In 1962, Clare Boothe Luce, one of the first women to serve in the U.S. Congress, offered some advice to President John F. Kennedy. “A great man,” she told him, “is one sentence.” Abraham Lincoln’s sentence was: “He preserved the union and freed the slaves.” Franklin Roosevelt’s was: “He lifted us out of a great depression and helped us win a world war.*
You don’t need to be the president of the USA, or your local PTA, to ponder this curious challenge. At the core of this one sentence summary is the issue: What is your PURPOSE? What larger than life goal gets you up in the morning and inspires you to want to make a difference? Rather than imagining your eulogy or shortened CV, the one sentence summary of your purpose cuts to the quick of what really matters to you.
In fairness, I think you really have two short sentences.
The first, is the overarching sense of purpose as it relates to your relationship and spiritual journey. What does your soul yearn for? How do you want to be remembered by the people in your life that are your heritage and legacy? What soulful difference do you want to make to them? This sentence stays relatively constant, but how you actualize it changes with time.
The second, less important but still significant, one sentence would relate to your sphere of influence, be that work, family or within your community. For me, that sentence has significantly evolved as my career matured and I more clearly understood the potential purpose of what my career might do, but for others their purpose and goals may look very different. When I started lecturing over forty years ago, I could not have imagined how profoundly I could make a difference to my learners. Similarly, depending on where your sphere of influence resides, the way you can purposely make a difference changes. When you are younger, it can be more of a challenge to define that larger opportunity, but don’t wait until you are in your fifties to articulate your sentence. The clearer and sooner that sentence is written, the more chance you have to see it effectively realised.
As you contemplate your purpose, begin with the big question: What are your two sentences?
Reflection Source: www.Smallercup.org
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*: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink