NORTHERN PLANNER

Viktor E. Franks, neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor,  wrote Man's Search for Meaning after he was liberated in 1945. It was a dedication to people who keep going, even through the darkest of times.

He found that if people had a positive purpose in their lives, linked to very specific goal, they were able to endure pretty much anything that got in the way. He named it a 'concrete assignment'.

With a goal, no one could stop you, if you properly committed to it, visualised and imagined what it would feel like to properly achieve your life's work. 

No matter what fate hurled your way, you could push through it.

 

Powerful stuff.

 

First point, ignore all the naval gazing about brand purpose, especially the PR folks trying to carve out some sort of stupid niche in doing good rather than selling stuff.

It's a blatant a play to own the 'brand conversation.  Like media agencies using the word 'content' to steal making stuff from creative agencies.

I'm been in the internal meetings where these sort of plots are hatched. Trust me on this.

Purpose matters, but it's less to do with manipulated data on trust.

It provides focus.

Its about getting the internal bit right THEN externalising it. 

 

Every brand in trouble I ever worked on has one of two problems.

They either got lazy and forgot to keep their 'Why' in tune with the rhythms of their customers's lives. This can be turned around with work. 

Or worse, they had forgotten why they started in the first place. This is a catastrophe.

 

A shared goal makes your people more committed, so your 'why' never gets forgotten. 

Committed people form a stronger culture, they do better work, because the work feels less like work.

They like hanging out together too, you have a team, not just staff. 

 

And people buy from people.

When you start externalising that culture, you stand out for naturally being great in a world that still has to make it up. You document rather than create. You make people feel something, rather than just buy something, which actually makes them buy more.

Not because they can quote The Grand Brand Mission (please) in a tracking study, they think of you first because we remember how we feel far more than what we are told. 

 

 

Then there's you. 

 

You don't get very far without some innate qualities, no matter where you're going. Yet it's seductively easy to lose your mojo if it isn't personal. Talent for craft is OK, but talent to keep at it is gold. 

Will is a weak force. To stay motivated, you need to feel it, you need to care. You need to be willing to fight for it. 

That's what gets you through to horrible bits. 

 

These questions are worth considering: 

What gets you up in the morning?

What are you passionate about?

What makes you angry?

What do you like to talk about?

What are you curious about? 

 

Do you leave these things at the door when you enter the workplace? 

Do you keep these things hidden in your personal life?

Honestly, do you get to immerse yourself in what makes you come alive? 

 

The energy to get things done is directly related to how much it matters to you. 

 

Me?

I've learned not to do anything just because it fits in with other expectations. 

Enthusiasm is infectious, if you love something, it rubs off on others.

I want people to like me for who I am and who I could be, nothing more. 

I'm seeing the difference between what I must do, what I need and what I love. Working out how to align them. 

I'm rediscovering what my core is, so I can align that properly with the the people I care about, the people I'm yet to meet and the need to keep a roof over little heads. 

And I because of this, I have more energy than ever.