Tag Archives: meaning

Are you just a By-Line?

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Is your LinkedIn ‘blurb’ the whole extent of your existence? Is your quirky, deeply-considered and often trademarked tagline the result of deep introspection, or just a marketing tool for making you special? I’ll be blunt – I suspect for many it is the latter. It has a genuine purpose, and you’ve put a lot of thought into it. But the motivation may not be ‘right’.

We are not a job title, quirky or otherwise. We are far more than any professional trademark can ever describe with any accuracy. What is more, what we are we are all The time, whereas the registered trademark (is it really, or have you just popped an ® by it?) is, at best, nothing more than who we are at work.

We are whole human beings, and our senses of being, purpose and relating should be reflected in a set of self-defined guidelines that, if we are to be seen as having true integrity, must be executed with consistency.

That is why I wrote The Way – Integrity on Purpose. It is a deep-diving guide to identifying, defining, designing and executing on a personal credo that is about as comprehensive as I could make it. It is a book that provides counsel on self-analysis to the point at which you – yes YOU, not me or anyone else – decides what your are for in your personal, interpersonal and professional lives to the point at which you are congruent in the way you ‘are’ at all times, instead of different people in different situations.

It is also the route I took to deciding to write and (try to) live by the contents of my magnum opus The Three Resolutions. It is also the foundation to my ability to roll with the several punches I have suffered over the years in terms of cancer, professional challenges and occasional failures.

To be frank, and some psychologists would agree, material and counsel of this type is what can turn someone from feeling ‘meaningless’ to ‘purposeful’ – and we know the devastation that can occur when that gap isn’t addressed, don’t we.

If you have any sense of self-doubt – any at all – then reading this book will, I firmly believe, at least point you towards a bespoke solution for rediscovering a sense of purpose and inner peace.

It’s not about having a registered trademark to hide behind. It’s about having a set of standards to which you hold yourself, all the time and everywhere.

Go and explore the index. See if there’s something there for you – or for someone you care about.

Don’t just be a By-Line. Seek a “Be Line.”

What you are doing can be meaningful – even though you can’t see it.

26 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in Purpose and Service

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“The struggle comes when we sense a gap between the clock and the compass – when what we do doesn’t contribute to what is most important in our lives.” Stephen R Covey

Which is a lot of the time.

In planning, the lovely people at Franklin Covey promote the idea that one should plan only 60% of one’s time because that allows for the minutiae of life to be properly dealt with. In my experience when I was a police officer that figure had to be nearer 40%. In either case it meant that around half of our time was therefore spent on activities that did not obviously reflect the important things. Reality was that it meant that some of that unplanned half WAS spent on meaningful stuff, it just wasn’t planned.

Which I found challenging, because one thing I have noticed over my years of reading and (badly) applying personal development advice is that when you don’t feel as though you are actively ‘doing’ something meaningful, you tend to conclude that you aren’t living in accordance with the values you defined as a result of your learning.

In other words, if I am washing the car and I can’t make the connection between that task and (say) being organised, then I feel as though I am not living my values. However, if in a moment of clarity I consider that a clean, well-maintained car IS an example of being organised, I am suddenly in the flow and feel great.

So there is not only a struggle when we see a gap between the clock and the compass, there is also a struggle when we DON’T see the connection between the clock and the compass.

Take the time – that single, valuable and inspiring moment – to see how what you’re doing DOES have some meaning.