“When you have ikigai, you don’t need to motivate yourself to get out of bed in the morning. Your passion and purpose will propel you forward.” — Francesc Miralles
You need a reliable way to inspire and energize yourself to play the game of work and life.
I’m going to share 3 Tools of Purpose to boost your productivity and inspire, energize, and power up your day.
Ultimately, you can inspire yourself from the inside out through your purpose.
Purpose is your ultimate renewable source of personal energy.
Without a deep purpose you care about, your days can overwhelm you (let alone, weeks, months, years.)
Life can throw some crazy curveballs and the rug can get pulled from under you.
Fall down 7 times, get up 8. But how do you keep getting back up, better than before?
You need a way to stand up again, fast, and strong.
Your purpose holds the power to help you stand strong when tested.
Let’s start with tool #1…
#1. The Golden Circle
The Golden Circle is from Simon Sinek.
You can learn all about The Golden Circle in Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek.
Your Golden Circle helps you answer the question:
“Why do you do what you do?”
You use your Golden Circle to “Think, Act, and Communicate from the Inside Out.”
For example, my Golden Circles is:
“Advance human potential.”
It taps into the idea that I want to help people get a better chance at their best life.
It’s why I shared stories, strategies, and skills and try to change things in a big way like productivity or innovation or even leadership.
The Golden Circle is one of the earliest and best tools that’s helped me use my purpose as a source of inspiration, energy and drive at Microsoft to change the world for more than a decade.
While I already had done a lot of deep work on purpose, including through the work of Stephen Covey and Tony Robbins, I found the Golden Circle to really help me simplify.
Your purpose doesn’t help you if you have to look it up or if it’s complicated or when you say it out loud, it’s like void of your life force.
Your purpose should flow with your life force and people around you should feel it, too.
#2. MTP (Massive Transformative Purpose)
Sometimes you need something not just deep within yourself, but much bigger than yourself.
You need something that connects at a higher level and taps into the power of The Greater Good.
You need your Massive Transformative Purpose.
Massive Transformative Purpose, or MTP, is from Peter Diamandis (Peter created it in a Tony Robbins Date with Destiny seminar.)
You can learn all about crafting your MTP in the book, Exponential Organizations, by Peter Diamandis and Salim Ismail.
Your Massive Transformative Purpose acts as a north star for individuals and organizations, providing a clear, ambitious, and inspiring goal that drives everything you do.
5 Key Attributes of a Massive Transformative Purpose:
- It is uniquely yours
- It completely inspires you
- Neither narrow nor even technology specific
- Aimed at the heart and the mind
- Declare with sincerity and confidence
Here is an example of my Massive Transformative Purpose:
“To empower individuals to unleash their greatest potential in business and life,
exploring the art of the possible and
contributing to a brighter future for themselves and humanity.”
I use variations depending on the channel I’m in. For example, on LinkedIn, I use a few variations:
“I help leaders change the world.”
“Inspiring the world with innovation.”
“Unleash your greatest leadership potential.”
It reminds me of my mission and makes each day or each moment or each action more meaningful.
As you can imagine, it helps me start my day with a power level that’s hard to beat.
Peter Diamandis has an excellent 10-day exercise over email to help you build a better Massive Transformative Purpose.
You can sign up here:
#3. Kamiya Ikigai Framework
Ikigai is a concept that simply put, simply means:
“What makes our life worth living; the reason we battle on through life.” — Nicholas Kemp
This brings back purpose into the right here, the right now, right under your feet.
The Kamiya Ikigai Framework, or “The Kimaya Flower” is from the book Ikigai-Kan: Feel a Life Worth Living, by Nicholas Kemp.
The Kamiya Ikigai Framework is based on the 7 needs that Mieko Kamiya determined we need to satisfy, in order to feel Ikigai
Here are the 8 needs of Ikigai help you find and practice your Ikigai:
- A sense of purpose
- Life satisfaction
- Change and growth
- A bright future
- Resonance
- Freedom
- Self-actualization
- Meaning and value
Nick added “a sense of purpose” as an eighth need.
I think of the Kamiya Ikigai Framework as a “feel good” framework.
When you explore your ikigai, you rekindle and spark your joy. You rediscover hold hobbies and find new ones.
You pay attention to how the people and activities in your life make you feel or give you energy.
It’s a path of personal enlightenment where you become the bard of your life.
Use These 3 Tools of Purpose to Boost Your Productivity
Your purpose is your ultimate source of renewable energy.
But you need a way to use it.
You can use your Golden Circle, your Massive Transformative Purpose, and your ikigai to renew your energy whenever you need it most.
Use The Golden Circle to clarify your “why,” let MTP guide your big-picture thinking, and apply the Kamiya Ikigai Framework for daily fulfillment.
Dream big, start small.
Remember, the journey to purposeful living is iterative, not instantaneous.
Implement these tools consistently and watch how they transform your approach to challenges and opportunities.
In the end, it’s about making your actions count, fueled by a purpose that resonates deeply with who you are and aspire to be.
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