What does it look like to bring purpose into entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship focuses on making money, but purpose is so much more. Mine Dedekoca is a serial entrepreneur. It's her nature to start new businesses, and she has done well for herself in the tech industry. She's also a deeply purposeful individual. There's more to life, she knows, than just making more money. Over time, she's developed interesting ways to incorporate purpose into her entrepreneurship. Mine has developed a series of...
Apr 14, 2021•48 min
The answers that we get in life are related to the question that we ask. We want to be intentional about asking the best questions possible of ourselves. About a year ago, I created a question board in my office to keep my life questions in mind. It's worked surprisingly well. This mini-lesson reviews the power of right questions and describes how to create a question board for yourself. *** Want to connect? Have a question? Just want to say "hi"? Send me an email at bradleywrightphd@gmail.com. ...
Apr 12, 2021•5 min
Purpose isn't just an individual-level activity. Invariably, other people contribute to our development and enactment of purpose. This is especially true with mentoring relationships. Mentors commit to intentionally guiding us in our way. Marcus Goodloe felt lost as an adolescent. Growing up in Compton, California he faced various difficulties. In this context, he connected with various adult mentors--teachers, coaches, and clergy. They invested in him. They gave him the resources, opportunities...
Apr 07, 2021•44 min
A well-known conceptual model identifies three general pathways into purpose. This mini-lesson reviews and expands this model.
Apr 05, 2021•5 min
The subconscious plays a surprisingly big role in our ability to find purpose. How can we cultivate it further? What can we do to better understand our subconscious' guidance. Many years ago, Pam Muller faced a series of personal and professional crises. On a whim, she turned to her dreams to find guidance. This proved to be powerful, so she sought out education and training on dream interpretation. She's now a spiritual director who specializes in teaching people to interpret their dreams. She ...
Mar 31, 2021•50 min
What should we do if we're stuck in a job that doesn't give us purpose? How do we find our way out? Brooke Erol was a successful business executive years ago, but deep inside she knew that it wasn't the right job for her. She embarked on a journey to find a more purposeful career. She found it helping others find their purpose, and she became a life coach. After about a decade of this, she also started consulting businesses on finding purpose as an organization. She brings a wealth of practical ...
Mar 24, 2021•48 min
What does it feel like when we moments of clarity with our purpose? It would be easy to assume that these moments are light and cheery, but in reality they often come amid distress. This mini-episode explores how this works.
Mar 22, 2021•4 min
How does purpose play into leadership? What does it mean to be a purposeful leader? Tony Martignetti is a former business executive who now coaches leaders in finding purpose in their own lives and leading others with purpose. He's written a book and has his own podcast. He uses his experience and wisdom to be a "chief inspiration officer" for others. He makes clear that purpose isn't just for us. We use it to make other people's lives better too-especially through leadership. In this episode, y...
Mar 17, 2021•53 min
What is the relationship between money and purpose? This week's mini-lesson reflects on whether money is necessary for purpose, if it's a by-product of purpose, or if it's a hinderance to purpose.
Mar 15, 2021•4 min
How do we intentionally reinvent our lives into something better? What does this look like when we're over 50? Wendy Marx has had a peripatetic career. She's been a social worker, a journalist, marketer, PR agency owner, and now she's a career coach and branding expert. Along the way she has gathered three master's degrees. This rich experience gives her unique insight in how and why we reinvent ourselves--becoming our better selves both in the workplace at home. Into this she layers in the expe...
Mar 10, 2021•54 min
Do you have a bucket list? You might want to add something similar but far more powerful-a casket list. These are the most meaningful things that you want to bring forth in your life before you die. This mini-lesson explains how to create a bucket list and why it's so powerful.
Mar 08, 2021•2 min
How can we find purpose in a given moment? Mark Mirko is an award-winning photojournalist. He thinks deeply about his craft. His job is to enter situations and capture their essence in a rectangular, digital image. This requires work, patience, and skill as well as a deep understanding of how to engage moments. Mark gives us a deep dive into what it means to be an image maker. The principles for doing this readily apply to creating purpose in a moment as well. In this episode, you'll learn about...
Mar 03, 2021•55 min
Purpose is an intensely individual experience. Yet, we sometimes find more of it by seeing it in others. This mini-lesson gives a simple exercise that takes advantage of the principle of gestalt. Using it, we can look to others to better understand our own purpose.
Mar 01, 2021•3 min
How can we apply the pragmatic effectiveness of business strategy to the pursuit of purpose? Jeff Haden thinks and he writes, and he does a lot of both. He has written millions of words and has had millions of people read them in outlets such as Inc. magazine and his book The Motivation Myth . In all of this, he's developed a keen eye for what matters in life and how to get it done. He joins the School of Purpose for a wide-ranging discussion of both. In this episode, you'll learn about: The imp...
Feb 24, 2021•49 min
Finding purpose happens at multiple levels of awareness. Sometimes rich guidance comes from our subconscious, and the subconscious can speak to us through our dreams. This mini-lesson gives a simple practice for interpreting dreams to find more purpose in our lives.
