We often talk about purpose in the impact maker movement. I believe it's vitally important to have a strong sense of purpose not necessarily an actual purpose.

Please pause and consider my previous statement. I'll give you a minute.

Okay.  A minute’s up.

There's not a big difference between a sense of purpose and actual purpose. They are very closely related. In fact, having a sense of purpose is actually having a purpose in a way by itself.  The reason is the broader purpose for all of us.

I don't think we would call ourselves impact makers if we felt there was anyone in the population who didn't have something positive to give to the world.  We all have this calling.

I do not believe that this broad purpose to make the world a better place is something that makes us all similar. It may bring us together, but it actually shows our differences-differences that are great and should be celebrated.

Why?

I say that the sense of purpose is more important for two reasons.

1. We must acknowledge that the general purpose exists. We have to be aware-have that sense.

2. Dissent must be deeper than generalities. You'll never get anything done if you're content with just being a good person. Most of the impact blog commentary is around just being kind and that is a foundation of impact making. However your deeper purpose is essential to moving forward in your positive impact journey.

I believe acknowledgment of our higher calling and the desire to focus our gifts and skills will ultimately lead to accomplishment.

Training

I am in the mist of healing from a broken collarbone.  My doctor says it will take me six weeks to fully heal. It's really not that long of a time. 

Think of some six week periods in your life that have flown by. One thing that comes to mind for me is summer when I was growing up. I used to love when school was out for the summer.  

My apologies to my wife, the kindergarten teacher, but the school year was very long and summer break was too short.

In reality, I'll be healed from this clavicle injury quickly.  But, my mind is yearning for my typical physical activity. This tells me I've developed great exercise habits but it's also a mental challenge.

I know that when you stop training your body to do something it doesn't take that long for it to lose some skill or forget movements. I know I already have (after just ten days) some muscle atrophy.

The moral of the story is that with anything in life you have to work at it in order to get better and stay better.  I say it's easier to stay at the top then to get to the top but I'm not sure if that's always true.

The positive impact mindset is no different than physical exercise. We must continue to flex our impact making muscle. That muscle is about grit, determination, and power.  It's not a technical skill. It's not measured by numbers. It's something called desire.

Foundations

If you're not growing you're dying.  Ironically, growing is actually a foundation. When you build a house, the foundation holds everything together from the bottom.  You must make sure it's solid before building up.

In our impactmaking metaphor, growth is actually a foundation. We must always be thinking about building up, growing our influence, education, and advancing our mission or else we're not acknowledging our greater purpose.

The growth mindset as a foundation is manifest and passion and executed with honesty.

I often describe myself as a positive realist.  I acknowledge the true scenario in all situations. Not everything WILL be good, but everything CAN be good.

You must be honest about the world we live in while also being passionate about making a positive impact.

This is an incredibly powerful foundation for doing good in the world.

It gives us two things.

1. An acknowledgment that we need growth.

And

1. A desire to execute that growth

Whats’s Next?

The subtitle of this section is an important question. I cannot minimize the importance of asking it. However, we cannot experience “next” without mastering what's current or perfecting foundation.

Most driven people desire to develop excellent skills to get ahead. One of the best episodes of Speaking of Impact is #58 with professional lacrosse player and mental performance coach, Mark Glicini.  

Mark talks about the desire to achieve. He works with people in all walks of life that want to be better versions of themselves and be great at what they're called to do. By nature of his work with impact makers, he is an impact maker himself.

With Mark's teachings in mind, I will not ask you to suppress the desire to seek what's next and the need to develop excellent skills. I will however ask you to put a premium on focusing your honesty and passion.

When you've taken the necessary steps, and I must mention that we may have to take those steps multiple times in our lives, then you can work on your form and technique.

Form and Technique

In my professional life providing numerous pieces of financial advice and family mission and legacy planning, I must apply certain technical skills that I have practiced for many years.  I calculated that I spent over 20,000 hours in my professional work.  It’s certainly beyond that now.

See Malcolm Gladwell’s website for plenty of well researched information and data on this subject.  His book, “Outliers”, talks about needing 10,000 hours to become an expert in the specific field.  I hesitate to call myself an expert in anything, even impactmaking, but I have the hours to prove it in my work.

The need for technical proficiency and to be in top form as much as possible cannot go understated. However, without the passion to make people's lives better and the honesty to acknowledge what needs to be done, I would be ineffective at my job.  Initiate Impact would fail.

What is form and technique in the Impactmaker Movement?

I don't actually know the answer to this question for your unique situation. What I can tell you though, is that you're going to need to figure that out in order to advance the reach of your cause.

You need to know the ins and outs of the industry, location, other forces at play, people, culture, and a host of other things to be consistently successful.

Technique is relatively easy to understand. I contrast this with passion. The former makes you more efficient and able to teach and scale. The latter fuels all of that work.

Form is a bit different.  My token athletic example for the week is as follows:

I listened to Dan Patrick, who’s full name is actually Daniel Patrick Pugh by the way (didn’t know this until I heard him interview Zachary Levi), interview former NBA star Ray Allen about his record for most three-pointers in a career being broken by Steph Curry.  

Ray and Steph both happen to be some of my favorite professional athletes of all time. It's not because of their amazing athletic ability but because of their amazing work ethic and ability to repeat the same motion of shooting a basketball over a very long period of time. It's amazing how many different places, times, games scenarios, and numerous other variables that they were and are still able to balance in order to get off the perfect shot.

Ray made a record 2,973 three-pointers in his eighteen year NBA career.  Steph will probably break the record before this blog even posts. Each of them have displayed an incredible amount of consistency.

Both Ray and Steph have the passion to be great at something and that passion led them to developing excellent techniques.  I am sure that they began learning shooting techniques from a very young age.

In the interview with Dan, Ray mentioned how his father was an excellent shooter and Steph is the son of an NBA player, Dell Curry.  Passion for the game fueled the development of their technique.  Once they developed a technique, I don't think it will ever truly leave them.  

Ray also pointed out in the interview about how some of the legends of the game can still shoot pretty well.  He talked about Reggie Miller, who held the three-point record before him, and Boston Celtic Hall of Famer, Larry Bird.  You could line them up now and they would still have good technique. 

Form is different.  It has to be consistently practiced.  A 50 year old retired player’s form is not going to be in the same shape as Steph’s because he is still playing.

Form is contrasted with honesty.  You must always be honest with yourself to understand the quality of your form.  Those variables I mentioned above have an effect on an NBA player’s night.  The form is going to be a little bit different in every game and they have to acknowledge that.  If a certain shot or place on the floor is not treating them well one night, they shouldn't take as many shots in that fashion.  In shoot around the next day, they should work on that shot.

I'm asking you to be honest with yourself no matter how far along you are in your impact work.  Do what you have to do to consistently work on your form.

Slam Dunk

Basketball is a great sport. It's fluid. It has athletes of all different sizes (not quite the same variety as football, see E-Impact 53).  It has a variety of strategies.  These are all reasons why it's entertaining for people across the globe.

Your work to make the world a better place should also be very fluid. It should apply different strategies and involve different people.  It should be honest and passionate work to help others.

Think of yourself as the leader of a super talented team.

The easiest basket in an NBA game is a slam dunk.  All coaches would take a dunk attempt on every possession if they could. No offense to Ray and Steph and the value of the three point shot, but there is not as high a percentage chance of success when you launch the ball at 23 feet away from the basket. Plus, a dunk just feels powerful.

The dunk contest gets more views than the three point shooting contest.

In impact work, not everything is going to be easy but the more slam dunks you have the better.

Establish an honest and passionate team, and form and technique will result.

Go get ‘em coach.