What do I get/example?
What do I get? uuness1 – finding your flow
In his landmark book, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi shows how flow is essential to happiness. He shows that if you know you are in flow it has a huge number of benefits to your health and mental well being. https://www.headspace.com/articles/flow-state In this state your mind is fully occupied with about 120 bits of information a second. You don’t think about anything else, you are stretched but not beyond your capability. (Normally your mind processes about 40 bits a second)
Most people have never systematically looked at their lives to find and recall flow states. Flow states are often the key to finding your purpose because time flies and you are in a state of natural ecstasy. So how do we find your flow states?
We look at your life as a series of chapters through all of your senses. We use both words and images to look at your life in this way. Since most people don’t systematically do this they often forget things they are good at and moments of flow. We often find people have multiple flow states – and we can find a flow state that rests “above” the individual ones. In addition we normally find that it isn’t the visual sense that helps us find flow but another sense. Here’s an example:
Brian had always felt he’d “missed” his calling. He’d had a successful career as a financial advisor but he’d always been keen on sport. When he did the flow exercise he realised that the smell of a sports changing room sent him into a calm space. He then realised, that as captain of the local football team in his late teens he got a huge buzz out of helping his players “come on” and develop themselves further.
As a result, he realised he had a hidden calling to do this work and he decided he would become a gym instructor for highly motivated but more elderly people, helping them stretch their potential. We’ve summarised Brian’s flow state exercise in words to show his breakthrough. When we work with you we use words and pictures but that will all be explained.
The skill lies in the interpretation of these life experiences, and guiding the individual towards what this really means to them, and where they can take it.
| Playing football in my teens | What did it mean to you? | |
|---|---|---|
|
Sight |
Watching my team play well |
Elation |
|
Sound |
The cheering from the crowd |
Unbeatable |
|
Smell |
The changing room after a game |
Improvement of players |
|
Touch |
The cold air as I was running |
Exhilaration |
|
Taste |
The oranges at half time |
Relief from thirst |
|
Feeling in the stomach |
Excitement |
Feeling alive |
Why do we provide a purpose statement in theory and why is it so powerful? uuness2 an example
A life purpose statement in theory needs to be very accurate. Structurally it needs to state what your internal purpose is, what you will be doing and why that’s of benefit for other people.
Secondly it needs to cover different areas of your life which includes family and friends. A lot of people feel they have “two lives” in that they can’t see how their life purpose connects to their family, in particular, other than providing resources. Let’s deal with this first as it’s a big mistake – feeling like you have one purpose that covers all of your areas, according to our clients, “makes you feel more whole”.
Here’s an example:
We had a client who was an artist. His work statement was “To provide art that allows people to see the world differently, in a way they’ve never seen it before and allow them to shift their own world view making them more open to new possibilities.”
Now one of his challenges was that he felt like two people, he had his home life and his work life and they just felt disconnected. Furthermore, his family didn’t show a huge interest in his work, they “didn’t get it”. By working on his theoretical purpose, he realised he had a gift for helping people shift their perspective. He then realised that this gift could be applied to his family in relation to their problems – his purpose was to give his family new perspectives on problems so they could see different answers. This made him feel much more empowered as a father and as a husband, and it enriched his relationships with his family.
It also meant that his family started to understand his work and as a result, they appreciated him more deeply. In short, this purpose allowed the whole family to feel “bonded” in a way they had never been before.
For some people, if you provide a theoretical purpose, they can connect the dots themselves. For other people, they need help scaling what that looks like in reality and how to scale that ambition. (See uuness3)
Why do we condense your life purpose into one word in uuness2 and uuness3 and uuness4
Our clients use their single word in their lives as a compass. You can treat it like a good friend. It’s much easier to consult “one idea” than hold the full purpose phrase in your head. It’s a great short cut. Imagine if we didn’t have a word for “busy”, every time we were “busy” we’d have to say – “I’m sorry I have many tasks right now and I can’t give you anytime.”
Also, over time your word’s meaning gets stronger, which confirms it’s power for you at deeper and deeper emotional levels. (We can also help embed this by physical activities).
Let’s just illustrate the importance of the word going deeper and deeper. When you first meet someone they are going to tell you their name. Let’s say their name is Julia, at that moment in time, all you have is mental associations with the name Julia – maybe it’s a usual name or not, maybe you associate it with being upmarket or not. However you aren’t likely to have anymore associations than that. The name “Julia” won’t move you emotionally, yet.
Overtime, you get to know Julia – you find she’s kind, funny and inspiring. You go out for dinner with her, with your family or alone and through experience you feel these emotions which you associate with her. Julia has gone from being a “word”, Julia, with “rational” superficial associations, to a word where you are moved when you think of her. “Julia” starts to have an “automatic feeling” which becomes less and less conscious. You don’t need to think about Julia rationally, your associations with her put you in an emotional state.
