Live With Purpose

Live With Purpose: Creating Positive, Lasting Change, Nathalie Virem, 2016, ISBN 9780692574706

This book aims to help anyone, average person or entrepreneur, to find their purpose in life.

Before starting any journey, personal or physical, you need a starting point. Take a thorough look at yourself. Complete a personality test, like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Ask your friends and family how they perceive you. What are your talents and strengths? What are you passionate about? Does anything make you want to get out of bed each morning?

Be grateful for what you have. If you feel like you have little reason to practice gratitude, start with being grateful for being alive, and go from there. You can't always control your environment, but you can control your reactions to it. Visualize what you want, and ask for it. Don't just do it once or twice, but do it often. Say it in terms of what you want, and not what you don't want ("I want to get healthy" instead of "I don't want to be sick any longer").

Why are you in business? What is the purpose or vision of your business? Please say something other than "to make lots of money". A well-defined purpose channels innovation, and is a force for transformation. Steve Jobs started by answering the "Why" question. It is perhaps best summed up in the slogan "Think Different." Then came "How", the strategy for turning that slogan into reality. After that comes "What" the business will do to achieve that purpose. Does your business purpose align with your personal purpose?

Set a goal for yourself, whether personal or professional. Look at it from many different perspectives, including the Skeptic. Break it up into several smaller goals, and resolve to do one goal-oriented thing every day. If you can't visualize the ultimate goal, don't worry about it. A step, then another step, then another step will get you that much closer to that ultimate goal.

This is a really good book. It is short; each chapter is only a couple of pages long, so it is easy to understand. It is made for busy people, who want just the highlights on how to improve their lives. It is very much worth reading.