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Aligning Your
Life’s Work
Mike Brown  September 2014

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Blog: www.Brainzooming.com
Email: mike.brown@brainzooming.com
Twitter: @Brainzooming
Phone: 816‐509‐5320

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Balance 
State of equilibrium
Equilibrium 
No forces for change

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Alignment 
Deliberately arranging
all things for consistency with your
purpose and priorities.

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Exploring
Supporting
Aligning to
Drafting
Your Core Purpose

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And as Andy Warholsaid . . .
"It's not that my philosophy is
failing me, it's that I am
failing my own philosophy.
I breach what I preach more
than I practice it.”

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Core Purpose in Business
To give ordinary folk the chance
to buy the same things as rich
people.
To make global
commerce work by
connecting people,
places, and
information.
To solve unsolved
problems
innovatively.

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Core Purpose for an Individual
What matters
The long‐lasting impact from why you’re here
A target for alignment

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Exploring your Core Purpose

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What things
motivate you to
get up and get
out of bed
daily?

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In what ways
are you of the
greatest service
to others?

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What brings you
happiness and
contentment?

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If you didn’t
have to work,
how would you
spend your
time, talents,
and attention?

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At the end of
your life, what
things will make
you smile when
you look back?

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Exercise
Note three or four thoughts for each of the core purpose questions.
There’s no time for an exhaustive list – just your first impressions.
We’ll pace you through the questions.

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Exploring your Core Purpose
What things motivate you to get up and get out of bed daily?
In what ways are you of the greatest service to others?
What brings you happiness and contentment?
If you didn’t have to work, how would you spend your time, talents,
and attention?
At the end of your life, what things will make you smile?

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Recap
Were any questions easier or harder than others?
Did you surprise yourself with any of the answers?

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Supporting yourCorePurpose
Values and Spirituality
Perspectives and Goals
Authenticity

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Values and Spirituality
WW
WYTYATHTYCEO
D?

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A Basics Checklist
 Demonstrate integrity.
 Exhibit a passion to serve others and make them
successful.
 Treat people nicely, be friendly & smile.
 Take responsibility for mistakes & fix things quickly and
correctly.
 Look for ways to personally improve something each day.

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What are your Rocks?
What gets your attention first?
What is the focus of your time?
What ALWAYS happens?

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Perspectivesand Goals

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Look for Long Lines
http://www.musictheory21.com/jae-sung/internet-lecture/documents/chopin_prelude-op28-no4-01.gif
How long will it last?
How long will its impact endure?
How much can I influence it?
Does it REALLY matter today?

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Strategic Patience

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Quick, Vital StrategyQuestions
How do we
expect to
accomplish it?
What do
we want to
achieve?

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When You Hita Wall
What else is possible?
Next best ways?
Redefine success?
A different path?
What IS working?

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Authenticity

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The Stress of Crooked Lines
“Some have a style
that they
work hard to refine,
so they walk a
crooked line.”

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Aligning to your Core Purpose
Talents
Attention
Service and Leadership

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Talents Come in All Types

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What functions,
talents, and skills
do you use in your
professional life?

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What functions,
talents, and skills do
you use in your
family relationships
& duties?

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What functions,
talents, and skills
do you use in your
personal interests,
hobbies, and
spiritual life?

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What talents or
skills do you use
aspire to develop?

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Analyze, Arts & crafts, Buy groceries / shopping, Clean, Cook &
feed, Coordinating, Credit meetings, Gardening, Hiking, Identify
potential problems, Laundry, Learning / education, Listening &
empathizing, Make sure everybody has what they need,
Managing people, Negotiate, Oil painting, Organization,
Organize outings, Play taxi, Prayer, Prioritize, Problem solving,
Reading, Shoveling, Skiing, Swimming, Teach kids – family talks –
spiritually based, Travel, Volunteering, Write policies
Cindy’s Talents as an example

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Exercise
Write out eight to ten talents, functions, skills, or activities for each
question.
Include both big and small activities you do, enjoy, or even don’t
enjoy when do them.
Don’t edit ‐ simply list as many talents and activities as you can.
Your Talents

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Exploring your Talents
What functions, talents, and skills do you use . . .
in your professional life?
in your family relationships & duties?
in your personal interests, hobbies, and spiritual life?
And which do you aspire to develop?