Feb 22, 2021•4 min
How can we intuition to find more purpose in our lives? Sunil Godse has made a career of studying intuition. He accurately refers to himself as an intuitionologist. With a background in engineering, Sunil takes a rigorous approach to understanding how intuition works. He's interviewed countless people on the topic, and he's even written a book: Gut! He enthusiastically shares both how intuition works in our lives and what we can do to have more of it. In this episode, you'll learn about How intu...
Feb 17, 2021•56 min
The pursuit of purpose is multifaceted. It incorporates not only different aspects of our life but also different ways of engaging knowledge. This mini-lesson reviews the four basic ways of learning about our purpose. Identifying them helps us to use them more effectively.
Feb 15, 2021•4 min
What story will people tell about you after we're gone? Is it a beautiful, powerful, meaningful story? Paul Batura writes tributes and biographies of people who have lived impactful lives. This includes his book Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story. He has a knack for telling stories about what matters in a person's life. These stories point to purpose. Paul and his wife adopted three children and actively advocate for adoption. In this episode, you'll learn about: The power of writing your own obit...
Feb 10, 2021•48 min
What we expect going into a search for purpose affects whether we actually find it. This mini-lesson identifies a common wrong expectation as well as a more helpful one.
Feb 08, 2021•3 min
Can a single event change the purpose in our life? Steve Nelson has adventurous hobbies. Among them is rock climbing. One day, there was a mistake on the side of mountain, and Steve fell off a 100' cliff. (That's as high as ten story building!). Miraculously, Steve survived, but the experience changed him. Relationships with others became more important to him. He became less focused on just reaching ambitious goals that he had set for himself. In this episode, you'll learn about * The relations...
Feb 03, 2021•54 min
How can sacrificing for someone else create purpose for us? Monica Spooner has eight children-six biological and two adopted. Her youngest biological child, Abby, has Down Syndrome. Over the years, Monica has made many changes to her life to love and nurture Abby. In recent years, she created a weaving workshop where Abby and other disabled young adults come together and create beautiful textiles. This gives them--as well as Monica--a joyful sense of purpose. In this episode, you're learn about:...
Jan 27, 2021•47 min
Everyone's path to purpose looks different. Yet, is there a way of answering this question-"How do I find my purpose in life?"-that is helpful to everyone?
Jan 25, 2021•3 min
How can being in a very dark place in our lives into finding purpose? Sarah Jenkins was there. Nine years ago, she was facing five years in prison on a felony charge rooted in her substance abuse. Her life was tragic. Now, she's is clean and sober and thriving. She's found her purpose as a psychotherapist helping others--often with their addiction issues. In this episode, she shares her journey. In this episode, you'll learn about: * The impact of self-image on finding purpose * The need to both...
Jan 20, 2021•49 min
Many people find themselves getting older every year. Some of us have had this happen long enough that we're officially old--at least not young anymore. How does this affect finding purpose? This mini-lesson explores the pros and cons of age when it comes to finding purpose.
Jan 18, 2021•3 min
How can college students effectively find purpose in their lives? They have so many options--which is best? Today's guest is Lily Forand. She is gifted at finding purpose. Though just a sophomore, she has already made courageous--at times risky--decisions to pursue purpose. She turned down acceptance at an Ivy League school because she believed that attending a state university would better fit her discovery of purpose. At 17 she took a gap year to intern for a Senator in Washington DC. She even...
Jan 13, 2021•47 min
Here are three ways of thinking about whether purpose can be intentionally found.
Jan 11, 2021•3 min
Spirituality and life purpose are closely intertwined for many people. This raises an interesting question: Can spiritual practices lead us into greater purpose? Jaime Kucinskas is an accomplished sociologist at Hamilton College where she studies religion, morality, and social inequality. Due to a series of tragedies in her life, Jaime turned to various spiritual practices while in graduate school. From this blossomed an interest in studying spirituality, which she did in an award-winning book T...
Jan 06, 2021•55 min
This week we start something new. Every Monday there will be mini-lessons on purpose. These are short, practical ideas about how to think about purpose and act on it most effectively. Enjoy!
Jan 04, 2021•3 min
When does purpose first show up in our life? Does it span our life, taking different forms at different ages? Holly Woods has made a career of helping other people find their life purpose. She is a coach, consultant, and author. In addition, she founded the group Global Purpose Leaders. Holly's work focuses on what happened in our childhood and how it affects our pursuit of purpose as adults. On one hand, themes of life purpose often show up in childhood, and our task as adults is to remember th...
Dec 30, 2020•50 min
How can reading books and other forms of learning be gateways into finding our purpose in life? Glenn Stanton is the Director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family. He's also a recent convert to Catholicism. Glenn spends his days engaging morally-related social issues that matter deeply to him. He researches and teaches about these issues with speaking and writing. But, he wasn't always engaged. In high school, he was the epitome of an apathetic student. In fact, he didn't re...
Dec 23, 2020•46 min
