Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

Purpose Statements

On-Purpose Leaders Workshop

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The On-Purpose Leader program based on The On-Purpose Person was a meaningful event.  Here are the attendees after the event.  All were from the East Coast from South Florida to Baltimore, MD.   We had a tax lawyer, several health coaches, a COO, entrepreneur, several people from financial services and insurance, two married couples, and an HR executive. 

The joy of these programs for me is the chance to get to know new and existing people in a deep and profound manner beyond the typical chit-chat.  There's an intimacy and closeness that happens in these events.

Cindy Hedgepeth (red blouse) did a fabulous job of co-facilitating the program with me.  This globe trotting trainer is gracious enough to take a day and work with me on these programs.  

I look forward to seeing each of these participants again.  One of the things we do is offer a 50% discount to returning alumni and a guest on a space available basis.  I have a feeling we will see some of them again as they go to the next level of being on-purpose.  In the meantime, please keep them all in your prayers as they've taken some remarkable steps to examine their lives and invest in making their futures on-purpose.  Special thanks also to Mary Richardson and John Smith who volunteered to pray for the group, Cindy, and me in preparation and during the program. 

Welcome these new On-Purpose Leaders!

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

Profiles On-Purpose: Janet Cronstedt is Awakening Worth

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Janet Cronstedt and I began doing business together in 1999. Quickly we became friends and have remained that way since. We do very little business together but we remain connected thanks to email and cell phones.

She is one on-the-go lady these days. Janet was the Senior Vice President of Take Shape For Life, the health coach company and plan that helped me lose my 50 pounds a few years ago. In fact, Janet introduced me to Dr. Wayne Andersen, the Co-Founder of TSFL, who engaged me to speak at their National Convention.

Below is the full article Janet wrote in her weekly column for TSFL called From My Heart to Yours. Her story of becoming an on-purpose person humbles and excites me. Enjoy getting to know my friend, Janet.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

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“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both!”
James A. Michener

When I turned 50 my husband asked me what I wanted for my BIG birthday. I responded with, “I want to go away on a weekend retreat to Orlando, FL, which promises that I will walk away with a clear idea about what on Earth I am here for.”

Try saying that to your spouse of 30 years! There is not a doubt in my mind that Bob would have so preferred I said, “A piece of jewelry.”

That weekend and my discovery at the Power Up On-Purpose seminar, hosted by Kevin McCarthy, author of The On-Purpose Person, changed my life. It led me to leave a comfortable job, affiliate with a new company 3,000 miles from home, and for the first time in my 58 years, live on my own 50% of the time. Married at 20 and entirely dependent on my wonderful husband, that was probably the most difficult part of it all for me!

My purpose, awakening worth, continues to guide me, stretch me, shape me, challenge me, scare me, excite and reward me in amazing ways. I exist at TSFL to awaken worth. YOU matter to me and awakening your worth gives me joy every day in every way. I enjoy every precious moment!

As Dr. A says so well in Chapter 21 of Dr. A’s Habits of Health, “until there is purpose, life lacks vibrancy and is at some level, joyless.”

Chapter 21 ROCKS. Read and re-read it. Share it. Let it lead you to purpose. You and those you touch will never be the same.

Better together,
Janet Cronstedt
SVP

“Without fulfillment, we can’t achieve optimal health.” — Dr. Wayne Andersen

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

The Folly of Self-Diagnosis

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As I dropped my car at the garage, I told the mechanic, "I think my muffler is broken."  Later that day when I picked up my car, the mechanic informed me there was nothing wrong with the muffler.  After paying his bill and starting my car… the darn noise that began the auto repair visit remained.  I asked the mechanic about it.  He said, "You asked me to check the muffler." 

Just shoot me!  I left the car for another day and made additional transportation arrangements.

Yesterday, my wife told the refrigerator repair man, "I think the gasket needs to be replaced because the refrigerator door doesn't stay shut."  He was better than my car mechanic.  After a quick visual, he informed, "It is worn but is working.  Your hinge isn't set right."  $125 later we had a hinge adjustment.  Only problem is the refrigerator isn't cooling. We thought it was the door being ajar.

