signposts in your life! Share with other Purpose Peeps and don’t forget to subscribe. Most importantly, share what you are graced for and your experience in doing the work to unlock and leverage it! We are also having an experience of this life lens as our Big Question of the Week in the Purpose Peep Community.
To Your Purpose & Results That Matter,
Dena
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.
Last week I featured a clip of CBS Good Morning about workism in our compilation paper, Connecting With Purpose. As I listened to Derek Thompson succinctly present the case of workism, which he defines as the way work has morphed into a religious identity—promising transcendence and community but failing to deliver, I nodded my head enthusiastically as he shared the symptoms of workism. I recall thinking, “yes, Derek, I am tracking with you!” …Until the conclusion that the intersection of purpose and work translates to seeking the meaning of life from work, which makes the seeker miserable because work is not designed for that and the purpose and work story seems to end there. That’s where Derek and I differ because I know of an additional chapter in the story of purpose and work that is unfolding and it’s a game changer.
Over a decade ago, I became impassioned about the intersection of spirituality and work. At that time the question that sparked me was, “how can I bring my full self to what I do?” I felt exhausted from the ways I compartmentalized my life and believed I had to seek different fulfilling experiences from multiple sources that I felt were easier to unleash my authentic self. I read and studied and tried to make this a mental exercise but it was a soul question and exercise and it took years to figure that out.
I was gifted with the opportunity to work at a consultancy that embraced that exploration in its culture! Talk about manifestation. My employer was a Spirit At Work award recipient and community member allowing me access to living models of intentional practice or being with big questions in an organizational context.
In 2009 like so many workers, I was laid-off.
My bounce back from this lay-off was really difficult not just because of the strains in our economy but because of the importance I placed on this job. I think I developed a slight case of workism in this place of noble pursuit. My case of workism was not about working crazy hours to make meaning of my life but rather how so much of my identity was locked into the work environment that allowed me to explore my big question.
After a challenging couple of years, I realized that purpose, which I define as the fullest expression of who I am (spiritual, savvy, experience, passions, goals) and the authentic service that comes from that knowledge, comes from within me as an ongoing exploration. Whether I am working or not, whether my doing is compensated or volunteered or how I am with my family and community, it all comes from my home center, my knowing who I am and the value I bring that delivers different outcomes in different environments.
When we unlock ourselves, we take ourselves everywhere we go including the workplace.
My lay-off was a gift, a catalyst that allowed me to amplify what I learned. I realize the job that I loved was really my cocoon for transformative growth and post-layoff was time for me to learn my wings and fly. I learned that when I unlock purpose I take that knowing everywhere I go, including the work that I do. It may seem like a slight distinction but the order is everything.
The press that I felt beginning in the early 2000s was the beginning of my awareness of The Purpose Economy, where consumers are purchasing not solely based on the widgets made or products and services provided but on a company’s ability to answer its big question, who it is in its fullest expression. What is its fully intended impact? Like my personal experience of awakening, many organizations are compartmentalized and the shift is moving to an integrated existence. Many organizations are moving from a model of this is what we do, this is how it relates to community and multiple sets of stakeholders to this is what we do, this is why we do it and this is how we integrate what we do with why we do it for a continuum of results that matter.
Source: Making Work More Meaningful: Building a Fulfilling Employee Experience, 2018 PwC, CECP, Imperative
The next chapter of extracting more meaning in life is not trying to wring it from our employment by doing more but rather by bringing our full selves and the expanding knowledge of the value we bring to the organizations we partner with for results that matter. I agree with Derek insomuch as the order matters. Work is not doling out purpose but it can be designed as a purpose-friendly facilitator with measurements including employee-fulfillment and the impact of purpose enrollment between individual, organizational, consumer & community stakeholders towards results that matter.
In this new paradigm, people are leveraging what they know about purpose and gaining fulfillment through intentional doing with purpose clarity. Through this lens, work is a purpose partner and as we shift our jobs, we shift purpose partners. Employers partner with employees in the way it provides opportunities for relationships, impact, and growth, which are the pillars for fulfillment in what its employees do. This is critical as some say we are in a growing Gig Economy.
The next chapter of purpose and work that we are all coauthoring contains external pushes from shifts in our economic environment as well as internal pulls from what many people are experiencing in pursuit of fulfilling and meaningful living. Organizations reside between the economic environment change and the personal internal transformations of its employees. Choosing to be market and employee responsive are good strategic choices for the organization, which are systems of people, and yet the demand is coming from the people in support of what is transpiring within the people.
Dena Wiggins is a Transformational Author, MBA Resultant, and Certified Purpose Coach. She takes an unwavering stand for your purpose. Dena unlocks purpose in sparked Purpose Peeps who transform businesses and organizations into lighthouses that shine solutions that transform our world. Stay connected, join the conversation, take inspired action.