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Recap
Were you able to identify satisfying talents across all the areas?
Did you surprise yourself with any of the items you listed?
Your Talents

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A Talent Isn’ta Talent Isn’ta Talent

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Your Distinctive Talents
Distinctto you
You improveall the time
Beneficialto others
Source of energyand satisfaction

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Your Distinctive Talents vs.
Areas of Excellence
Perform well, but lesser energy boost
Areas of Competence
Perform adequately, but don’t improve over time
Areas of Incompetence
Don’t perform well, and get worse over time

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A Talent Isn’ta Talent Isn’ta Talent
Review the talents you listed, and decide whether each is:
A Distinctive Talent
An Area of Excellence
A Competence
An Incompetence

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A Talent Isn’ta Talent Isn’ta Talent
Distinctive Talent
What activities are distinct to you, you get better as you do them, they’re
beneficial to others, and they energize you?
Areas of Excellence
What activities do you do well, but lack the energy boost that would make
you want to do them more?
Areas of Competence
What activities do you perform adequately, but don’t see any improvement
from spending more time on them?
Areas of Incompetence
What activities don’t you perform well and your performance worsens over
time? What would you like to stop doing or spend less time on?

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Recap
Have you identified items across all four of the talent categories?
How much time do you spend with your distinctive talents?
How much time do you waste on your areas of incompetence?
Your Varied Talents

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Where do you focus Attention?

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Downsidesof Multitasking
More prone to distraction by unimportant information (Stanford)
$650 billion in lost productivity annually (Basex)
Longer to reach destinations when driving and using the cell
phone (University of Utah)
75% of people miss obvious visual events around them (Western
Washington University)
Nearby cell phones cause friction in relationships (University of Essex)

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To‐Do List
Bucket List
Never Going To‐Do List
Freedom!

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Serviceand Leadership

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Be Your Own Leader
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/Finster/me7.gif

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http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0671723650.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Exploring Your Foundation

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What can you Control?
The Integrity of
Your Effort

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The Integrityof Your Effort
“Your teaching must have
the integrity of serious,
sound words to which no
one can take exception.
If it does, no opponent will be
able to find anything bad to
say about us, and hostility
will yield to shame.”
‐ Paul of Tarsus, Titus 2:8

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http://www.interteddy.com/images/library/Classic%20Sorry%20S.jpg
Saying and Meaning “I’m Sorry”
When you mean it
Not just when you’re caught

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Praisingand Congratulating

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Exploring
Supporting
Aligning to
Drafting
Your Core Purpose

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Putting It All Together
Core Purpose Questions
Talents
Supporting Elements

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Drafting your Core Purpose
Most Important Things
Motivations
Things that Create Happiness
Time Investment
Unique Abilities and Talents
Look for Common Themes that emerge

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3M Wal‐Mart
To (verb) make solve give
What or
Who?
global commerce
work
unsolved
problems
ordinary folk
How, What
or Why?
by connecting
people, places &
information.
innovatively. the chance to buy the
same things as rich
people.
Working with Your Answers

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Draft #1 Draft #2 Draft #3
To (verb) help
What or
Who?
people overwhelmed/
not seeing hope /
who haven’t been
given a chance
OR
people who have
been labeled or
marked
OR
people who have
been overlooked
How,
What or
Why?
by providing resources.
OR
by showing them
a more positive
side.
OR
by showing them
their talents.
Cyndi’s Core Purpose Draft

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Personal Core Purpose Format
To VERB
WHAT? Or WHO?
HOW? WHAT? Or WHY?

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Core PurposeQuestions
What things motivate you to get up and get out of bed daily?
In what ways are you of the greatest service to others?
What brings you happiness and contentment?
If you didn’t have to work, how would you spend your time, talents,
and attention?
At the end of your life, what things will make you smile?
Drafting your

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Recap
Were you able to make progress in forming some words / phrases?
Does anyone feel like they figured it out right away?
Were any parts more difficult than others?
Your Core Purpose

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What Questionson what’s next?

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“The world is more malleable
than you think, and
it’s waiting for you to
hammer it into shape.”
‐ Bono

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Blog: www.Brainzooming.com
Email: mike.brown@brainzooming.com
Twitter: @Brainzooming
Phone: 816‐509‐5320