EP.95 - Purpose Driving Force, the IMPORTANCE of Purpose | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast

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[00:00:00] Chris Furlong: Yo. Yo yo. Welcome back to the Further Your Lifestyle Podcast, conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris Furlong. I am your host, and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you, episode 95 today. And we are talking about the importance of purpose. And this is coming straight off the bat, back to back from last week's episode of how you can have your best year yet by following, you know, a success.

[00:00:26] Chris Furlong: You know, are different ways of how we can progress and actually make progress in a year when it comes to goals and setting goals and things like that. So if you haven't listened to that episode, that episode really does set this one up even better. But you can listen to this standalone, so if you haven't listened to that one, you might wanna listen to it first.

[00:00:43] Chris Furlong: Otherwise, jump into this. If you wanna learn all about the importance of purpose or a purpose driven force goals. They're the biggest conversation at the start of any new year. They're a bit of a cliche. They can be a little bit overhyped or something, which, you know, you, you come two, three weeks and people aren't really talking about it anymore, and you've kind of brushed out and understand who, who's actually going to be making progress this year and who are the people that were just saying things because they wanted to be part of a trend.

[00:01:09] Chris Furlong: But for me, goals are important. Right? And I've touched on this last week and I went through the success formula, as I just said before, but at the end of that episode, I spoke about. There is a huge point and, and I drove the point home around that you can set goals, you can have ambitions, you can have all this stuff that you want to do to progress or make prog progress, but it's all pointless in sorts if you do not include purpose with it.

[00:01:33] Chris Furlong: I know as I know this too many times, I've set ambitions or I've set ambitious goals and I forgot to zoom out and identify well, what happens? For once I've hit that goal, what's, what's actually my end game or where am I actually moving towards, right? Whether it's over 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years. And the first time I actually realized this, we're diving straight into this.

[00:01:53] Chris Furlong: So buckle up. The first time I actually realized this was when I was working the nine to five in the corporate world. When I first became a manager, originally when I started that job as a grad, you know, I kind of said, oh, I'm gonna give it five years. You know, I want to be and a manager by that time and I wanna see what I can do and how far.

[00:02:09] Chris Furlong: You know, w walk up or work up the, the corporate ladder. And I did it in five years, actually less than five years I was a manager. And , when I got that, after it, you know, after all the excitement and got the bonus, the promotion, all that jazz, I was kind of stuck in a bit of a daze around now what? I had lost purpose.

[00:02:30] Chris Furlong: I had lost purpose in understanding of what I was working for, because. I had this big goal and this big intent, and I just figured out once, once I got there, things would just be all figured out. But I had to refind what my iden identity was in terms of what was I chasing, and that can be a little scary.

[00:02:47] Chris Furlong: And it recently happened again, I'll be honest. It recently happened again having been on a leave of absence for two years, and I finally resigned at the end of 2022, just in October, November. And for the last two years, you know, if you don't know my story, I basically took the chance of myself to make progress on some of my goals, dreams, ambitions, start this podcast, start my own business, and basically start to make things that I want to have in 5, 10, 15 years from now.

[00:03:13] Chris Furlong: A reality, right? Start working on it rather than just chipping away at an hour on a weekend. And I did not want to have to go back to work for someone else. That was the really intent of that two years is see whatever I can do, build momentum, take action, massive action, and actually make it so I don't have to go back.

[00:03:31] Chris Furlong: And I did that. I didn't have to go back. I, I quit. I resigned and, you know, nothing wrong with that company. Really, really good way we left off and all that jazz. I was so grateful for that opportunity. And . It was only like a couple of weeks ago when I was doing some planning for this year, I kind of sat down and I realized, hang on, you know, if I wanna make 2023 my best year, yet, I kind of realized, what, what am I, what am I rooting against?

[00:03:56] Chris Furlong: What am I putting my core against? What am I, what is my driving force? What is my motivator? What is my purpose? And don't get me wrong, I've got long-term goals. I've got, you know, some big ambitions and things and places where I want to be in the future. I'm. Well, I would like to think they're gonna take five, 10 years.

