PURPOSE!

Happy Juneteenth!

PURPOSE is the topic and the purpose of today’s new federal holiday is to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Since its first celebration, it has been observed by celebrating African American culture. So I ask, do you have a set intention or purpose for how you might celebrate today?  OR, now that I’ve presented the idea of applying purpose to the day, what might you do that you hadn’t thought of?   Maybe just call African American friends with a holiday greeting? Or support an African American business? .Both, pretty easy to do and adds some richness to their day and your day also, yes??

And back to everyday communications …  how much purpose are you putting into each of your verbal & written communications?   Do you give it any thought?   Do you ever get asked,  “So what’s your purpose?” and really have one or simply answer .. “none!  No purpose!!”

An interesting exercise to try is to pay attention to all you say and/or write within a span of a few hours. Be aware of any “purpose/intention” you apply to the words you say or write.  THEN, take the next few hours to consciously apply “purpose/intention” to the words you say or write.  Take note of any differences in the results of your communications and in how you feel about your own communications.
Let me know what you discover.

Usually we think of applying “purpose” to an overall goal –  what is the objective, what is the target we are trying to reach or achieve.   Then we apply everything to that one longer term purpose.  But, when you start to apply “purpose” to individual actions, amazing things can happen!!

Take the example of setting a purpose to be more supportive of one’s staff, fellow employees and/or friends!   We might set a general goal that sets up activities, invitations, etc.   This is all good.  However, the weakness in just setting a general goat is that the purpose can just subliminally be forgotten in an immediate interaction, conversation, correspondence. When we start consciously setting a purpose to show/provide support within each & every individual interaction/engagement being spoken or written,  our tone, our patience, our words, our results, our satisfaction with ourselves ALL improves.

I challenge you to take this on.  In these present times where emotions are raw, miscommunications take place daily, and many steps forward seem to come with more steps backwards,  we can do our part to contribute value to this world with our immediate interactions..  It simply begins with remembering, i.e. being 100% conscious of our purpose/intention for each and every individual communication we speak and/or write.

Be #communicationsstrong

Here’s to your communications success!

margie