5 Steps to Embracing Your Purpose

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book, Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life, nail your goals. I'll see you there. Welcome to Lead On Purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion musician and now executive coach to global leaders and high performers. Each week I'll publish a solo cast where I'll share my top high performance habits and methodologies to supercharge your life and career. If you enjoy the show, please take a short moment to subscribe and leave a rating and review. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show.

You simply wouldn't believe how many times I get asked, James, how do I find my purpose? James, what is my purpose? James, why do I do what I do? Well, look, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this as well. There were certain times in my life where I was at a crossroads and had to decide which way to go. And it was my purpose that really helped guide those decisions. So when you're operating from a purpose led life, you make decisions that are clear, that are decisive and, and to me, leading on purpose, the word on purpose to me means intention. To do something on purpose means you intentionally did it. And you go back to the playground, if someone comes up and a bully hits someone, they did that with intention. They did it on purpose. It wasn't an accident. So this show is not about life on accident, life by accident, it's life and leadership on purpose, right? So to me, that's an ongoing question, an ongoing compass to come back to and go, okay, what does purpose look like? What drives my purpose? And at the end of the day, our values are a massive driver and they shape our purpose and vice versa. So I want to just keep it really high level for you and I want you to walk away right in the next two minutes with something really tangible for you to get clear on what is your purpose.

I want you to think of Africa for a moment. Now, when people travel to Africa, one of the things they love to do, particularly in South Africa, is go on a safari. And on that safari, there's one thing they want to see. In fact, there's five. But there's one thing they want to see, and that's what we call the big five, right? The big five are those animals that people, if they can tick them off and say we've seen them in the wild. A dream for every tourist. So those big five are the rhino, the elephant, the buffalo, the lion and the leopard. Now you get to see those. You've seen the big five. My challenge to you is what's your big five? What do I mean by that? Well, you've got your life. And if someone was to come and take a tour of your life and hey, let's face it, with AI and all, all the technology developments, I'm sure that our future great grandkids and people in the future will be to take a tour of our lives. If somebody was to take a tour of your life, what would you want? The big five stop offs, the big five destinations, the big five milestones, what would you want them to be? What would you want those big important things that they, if they were to take a tour, they just couldn't miss out on those things.

You know, is it a career milestone? Is it a parental or family milestone? Is it a big financial milestone? Is it seeing you play a hobby or sport with passion? Is it seeing you at a graduation? Is it seeing your book be published? Here's another way to think of it. What are your masterworks? Leonardo da Vinci had masterworks. Not millions of them, but a handful of incredible masterworks. Many of the great artists and authors that you can think of have just a few life masterworks. What are yours? What are your masterworks going to be? To me, that's a noble question to ask. To me, that's time well spent to journal and ask, what are the five big five destinations, milestones, masterworks that I would love someone to stop off and just check out, that represents my life. Five big swings. We're not talking, you know, a holiday away for a week, that's not a masterwork. That's break and rest is a necessity, not a luxury. I'm talking masterworks. What are you going to create? You are built to serve. You have skills, you have heart set, mindset, skill set. You have it all. Once you tap into your purpose, you can serve and deliver your masterworks. And your masterwork might be for your family, might be for your community, might even be for your country and for some, could be for the whole entire world. But getting clear on what those masterworks are, that gives you a Sense of purpose. You will lead yourself on purpose. So many people are leading in the dark, leading without direction. Where are you headed, please? If you're driving, pull over. If you're running, stop, get a pen and paper out or get your phone out and write down. What are those five masterworks, High level. What comes to mind? What would you be so proud of? What are you working towards right now? One of those could be if you, if you are a parent, it could be around being a present, passionate, thoughtful, patient parent. That could be a masterwork that someone comes to view one time. Could be that book that you keep on talking about, get it written, published, get it out there, change lives with. It could be standing up in front of that audience that you're afraid to stand up in front of. It could be applying for that position that you've been just fearful of. What right now, at this stage in your life, are your five masterworks. I would seriously love to know if you can take some time to think about it and you'd like to let me know. I would get so much joy from what that is and you can contact me through Instagram or you can drop me an email. James jlochlan.com But I would seriously love to know exactly what your purpose is, what your masterworks are, why that brings purpose to you. If you can get clear on this and you don't share with anybody, you have won. You don't need to share this with anyone. If you get clear on this for you, you have so much distinction about where you're headed and why you're headed there. So I hope this short solo cast has served you today and I just want to take a moment to thank you for your ongoing support of Lead on Purpose. I know you're going to love our next special guest, but until then, please get out there and lead your life on purpose. Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button and I'd love if you'd leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks and leaders. It's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.