Your word works in the same way; the more you use it, the more it means to you. As you live your life experience on purpose, you start to realise that the word is real. In the same way that driving becomes embedded and natural after years of practice, so does living in your purpose. The more you use the word, the more natural and embedded the word becomes.
In short – the word helps you be “even more you”, naturally and effortlessly which is the whole point of living a life of purpose; it’s the whole point of uuness.
What’s the power of your single word if it’s done well?
So we create four different types of word depending on the client. As we’ve said, the word is a condensed form of your overall purpose statement. We’ll come to the how in the next section. Let’s go further into the why first. Some words have incredibly powerful and rich associations. Just think of the associations with a word like love, even thinking about it will put you in a strong emotional state. Now compare that with a word like wheel, what comes to mind with the latter might be car wheels, wooden wheels, cogs in machines and many other wheels. But unless you are a “wheel-a-holic”, it won’t put you in an emotional state.
What’s the power of your single word if it’s done well? uuness1 uuness2 and uuness3 and uuness4
The point? Your word needs to put you in an emotionally positive state, in the same way saying I love you or, I feel joy or I feel happy do. Simply saying you are happy often makes us happier. Words have internal power that can impact your biology.
Let’s give one more example to show you this. If it’s a hot day and I say “home made lemonade”, the idea of lemonade is so powerful it starts to make your mouth water. It causes physical changes in your body even though it is just sound waves. So, if you stop and think about it – powerful words change your biology.
Your own word needs to be engineered to have huge power – in the same way a word like love, joy or feeling happy do.
How do we create your life purpose word and what sort of words do we create?
There are four types of life purpose we create:
- We pick an existing word that has huge meaning for you e.g. catalyse
- We fuse the key concepts/words from your purpose statement to create a new word e.g. imagination + curious = imaganious
- We fuse multiple key concepts/words from your purpose statement e.g. influence, persusation, comfort zone and well-being – inpecwell
- Creating a new word that just sums up the purpose statement – uuness, falifar
The science lies in semiotics, which is the science of meaning. We atomise your life purpose statement into fragments/word elements which have the most personal power to you. By doing that – we’re doubling or tripling the emotional power of the overall purpose word we create. As we’ll elaborate on in the process, we ensure we test this word – it’s not a matter of just producing it, it needs to help and guide you across multiple situations.
uuness3 Why do we provide a purpose statement in theory and practice? Why is it so powerful? An example
A life purpose statement in theory needs to be very accurate. Structurally it needs to state what your internal purpose is, what you will be doing and why that’s of benefit for other people. Secondly it needs to cover different areas of your life which includes family and friends. However for many people it’s the scale of ambition that needs to be qualified. And it’s that magic point between stretched ambition, resources and ability that needs to be clearly teased out. So let’s give you an example, here is John’s:
“I exist to solve other people’s problems which they’ve found intractable. I have a gift for finding solutions that other people can’t find. This means I can solve problems for people in business that they have tried and failed to solve. It’s a gift I bring to my family and friends. My gift means I can provide for my family, help them grow up and help anyone I touch resolve the issues in their lives”.
This is a cogent life purpose – it’s clear internally, it’s distinct and it connects John’s home life and work life. By creating this purpose it ensures that John’s life is joined up.
But, here’s the rub and it’s not a bad one:
There are literally millions of people in the world with intractable problems. John is a business coach in Canada. How can he help people in Sri Lanka with the fact that the Government is literally bankrupt, there are constant power shortages and many people in the villages don’t have enough to eat? This isn’t a visible crisis in the world like the Ukraine (as of 2023) or even famines which reach the news.
There are millions of people with intractable problems around the world that John has never heard of. A great purpose should be something clear, but it needs to feel like it has an end point. Many clients we have sort this issue out themselves but for many, the issue is about personal agency.
Ghandhi’s purpose was probably very similar to many small charities in a localised area. Where do you stop and start? How on earth do you ever know if you’ve realised your purpose? And it sounds really easy but in our experience, and forgive us here, but it’s like the stories that a friend of uuness has with helping people find a house.
Solving 'the rub'
So for John, we generated 9 possible futures for him, which scaled his ambition – in terms of reach, geography, category and a variety of other things. Like buying a house, you end
up filtering it down to something that’s stretched, exciting and real.
Most people find they go – this is right.
This is wrong.
I need more of this.
And less of that.
So you start off with purpose in theory. And iteratively refine it to something that’s exciting but real.
