Quotes About Purpose

Then-then I'm not going to die? Well, then-crap!-what am I doing here, Anyway?

We do not rightly understand the calling of Abraham unless we see in him the manifestation of God's world-wide purpose of grace.

For some, their map is even an old calling from God that they can't let go of. When you learn new facts about the world and new insight into how God is moving, you must be willing to hear a new calling from God and let Him give you a new map.

I came to understand that while many of us might default to measuring our lives by summary statistics, such as number of people presided over, number of awards, or dollars accumulated in a bank, and so on, the only metrics that will truly matter to my life are the individuals whom I have been able to help, one by one, to become better people.

the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

With every moment of your time, every decision about how you spend your energy and your money, you are making a statement about what really matters to you.

In sacrificing for something worthwhile, you deeply strengthen your commitment to it.

what's most important to you in your career? The problem is that what we think matters most in our jobs often does not align with what will really make us happy.

Each of us may have a different process for committing to our likeness. But what is universal is that your intent must be to answer this question: who do I truly want to become?

You'll see that without theory, we're at sea without a sextant.

Finding Happiness in Your Career The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. —Steve Jobs

If you work to understand what job you are being hired to do, both professionally and in your personal life, the payoff will be enormous.

I wouldn't ever make the decision based upon how much it paid or the prestige," he told my students "Instead, it was always: is it going to give me the experiences I need to wrestle with?

These three parts—likeness, commitment, and metrics—comprise a company's purpose. Companies that aspire to positive impact must never leave their purpose to chance. Worthy purposes rarely emerge inadvertently; the world is too full of mirage, paradox, and uncertainty to leave this to fate. Purpose must be deliberately conceived and chosen, and then pursued.

People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole. It's a profound insight—first popularized by legendary Harvard marketing professor Ted Levitt decades ago.1

The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.

People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole. It's

The type of person you want to become—what the purpose of your life is—is too important to leave to chance. It needs to be deliberately conceived, chosen, and managed. The opportunities and challenges in your life that allow you to become that person will, by their very nature, be emergent.

likeness, a commitment, and a metric—is the most reliable way I know of to define for yourself what your purpose is, and to live it in your life every day.

You can talk all you want about having a clear purpose and strategy for your life, but ultimately this means nothing if you are not investing the resources you have in a way that is consistent with your strategy. In the end, a strategy is nothing but good intentions unless it's effectively implemented.

If you begin to feel that the likeness you have sketched out for yourself is not right—that this is not the person you want to become—then you must revisit your likeness. But if it becomes clear that it is the person you want to become, then you must devote your life to becoming that person.

if the decisions you make about where you invest your blood, sweat, and tears are not consistent with the person you aspire to be, you'll never become that person.

There is a method to the madness. What they have in common is the search for cause.

A man, he told himself, must belong to something, must have some loyalty and some identity. The galaxy was too big a place for any being to stand naked and alone.