The Truth About 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.

Stop searching for purpose relentlessly. That's my advice to the people that come to me asking, James, how do I find my purpose? I'm desperately trying to find my purpose, slow down and stop searching for it. Because I've learned something over the years about purpose. And of course, me, myself, I've been in the pursuit of finding purpose in my life for many years. Decades. But over the last two or three years, I have interviewed incredible people here on Lead on Purpose and ask them at the end of every episode, you'll know. When I have a guest, I always say, hey, so if you were to fast forward into the future, it was your last day here on earth and a very young person who meant a lot to you asked you, hey, how would I lead my life and purpose? What would you say to them? So over the years I've had many people share that with me. It's been varied. It's been really interesting just hearing what matters most to people and how they have went about leading their lives on purpose. But there's something I wanted to share with you today that I really hope serves you. Because I have no doubt as a listener of this podcast that you are dead set on being purpose driven. You probably already have a deep purpose and if you don't, you're moving towards it, you're in search of of it. So I really hope this lands with you. And if you already know what your purpose is, then maybe this will help someone in your circle that really needs to hear it from you. So to me, there's two things in life, two Ps. That's passion and purpose. And look, passion to me is stuff that fires you up, things that deeply engage you, things that you're excited and motivated to do. And you do them because you love them. So to me, passion is for you. Whereas on the other side, purpose. Purpose is where we use our skills. Our could be manual labor. It could be our intellect, could be our genius, could be what we do professionally, could be what we do outside of work. But we use these skill sets, mindsets, heartsets, for the betterment of others, people and planet. To me, that's what purpose is. Purpose is not for you. Stop searching for it. Purpose is for others. When someone finds their purpose, they're doing something for other people, not for themselves. And yes, they get a certain feeling that comes with that, a certain feeling of appreciation, joy, fulfillment, euphoria. But they're doing it for other people. So I want you to ask yourself, you know, where in your life right now are you doing things for other people? Is that something you do quietly and you volunteer somewhere and nobody really knows about it? Is that you write a check and send it off to a charity? Which is great. We need to do that. Where are you doing it? You know, I spoke with a friend recently, a guy called Joe decenna. Joe is the founder of Spartan. The Spartan Death Race. You should look it up. If you don't know about it, it's pretty fascinating. I'm just talking about donating. And he says, you know, if it doesn't hurt, then it's not really giving. It's got to hurt a little bit. So to me, you know, writing the check, yes, it's important. But could you do something with your time where it kind of hurts a little bit? You've got to sacrifice some time to go and help this organization or this human, this planet, maybe. What could you do that actually hurts your time a little bit? Maybe even hurts your wallet rather than the $5 monthly donation? How could I give $2,000 this year, right? Whatever it might be, whatever stage of philanthropy you're at, but purpose and finding it, it's all about finding how can I serve others, others. And it's so interesting, particularly in my late teens and through my 20s.

Searching for this purpose. And it got caught up in this narrative of side hustle. Like your purpose should be. Your side hustle should be the thing you do to make money. And I can see that narrative still. I see it everywhere. I see that all over social media. This narrative of Your side hustle is your purpose, and that's what you're born for. And why work nine to five? I see it, and honestly, it's nonsense. Purpose is nothing about you having a side hustle. Side hustle is great. If you're passionate about that side hustle, that's for you, that's great. Passion is for you. Purpose is for others. So I want you to take a moment and go, what can I do this month for others? Might be donating your time, a skill, might be writing a check, whatever it might be. I guess we don't write checks anymore, do we? I'm talking like somebody from the 90s, right? Sorry, I was born in the 80s, so. But I want you to think about where purpose actually shows up in your life. And we do not need 1 million Mother Teresa's Nelson Mandelas. We don't need that. We need more humans to do small things for others more consistently. So what's that going to be for you? You know, for me, there's things I do in the background that not many people know about. And I don't want them to know about it because it's not about me. But I enjoy doing it. I feel good after doing it, and I know in some small way it's making a difference to that person or the organization. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't spend 40 hours a week doing it, but each month there's a certain amount of time and money that I give to certain things that mean something to me. So I'm just going to ask you right now, what is that for you? What is your purpose? And can your purpose change? Yes. Purpose can evolve and change and adapt so you don't have to commit to something and sign up for life. It's about just identifying what's purposeful right now, what makes a difference for your community, for your organization, for your people, for your family, for your country, for the planet. I just want you to take a moment to think about that, and I hope you've been enjoying some of our most recent guests. Wow. We've had some incredible, incredible guests on, and I've got some very exciting ones coming up. I think you're going to possibly laugh and definitely cry over the next couple of weeks. Got some phenomenal guests that will just challenge your thinking, that will inspire you. And hey, I just want to say thank you. We recently got number one in the Apple podcast chart. So a massive thank you for listening. We only get recognized for that when people listen to the show, so I deeply appreciate you listening and all I can ask is one, that you keep listening and. And two, I would love if you shared this show with three people, even two people. But I'd love you to share it with a couple people right now. It would be incredible. But for now, 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.