How She Does It

Find your life’s passion, your ideal career, or narrow your project’s aim when you point your purpose!

Pinpoint Your Purpose is adapted from the purpose Venn diagram, developed by astrologer and author, Andrés Zuzunaga. This diagram will visually organize information to find our life’s purpose. I used this diagram to pinpoint my purpose!

A venn diagram is designed to overlap to find connection or relation between subjects. In the purpose Venn diagram, you’ll find connections further overlap and finally narrow down to your purpose.

I followed this diagram to help find my passion and career focus several years ago. Since then, I’ve moved up the career ladder, found how to channel my passion into additional income, and feel fulfilled in all my activities. I shared how I did that in my blog post, Your Mom Goes To College. Now, I’m sharing what I learned with you.

My experience

A life-changing transition into a new job forced me to consider how I was going to be prepared next time. There will always be challenges, so “next time” may come sooner or later. I started to search online for information on career strategies. I found many groups and websites geared toward entrepreneurship, STEM careers, non-profit volunteering which all sounded so rewarding, interesting, and worthy to pursue. However, I found myself in the middle of many different directions. Which step should I take next? Is it really what I’m interested in? How can I be sure? Then I found this helpful image online.

This assessment helped me visually separate my likes from my loves which was a huge first step. I like doing a lot of things! Narrowing down what I love to do made the rest of the graph easier to answer. Without going in any particular order, I used sticky notes to add phrases to each section. I’d step back and take a look at the diagram. I would take a note down and replace it with a different note. I worked on it for several days. In the end, I found a direction for a career that made sense to me economically, professionally, and personally.

It’s your turn! Complete the Pinpoint Your Purpose worksheet

Access the Pinpoint Your Purpose worksheet

Now, it’s your turn to Pinpoint Your Passion! As you complete the worksheet, allow for breaks and time to think. You can take a step back from it periodically to look at the big picture. Allow time to add notes and change a note when needed. You may replace notes with something else or simply remove them entirely. Everyone’s worksheet will be unique.

Begin with the larger sections: You Love It, You Are Great At It, You Are Paid For It, The World Needs It.

Step 1: You Love It

This section is intended to narrow down your focus to what you love. When I started with this section, it helped me recognize that I do like to do a lot of different things. I’m interested in many topics. However, finding what I truly love was a moment of finding clarity.

Spend time on this section because it will lead you in the direction for the rest of the diagram.

The overlapping sections here are Mission and Passion.

Step 2: You Are Great At It

You have talents and skills that you are great at! Don’t hesitate to write them here. Don’t allow a moment for doubt or second guessing.

The overlapping sections here are Passion and Profession.

Step 3: You Are Paid For It

Answer this section without reservation.  Some questions to ask yourself are, what are services that people are paid for? What services do people pay for? What would someone pay you to do? Don’t be modest!

The overlapping sections here are Profession and Vocation.

Step 4: The World Needs It

What does the world need? This seems like a daunting question, however, after thinking about your likes and loves, you’ll find your thoughts will come easily.

The overlapping sections here are Vocation and Mission.

Step 5: Drawing conclusions

Now that you’ve completed the larger sections, you will be able to draw conclusions for the overlapping sections.

• What you love and what you are great at would be your passion.
• What you love and what the world needs would be your mission.
• What the world needs and what you are paid for would be your vocation.
• What you are paid for and what you are great at would be your profession.

Allow yourself time to pause and consider what comes to mind as you are drawing these conclusions.

Step 6: Pinpoint Your Purpose

After drawing conclusions to the overlapping sections, you will be able to see how they relate to each other and point you toward a direction for a purpose, a career path and passion projects.

Now, go for it!

It’s your turn to Pinpoint Your Purpose! Have fun with it. Take your time. You may work on this diagram for several days. Don’t rush it! Ultimately, you will find where all of these sections intersect, revealing your purpose for a career or project that make sense economically, professionally, and personally.

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