[00:04:13] Chris Furlong: They shouldn't have to take that long, but, you know, that's where my mind's at. And, but in the present, I know that there's things and steps and realities of, you know, I have to do the work to be able to get there. And I personally couldn't see what it was that I wanted to be working towards at this point in time or what I'm working away.

[00:04:33] Chris Furlong: Now, just to clarify on that, there's two ways that we're usually motivated. We're either motivated to get out of a situation or motivated to get into a position. And I'll read this out, it's, it's called Push and Pull. Push Motivation is driven by a need to run from unwanted reality. While a pool motivation is a power that inspires you to attain successful results.

[00:04:54] Chris Furlong: So having thought about the wins and losses for 2022, I've been going through that and reflect. and you know, actually seeing the progress that I've made or the lack of progress and, you know, there's been some wins and losses, I started to think about and reflect on, well, what is my purpose and what am I doing?

[00:05:09] Chris Furlong: And that's a big question. It's a big scary question. And this is, this is just as important for yourself. So we we're gonna get real here. What am I now working towards? And ask yourself this, what am I now working towards and what is my next major milestone to lock on? So what will be my purpose? Driving force.

[00:05:26] Chris Furlong: Now, if you dunno what that means, a purpose driving force or a personal purpose driving force basically is something that helps you identify and pursue your values, goals, and aspirations. Essentially, it's, it serves as a guiding principle or as a north star for your actions and your decision making, and it can provide a sense of meaning or.

[00:05:46] Chris Furlong: Having a clear understanding of what that purpose looks like or that purpose driving force can help you align your actions, your values, your priorities, and also, as I said before, it can give you some, you know, inspiration. It can help you with being motivated, and it also helps you stay true to yourself when you are.

[00:06:06] Chris Furlong: Hit with obstacles, challenges, and setbacks. So establishing one, a personal purpose driving force. That's, it's, it's a lot. P P D F P P D F personal purpose driving force, , sorry, can involve identifying what is most important to you. And it may also involve activities such as self-reflection, goal setting, which, you know, I've talked about a lot in, especially in the last episode.

[00:06:29] Chris Furlong: But it should also be very, very, a. , it should be very meaningful and it should be relevant to your own personal and professional goals. Now, what else it also means is you need to be identifying what is most important to you. It involves taking the time to re to reflect on those values. What are your values?

[00:06:46] Chris Furlong: What are your things that you value the most? What are your goals? What are your aspirations? How do they all tie in together? How do they stick together and how do they overlap? Like a Venn diagram of sorts. and you have to take that all into mind considering what is important and what is meaningful to you.

[00:07:02] Chris Furlong: This can then help you clarify and identify and lock in Zoom. And focus on what truly matters to you. And with that self-reflection is the process of thinking about your own thoughts, your feelings, how things make you feel, what behaviors pop up, when things don't work out, or when things do work out, what are the things that make you happy?

[00:07:19] Chris Furlong: What are the things that make you frustrated? This self-reflection, engaging this can help you have a better understanding of one yourself, but also your. And where you can provide insight into what motivates you and what drives you, which is your driving force. Now you then actually then have to start to set the goals based on all this.

[00:07:38] Chris Furlong: Now, I'm not trying to overwhelm, overwhelm, talking about values, purpose, what, what is the meaning of life and all that. But if we strip it back, if we pull it back and really just think about. What do you want? What do you want? Right? And for me, I have always had big ambitions that I've wanted to work for myself.

[00:07:57] Chris Furlong: Now, that in itself is bold, but when you break that down, what does that actually look like? At the moment I work for myself. Does that mean I've achieved my goal? Does that mean I've achieved where I want to be? Yes and no, because this is part of it. Now I realize, okay, what do I actually want? What's the next thing that starts to define what actually looks.

[00:08:17] Chris Furlong: Success for me or what actually looks like where I want to be before I then start to identify and look for whatever that next purpose is. There's, there's two elements to this. I wanna, I wanna share with you what my big life mission has always been, and it remains this, and then I'm gonna share with you what my next core purpose or driving force is that I'm working towards.

[00:08:38] Chris Furlong: So my life mission has always been this, and I wrote this years ago. I wanna inspire, I wanna be innovative. I wanna promote success through all that I do and to the people around me. I wish to spread happiness and express life through my actions. I plan to create opportunity through my visions, dreams, and inspire those around me to aspire further in their own lives.

[00:08:56] Chris Furlong: Now, I've spoken about this in a number of different episodes. You know how to find your North star and things like that, and that's very relevant to this. That's not changing. That's exactly where, you know, that's exactly what I'm encompassing and wanting to do, regardless of whatever I'm doing. And that's what I always turn back to.

[00:09:12] Chris Furlong: But for the short term, I need to think about, well, what's the next thing I'm looking at? Now when I say short term, it might be one to two years of what am I actually working towards and getting myself in a position of, and this is what it is to remove the need to work, to earn, but rather earn based on the actions I do regard.

[00:09:32] Chris Furlong: right, and at the moment, if, if I help give you a bit of a detail of how I operate, there's three core things that I work on the most. Outside of running relationships and things like that, there's my business, my reselling business, making an income, my YouTube and my podcast. Now, at the moment, my reselling takes up the most and that also provides me the most income.

[00:09:54] Chris Furlong: The. It, it does bring me in some money, but I've been doing YouTube regardless of whether it was making me money or not. The podcast, it doesn't make me any money at the moment. It doesn't make me any, I, I look, I've had a few dollar dues come in. I've had some people buy some different things, some enamel pins and some sweatshirts and things like that, which is, I'm so grateful for.

[00:10:13] Chris Furlong: But it's not a, you know, it does not generate a big income. Now I'm doing that regardless cuz that's a passion project and that's an end goal. I want it to generate income. I want you to know is that if I'm not earning money from this, I'm still doing it cuz I wanna share with you my life experiences. I wanna share with you, you know, inspiration, insight to help you further your own lifestyle.

[00:10:35] Chris Furlong: We know this , that's why you're listening to it. And I'm not going anywhere with that. The same with the YouTube. It's another way that I can share and I enjoy doing that. But if I can turn my business, my YouTube and my Res and my podcast into the act of doing, and I'm getting paid regard. Rather than having to trade hours for money, that's when I know I've hit where I want to be in the next one to two years.

[00:10:59] Chris Furlong: Because at the moment I'm doing this and this does not feel like work. This does not feel like a chore reselling look. , there's components of it that feels like work feels like a chore. And you know, it means I have to actually, all right, let's go do this. Whereas there's elements of it where it's like, yeah, I don't care.

[00:11:16] Chris Furlong: I'm happy to do this. And so that's great, but I wanted to be able to continue to just do live express share and still make money regardless. So that, that's, that's big and bold, but that's the reality of it. So, so I wanna ask you the question. What about you? What's. Thing that you are rooting against, meaning putting your purpose against that you are keep, that's keeping you honest.

[00:11:39] Chris Furlong: That is your glue. That's keeping you honest in driving you forwards. What is your purpose over the next one year, two years? Short term, long term? I would love to know what is your purpose driving force, and you can reach out to me if you're listening to this on the YouTube. You can drop a comment down in the comments or you can send me a message via Instagram at further your lifestyle or hit me up on Twitter at further your life.

[00:12:02] Chris Furlong: Now also, , if you've made it this far, I really do appreciate you. Thank you so much. But if you have not subscribed or if you're not following the podcast, please do that on Spotify, apple Podcast, Google Podcast, YouTube. You can do that. And there's even an opportunity to rate and review. So if you could leave a review, leave a comment, or anything like that, it absolutely means the world to me.

[00:12:22] Chris Furlong: And I hope you're having a wonderful year so far. Hope you're doing well. And if you've got any questions, we are more than happy to continue the conversation. And you. A wonderful day.