The folly of self-diagnosis is real.  Unless you are an expert on something, don't do the diagnosis.  Speak in terms of the problem, not the solution.  

A friend of mine, Chris, is a brain and spinal cord surgeon.  If I'm
having a headache, do I tell Chris, "I think my cerebral cortex is
swelling.  You need to check for a tumor."  Absurd! But we all do this kind of self diagnosis regularly.  My goal is to get out of the habit.

Consider your area of expertise.  When you're working with customers or
clients who don't know what you know, do you find it odd when they
start telling you how to do the job they hired you to do?  Why did they come to you in the first place?

Here at On-Purpose Partners, we help individuals and organizations write their core strategic statements of purpose, vision, mission, and values so they have a fighting chance to be on-purpose.  Some people want to debate our terminology and approach.  I always invite clients to read my books before they engage us to ensure they understand where we're coming from before they invest their hard earned money working with us. 

Often, it doesn't matter.  They argue.  We're delighted to clarify and explain the difference between purpose, vision, mission, and values, but why debate it with us after you've hired us.  We're pros at this.  Let us do the diagnosis.  Tell us your problems.  Let us practice our craft.

Candidly, pride is why we're all guilty of self-diagnosis.  I don't want to look stupid in front of my mechanic because I'm a guy.  I'm supposed to understand cars and engines and mechanical things.  Right?  Wrong.  I'm clueless.  Faking it to impress the grease monkey tells him I'm both stupid and a phony.

These days, I tell my mechanic, "My car is making a weird and loud noise.  I haven't got a clue what it is."  Instead of faking my way to repeated repair visits, today I confess my ignorance, find the most honest mechanic I can, and throw myself at his mercy with an open line of credit.  My favorite question, "If it were your wife and kids driving in the car, would you do the repair?"  My automotive bills are high, our cars run fine, I have fewer visits, and I have no pretense.

About twenty years ago we had a father and son living next door who worked on their own cars.  I observed to Judith one day, "Every weekend they're working on their cars to get them working.  I don't even crack the hood of my car and it runs fine."  What's the moral there?  Those who do… who don't know they don't know.. do more of what they don't know. 

Let's call it personal outsourcing.  Judith is calling the refrigerator repair guy back today to say, "My refrigerator isn't as cold as I think it should be." It will probably be another $125 or more.  The compressor is probably shot!  Oops!  Did I just do a self-diagnosis?

Do you have a story where self-diagnosis got you in trouble?  Share it in the comments so we can all learn and laugh.

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

Business Purpose – Noble or Not?

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Ask the average person why a business exists (purpose) and the typical response is, "To make money or a profit."  That is a truthful, but incomplete and narrow view based solely on the economist’s perspective.  Economics is but one science or discipline of study touching business and touched by business.  Unfortunately, this popular viewpoint often casts business in a negative manner – seeing the glass half empty.  In fact, business is so much more.

Business is also an institution of society and plays a specific role of service, continuity, scale, and sustainability.  It is through the profit motive that prices actually fall, not rise, and standards of products and services rise.  Business people seek competitive advantage most often on these two fronts.  Who wins?  It is the buyer in the marketplace who wins.

Business is also a free enterprise phenomenon so one must also see it in context of government.  Absent a free market economy supported by a government, the role of business is owned by the ruling power, be it communism or monarchy.   I’m proud to be a capitalist because I understand that capitalism and a free society are interdependent. 

Very simply, a business is an integration of economic, social, and political realities to name but three of the core disciplines at work.

As a huge advocate of the nobility and
creativity of business, let’s embrace a robust understanding of
business rather than a one dimensional economic view only.  The On-Purpose Business perspective says a business exists to serve in both a social and economic role within the context of a government freeing individual pursuits with a system of checks and balances.

Here is a rather heady discussion from a You Tube video on the "nobility of business"
from the World Economic Forum. It is nearly an hour long and has a rich panel discussion.  Enjoy! 

Please feel free to comment.

 

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