Focus - Purpose: The Ethereal Cloud of Purpose
What's in the clouds for you?
Photo by Taylor Van Riper on Unsplash
Purpose can be a tough pillar to get your head around. It just seems so… BIG. It was easy in the second act. Life had a way of presenting big challenges like career, kids, causes and such and you just picked them up as you careened down the highway. But now that you are looking at the backroads of retirement, how do you even go about thinking about “purpose?” Well, why don’t you start with what you already know? You know what you’ve enjoyed over the last 30 years, or so. You know what you missed and what you would have liked to have tried. You know some of the things you’d like to do once you are retired, right? Those things will inform your purpose. But, how do you corral all of them? Here’s an exercise that I like to do with people. They almost always glean some insight from it. I know I did. And… it’s kinda fun.
Instructions: Click this link to open a free Word Cloud app called WordItOut. (A word cloud is a collection, or cluster, of words depicted in different sizes. The bigger and/or bolder the word appears, the more often it’s mentioned within a given text.) Grab a timer and set it for 3 minutes. In the box titled “original text” write everything that you have enjoyed doing in the last third of your life. Write down anything that comes into your head! It can be work-related, family-related, community-related, vacation-related – anything at all! Don’t stop until the timer does. Push yourself to continue writing for the full 3 minutes. After 3 minutes are up, set the timer for 3 more minutes. Write down everything you want to do in the next third of your life in the same box. It can be things you wish you’d done in the last third, or just things you’re looking forward to in the next. Again, push yourself to write for the full 3 minutes. Write down everything that comes to your mind.
When you’re done, push the button marked “generate.”
Takeaway: What are the biggest words? How are they related? Does this give you a starting place for researching things that may have meaning for you?
Note: Don’t write full sentences and try not to write filler words like “I’ve enjoyed” and “I want to.” Just write what the action or event was. For example, write “riding horses” not “I like riding horses.”
Try it! What do you have to lose other than 6 minutes of your life?
Here’s mine. I did this a few months before I retired.
If you string together the biggest words it says “help people find healthy, new, fun adventures. Enjoy learning, building and friends.” And of course it includes my son “Andy.” Perfect! Sounds like a retirement coach with a healthy dose of free time (and a great kid) to me. (Those who know me will not be surprised to notice that “pizza” and “happiness” both made the list and they’re about the same size.)
I also thought about how other people lived a life of purpose. What legacy did people build? Could that help inform the people I talk with about this? So, I pulled 25+ random obituaries, thinking that’s where most people would document their legacies, and I put them in the word cloud. It was close to 10,000 words in total. Here’s what I got as the top words:
Notice that “family” is front and center. I ran this word cloud 3 times, once when I had 10 obits loaded, once with 20 and this one with about 27. All three had “family” front and center. Notice that home, community, friends, wife, husband, and grandchildren also figure prominently. And words like “enjoyed” and “loved” and “served” are well represented. I do see “school” and “career” so those are not things to be ignored, but relationships are far more prominent. And, one more observation… either do something wonderful, or hunker down in February. It is not an inconsequential month, apparently. These are random people. A couple were fairly prominent in their communities. Both male and female were well represented. They ranged in age from 23 (ugh…) to 94. They were all from the US, but from various states and backgrounds.
Now, you could argue that, of course family, home and community figure prominently in obituaries. They’re usually written by the people who are left behind, and those people most often write about other people in relation to themselves, and you’re right. But if there was a big legacy around someone’s work, that would likely be reflected in how the family remembered them. You could also argue that obituaries are often sort of “formulaic” all mentioning the same types of things and 27 is not representative of the population and this isn’t the best place to find legacies. To that, I say, dang, you’re analytical. But, who cares?? The whole idea is to find ways to think about YOU. So, why not create a word cloud that does matter? Yours!
Go ahead. Try it! Click this link. I know you’re thinking you’ll do it later. (No, you won’t.) Or maybe you think you don’t have six minutes right now to do it. (Yes, you do.) Perhaps, you just think I’m argumentative. (No, I’m not.) I’ll tell you, though, that once you get over the first 30 seconds, or so, it’s kinda fun. And I have yet to find someone who wasn’t champing at the bit to hit the “generate” button once the six minutes were up to see what the cloud said for them!
Let me know what you find out! Reply to this email with your biggest words, or add them to the comments!
Still need some insight on purpose? Here are all of the past Rockin’ The Third Act newsletters on the subject.
Purpose as a process What do you want to be when you grow up?
Volunteering may be your ultimate purpose