The document provides a series of questions to help individuals and organizations identify their purpose. The six questions address identifying sustainable development goals, telling one's story and history, core values, how friends and family would describe the purpose, what people served need, and sensing how the purpose needs to evolve. Additional resources are provided for further inspiration around identifying life and organizational purpose.

1. Questions to
find your purpose

2. Question # 1
What sustainable
development goal
are you working towards?

3. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/why-it-pays-to-find-your-companys-global-purpose/

4. Question # 2
What is your story?

5. The purpose is often hidden in the stories that a person
or an organization can tell about her / his / its past.
Example
Nestlé was founded to save the life of a baby.
Adapted from:
https://hbr.org/2016/03/4-hard-questions-to-ask-about-your-companys-purpose

6. Question # 3
What are your values?

7. Your purpose is not what you think it should be.
Your purpose is who you can’t help being.
http://hbr.org/2014/05/from-purpose-to-impact/ar/2

8. Further inspiration
http://www.frankcalberg.com/what-values-do-you-have

9. Question # 4
What do people, you love,
say when you tell them
about your purpose?

10. When Kathi shared her purpose statement with her
family and friends, this was their response:
“Yes! That’s you - all the time!”
https://hbr.org/2014/05/from-purpose-to-impact/ar/1

11. One musician described his profound sense of
meaningfulness when his father attended a
performance of his for the first time and finally came
to appreciate and understand the musician’s work.
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-work-meaningful-or-meaningless/

12. Question # 5
What do people,
whom you serve every day,
really need?

13. When writing your purpose, focus on
benefits people get from what you do.
http://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers/ar/3

14. Research shows that individuals tend to experience
their work as meaningful when it matters to
others more than just to themselves.
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-work-meaningful-or-meaningless/
http://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/bildung/auf-die-einstellung-kommt-es-an-1.18170740

15. Question # 6
What are you sensing that
your purpose needs to be?

16. Evolutionary purpose means that people listen and
help the person or organization grow into
what she / he / it needs to be rather than try to
control or shape it based on their preferences.
http://www.reinventingorganizationswiki.com/index.php?title=Evolutionary_Purpose
http://agilitrix.com/2016/04/teal-organization-illustration/

17. Additional sources
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-figure-out-your-life-purpose-2014-12
http://creatingminds.org/tools/purposing.htm
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3060596/to-keep-their-best-millennials-companies-need-a-social-purpose
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/03/01/the-founder-of-21st-century-management-peter-drucker
https://hbr.org/2011/03/todays-innovative-idea-can-ris.html
http://hbr.org/2014/05/from-purpose-to-impact/ar/1
https://www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6120331523838275584
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/purpose-comes-from-within-josh-bersin
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Discover-Your-Purpose-Robert-Holden
http://www.mktgsensei.com/AMAE/Strategy/HBR%20on%20Strategy.pdf p. 48.
http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2014/05/02/3-dimensions-of-purpose
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/how-to-discover-your-life-purpose-in-about-20-minutes
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/finding-purpose-teacher
http://www.wikihow.com/Find-Your-Life's-Purpose
http://youtu.be/R-66hqoNddk
http://youtu.be/0TkEA3awGnc
http://youtu.be/iAZwvTV3CyQ
http://youtu.be/C8RVV57Mj3g
https://youtu.be/iUdhJ_S_z3w