With John, this is where we got to:
“I will develop an academy to teach business coaches in Canada my unique approach to solving intractable problems. I will focus on medium size companies who don’t have the resources to employ large expensive consulting firms. I will focus on medium sized companies with a strong qualified ECG component. I will focus on British Columbia and Alberta and find individual business coaches who often struggle to find additional ways to define their offer differently. I will screen coaches to ensure they have the same values as I share. I will ensure they deliver demonstrable ROI. Having trained 50 coaches I will develop on line assets that will allow me to spread this approach but maintained to helping Canada first. Canada is my home and that’s where I feel I want to make a difference.”
To finalise this level of clarity, we needed to look at who and what were the scale of his ambition. We needed to reframe his first level of ambition and evolve it into a second. He wants to create an academy to help other people do this.
This isn’t some skinny business plan or some mission statement. They are normally decided on in one pop. This is about filtering down to absolute accuracy. How many “mission statements” or “business plans” do you know that get left half done?
Why? They don’t translate purpose into reality. Normally, a good idea quickly gets “’too hard” if you don’t have purpose.
Purpose in theory, drives purpose in reality. And purpose in reality needs to be filtered to a point of honesty, real ambition and pragmatism. Once reached, revise.
Here are some example of uuness4 – purpose in theory, and in practice, translated into a visual
In the previous sections we’ve explained why we do what we do. A visual is a powerful anchor to keep you on track. We design it to represent visually what you are trying to achieve.
These examples draw from business leaders, consultants, builders, Real TV celebrities and artists.
Business Leaders
“To be the ultimate method to allow people to save time in life a be more efficient. To help my children be more efficient and therefore more successful at learning. To allow the world to find an easier way to learn things that are important to them and difficult to reach. With the result that more people find their potential much more quickly”.
In practice:
“To be a globally recognised authority in how to increase performance at work. To write three books which will be best sellers in this field, they will be best sellers in Australia and New Zealand. To create a community of 500 people, privately, who are business leaders, who will share this knowledge with their employees. To develop metrics to see how this knowledge improves employee efficiency. To share this learning with family and friends to allow them to apply for opportunities that they didn’t think they could realise. To monitor this community of 500 and my family and friends to ensure this promise of efficiency is having an impact and be able to articulate evidence in real terms that shows it’s real in both “soft” and “hard terms”.
Word – Propower and Ident:
Consultants
In theory:
“To connect people in ways they can’t imagine would be possible to make a difference. To connect people with people they never thought they could reach for mutual benefit. To see this connection set a model for how other people should behave with their connections. To be a role model to teach my family and friends the power of connection for personal benefit and benefit for the world”.
In practice
“To create a new community on line where people are invited on the basis of generosity, creativity, pragmatism and vision. Every member will show how they made a difference financially to the other people in the community each year. They need to show this in dollars and cents. This community will have 200 Members with the power to make a difference in Australia and New Zealand to corporate with a giving agenda. To be at the top of SEO for original, meaningful business connectivity”.
Word – Connectology and Ident:
Builders
In theory:
“To unleash my practical creativity. To provide new outdoor living spaces that people couldn’t dream of which helps them create great experiences for their family and friends which will be talked about. To share my skills with my family to ensure they will be able to do many household maintenance themselves. To use my transferable skills to ensure they will always have practical skills they can rely on for life”.
In practice:
“To take on 25 jobs a year in my local community. Each of those jobs will be with people with the means to create spaces that will get their tangs waging. To be the “go to” Rolls-Royce standard for this type of work in my local community of Sussex. To be the only builder who will offer to help client’s children’s kids with practical skills of woodwork and metail work”.
Word – Creprashare and Ident:
Real TV celebrities
In theory:
“To inspire people, that’s my gift. To take “ordinary people” and allow them to show off their skills to get famous which reflects their skills in cooking. To create people who provide cooking which is both delicious and healthy. To ensure all my the people I touch can understand that their skills can be shared with the world”.
In practice
“To be the go-to person for organisations and media who have new and inspiring ways to make Real TV a method to show new skills in the world that are aspirational. To take on one new project a year which takes Real TV into new meaningful directions. To create a community of ambitious, aspiring and “best in class” people to show their skills online”
Word Cobrio and Ident:
Artists
In theory:
“To create art that allows people a moment to see the world anew. To give people a moment to pause, think of new ideas and see the world in new ways. To inspire the world to see new ways of thinking that will create possibilities they would not have seen without looking at my art. To ensure my family and friends have the eternal gift of looking at the world, the world’s opportunities and the worlds problems from different dimensions”
“To move beyond exhibiting art, to create artistic experiences you cannot get anywhere else. To be able to walk through my art. To display my art in all of the major European cities.”
Word – Exinitio, the Ident in this case, was is an example of exhibition:
