Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

On-Purpose®

Purpose or Purposes

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You have only one purpose in life.   Once you know that purpose, you are to align your life and make choices consistent with it so you are on your purpose, rather than off your purpose.  That’s the essential message of being on-purpose.

In business, and especially in the church community, many people write about their “purposes.”  Note the use of the plural form, a recent pop culture invention mostly due to Pastor Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life in which he tells people they have five purposes of Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism.  These are missions of the church, not purposes.  For all the good Pastor Warren’s book is doing, it is ultimately confusing people at the core of their being, but it is getting them engaged in life more profoundly.

You do not have many purposes in life.   You may have multiple visions and missions, but only one purpose.  You may have many reasons for doing something, but only one will to do it. (Read more about the subtle differences between purpose, vision, mission, and values by clicking on this sentence.)

Need further proof of the singular nature of purpose?   The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary doesn’t provide a plural for purpose.  Purpose is inherently singular.

For example, here is an excerpt from a devotional I read today, “God
will provide the necessary circumstances to accomplish His purposes in
your life.” This is incorrect because of the plural use of the word.  God has one purpose for your life, and, yes, he will arrange the circumstances.  To push the point just a bit further, let’s replace purposes with the word will.  This is a more accurate description of the usage.  God has one will, not a plurality of wills.

Reason and purpose are frequently interchanged.  Life purpose is a person’s one reason for being or raison d’etre.  Purpose in lieu of reason is an appropriate, but a less effective word choice.  Purpose is deeply about one’s intention or will.   I appreciate that one can have many reasons for doing something, but there is one intention.  To be otherwise is to be double-minded or confused.  That is the very challenge purpose clarifies for you.  You can’t have purposes or be on-purposes. The logic and semantics don’t support the concept of purpose – plural.

Avoid getting caught up in this sloppiness of use.  Strike the non-word purposes from your vocabulary. Purpose is a truly special and remarkably powerful word as applied to one’s life purpose.  Seek the singleness of strength of being of one mind, body, and spirit and you will be on-purpose.

Your comments are always invited.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

USA: The Off-Purpose Country

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Like many of my fellow US Citizens, I am very frustrated with the state of our "union."  Never before can I remember a President and a Congress having (and deserving) such low confidence ratings. 

Allow me to dip into the political realm for a moment not as a pundit, but as a strategist with an eye for personal and organizational development. 

The US is unraveling from within.  Political party polarization has made sport of our government.  Red and Blue are more like team colors with fan bases than a thoughtful citizenry with a sacred duty and honor to vigorously debate the issues and cast our votes.  The shrillness and empty talk on both sides have taken on an ugliness and unintelligible tone catering more to cheering crowds instead of elevating the electorate to be engaged in making a difference for the cause of freedom with responsibility.   We've entered a season of win-lose politics where power takes precedence over purpose.

We're off-purpose.  Let me tell you why.   

[Read more…] about USA: The Off-Purpose Country

On-Purpose® Radio Interview

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Listen for free to a 23 minute radio interview (MP3) with Kevin W. McCarthy by James Burkhardt on radio station WORL in Orlando.  James asks great questions regarding business matters for small and medium sized companies.  Join James and Kevin on Focus Orlando Radio Show as they talk about marketing, people, financing, target audiences, and business growth.  Learn how to do business on-purpose.

Recorded on May 10, 2008

Your Work View

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Today is Labor Day in the USA.  Ironically, it is a day when many of us have the day off from work and the kids are out of school.  According to Wikipedia, Labor Day began as "a street parade to exhibit to the public ‘the strength and esprit de
corps of the trade and labor organizations,’ followed by a festival for
the workers and their families."

Let’s take the occasion, however, to look at the very nature of our labor and its meaning.  The concept of work is vitally misunderstood in many corners of the economy and culture.

For those of us who view work as an expression of one’s calling and difference making, work conjures positive feelings and robust expression of who we are.  For many others the concept of work elicits harsh bondage and dependence on the whim of their boss.  Still, there are some who would wash away all work and settle for a life of recreation and parties.  So what view of work works?

[Read more…] about Your Work View

The Purpose of Business

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Ask the average person why a business exists and they will tell you "to make a profit."  Ask the typical business person about the purpose of a business organization and my non-scientific surveys at my speaking engagements tell me just over half the people in the room will say the same as the general public.  But are they right?

Yes and no, mostly no!  In the pure terms of the science of economics, yes, the purpose of business is to make a profit.  This narrow, limiting view of business is one dimensional and ignores the essential role business plays in society.  It is much like saying the reason teams play baseball is to obtain the highest score.  It is a truthful statement, but a woefully inadequate explanation.  It misses the larger context of relationships, play, exercise, learning, and self-understanding.  There is so much more to business than simply making a profit. 

Business is a political, social, economic entity essential to the progress of a society.  A society with a thriving business community is one of higher living standards across the population.  If a few are being enriched at the expense of others, then the living standards of the society are relatively diminished, e.g. see dictatorships and the communist system.   The great industrialist Henry Ford understood this as he paid the highest of wages in his day so Ford Motor Company workers could afford to drive what they built. 

The role of business in society is more than pure economics.  The profit motive enables the creation of wealth and the lowering of costs.  Any salesperson will tell you a lower price is a significant advantage to making the sale.  Business is actually in the business of lowering costs to society and raising the benefits and standards of living.  Business improves living conditions because goods and services become more affordable for more people.

For example, the computing power of my Apple MacBook Pro sitting on my lap as I type this puts at my fingertips more capacity than NASA had to launch the Apollo rockets that went to the moon and back.  Their cost was in the hundreds of millions of dollars and their equipment occupied rooms that were supported by massive cooling systems.  My laptop cost under $2,500 and weighs less than seven pounds and merely warms my thighs. 

Business lowers the costs of medicines, durable goods, technologies, arts, services, utilities, food, and so forth because businesses seek a pricing advantage over their competitors.  Businesses also provide jobs, places of lifelong learning, creative expression to ideas, and service to mankind.  The confluence of all these elements is riddled with risk and complexity.  It isn’t easy to succeed in business.  The failure rate of businesses is ample evidence.

For all the good business does, there are still a few bad apples (not the computers) that spoil it for the rest of us who are making a difference.  So what is the purpose of a business organization?  "To make a profit,"
is the naive, yet most popular response.  The correct answer: business
exists to serve.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

 

Profile: St. Lukes Cathedral Church, Orlando, FL

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Cathedral
Can a church be on-purpose? 

The Very Reverend Anthony P. Clark and I worked together to articulate the Purpose, Vision, Missions, and Values for this Downtown Orlando church. 

Purpose: Revealing Majesty

Vision: Shaping Living Stones

Missions:  Gather, Heal, Send, Renew

Attached is Pier Review, a publication by St. Luke’s Cathedral Church (pictured to the left). Beginning on page 2 is a more in-depth article by Dean Clark about being an on-purpose church.  You’ll also see that the cover article is about being on-purpose as well.

Yes, a church can be on-purpose.  The purpose statement for St. Luke’s requires a bit of historic perspective.  During the Dark Ages when many of the world’s great cathedrals will built the goal was for the common person to draw inspiration from the majesty of Christ.  These buildings were to be modest reflections of God’s glory despite their scale and beauty.  Here the average person could begin to get a sense of who God is.  While the physical presence provided a visual message and statement, it was truly the intent of the designers to stir the hearts of worshipers as to the overwhelming greatness of God and his love for them.  It seemed only natural then that Dean Clark seized upon such a powerful and meaningful articulation of a purpose statement like: Revealing Majesty. 

Please download and read the articles to learn more.

Download pr_june.pdf

Time Management: Myth or Missing Link

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Too much to do and not enough time to get it all done.  For most of us that means it
is time to turn to time management.  Courses and seminars in time
management, software packages, PDAs like the Palm, and good old
fashioned daily planners like a DayTImer, Franklin Covey Planner, or Day
Runner, all hold great promise to help you get your life on track.  And
they do!  Kinda.  Mostly.

Time management is a smokescreen masking an underlying
problem.  Sure time management systems allow you to manage events, set priorities, plan your day, and schedule your appointments.  But are you making progress in life or are you just moving around meetings and activities?  Have you just become more efficient at being ineffective?

Solve the underlying challenge of why you need time
management and your time management problems narrow significantly.  In the end, it isn’t the tools and technology or time management that make a difference.  It is you!

[Read more…] about Time Management: Myth or Missing Link

How do I find my purpose in life?

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This is one of those questions that comes up hauntingly too often.
Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place.

Please, allow me give you the short answer about finding meaning and purpose in your life so you can get started.

Grab a sheet of paper and a pen.
Answer the question, “Why do I exist?”
Write everything you can think.  Do a brain dump.
Once you’ve completed this, distill your pages into one page.
Then, distill your one page into a paragraph.
Reduce that paragraph to a sentence.
Reduce the sentence to two words.
The first word is an action verb or gerund (ends with an “ing” like liberating, awakening, or igniting).
The second word is an object.
Give these words a generic beginning of, “I exist to serve by…”
Now you have written your purpose statement.
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