Opinion | Horan-Kates: Is purpose the same as a goal?

I define purpose as the quality around which you shape your life. It’s your reason for being or why you get up in the morning. Purpose influences goals, but it’s actually broader and deeper. Here’s why!

Purpose is about a direction.  ichard Leider, author of “The Power of Purpose,” says, “Purpose answers the question: what am I trying to do with my life?” It is clearly something beyond your job and encompasses thoughts and ideas broader than any self-serving interests and desires. Leider says “it’s the cradle-to-grave, round-the-clock unifying principle that you organize your life around.” Your purpose is influenced very directly by the values and beliefs that you hold dearest. It’s deeply rooted in us but evolves in its articulation over time. One of your most important tasks as a leader is to uncover what’s already there. 

Goals, on the other hand, are measurable end results that you want by some particular date.  They’re an aim you seek, that when achieved, gives cause to celebrate. Goals are critical to leadership … and to your life. Your goals are those specific things your really want to achieve.

A purpose is much larger than goals because it represents the underpinning of a meaningful life. Being an “on purpose” person is a very powerful asset in any organizational setting. One of Leider’s most influential statements about purposeful people is that they are “doing the work they love, with people they care about, in a place where they belong.” Another approach Leider advocates is the concept of a small “p” that urges everyone to look at important endeavors in the short term as connected to your larger purpose. The small “p” is somewhere between goals and your larger purpose.

Essence is another word that reflects on purpose. What is at the essence of your being or the fundamental nature of who you are? Rick Warren’s extremely popular book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” brings focus to God’s eternal purposes with his very first line; “It’s not about you.” Integrating an earthly purpose with an eternal purpose can be very powerful in creating that meaningful life.   

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To uncover your purpose, begin by examining your history, your gifts, your strengths, passions, callings and ultimately, identifying your legacy. One of the best questions to ask yourself that points toward your purpose is, what do you lose yourself in? What is it that you are obsessing about? 

Once you’ve done much of this thinking, then write out your sense of a purpose statement. The revered management consultant, Peter Drucker, recommends that it should be short, about five words, and certainly no more than can easily fit on a tee-shirt. The Harvard professor, Howard Gardner, says there are three questions people can ask as they are seeking purpose through “good work”: Does it fit your values? Does it evoke excellence? And does it bring you that subjective barometer of engagement – joy? 

Here’s my story about purpose. I started building things when I was about ten. Right behind our house in Detroit was Charlotte Clark Kitchens, a remodeling business that always had scrap wood out back. My mother wanted to get her new stereo equipment off the top of her dry-sink, so I built her a long, really cool stereo cabinet.

When I arrived in Vail in 1974, I had a couch and a bed. That was pretty much it for furniture. So, I decided to build myself a dining room table that I still have today. Shortly after Pam and I were married, we built our own log home — in fact, we’re still building it. Then I was blessed to be involved in helping to launch Beaver Creek. After that, there was the starting the Vail Valley Foundation. Next, Pam and I brought two children into the world and a family was being built. Ten years later, we helped build Vail Christian High School, whose board I chaired and where both of our kids went to school.

I was clearly doing some building, but it hadn’t dawned on me as my purpose until I began to examine this deeper question of meaning. When I blended this revelation with the fact that Detroit was definitely no longer home, and the sense that I didn’t want to be a nomad, moving from place to place, I knew in my bones that Vail was to be my permanent home. I wanted to sink deep roots and allow our children to grow up in the same home. Through all of this, I came to see that I was a builder and my purpose became “building community.”

Then, about ten years later I helped launch the Vail Leadership Institute, whose underlying philosophy, called Inside First, incorporated a spiritual perspective into the leadership process. That caused me to yet again modify my purpose statement. It then evolved into “building spiritually-oriented community.”  That really felt right to me!    

At the high school level, we’ve traditionally asked students to identify their goals for the next few years.  But the author of “The Path to Purpose,” Bill Damon, is an advocate of initiating a dialogue on purpose at home in the teenage years to give focus to whatever on-going learning and development a young person might pursue.

Probably the most important things you can do to develop your purpose is to know your values and beliefs and to follow your passions and dreams. Everything else will fall into place.

Given all of this, how would you describe your purpose?   

This article has been written in connection with our Leaders Network, a membership program offered to the world at large. The author is the President of the Vail Leadership Alliance in Edwards and can be reached at 970-306-3276 or at JohnHoranKates@gmail.com