Money Tip 010: Purpose Driven Work Matters to Thrive. FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY.

Nothing in this post is a reccomendation.

If you aren’t working and living in your “purpose”, this topic can be trigging, confusing, maybe even frustrating. If you are living in your “purpose”, you can probably totally relate to why that is. For those who have met themselves inside of their purpose (it comes as a surprise for most people when they get there) then we all understand why the topic can release a slew of negative emotions along the way as you get there. It’s not always fun trying to figure out why you’re on this planet. It can at times feel a little useless with the state of the planet and humanity, especially given the last few years. But I promise you, you have a purpose, and it is wonderful and belongs to your journey through life. It is your birthright. You deserve to get there. I want to help you figure it out. I hope this post might help in some way, regardless of your age. It is never too late to pursue purpose driven work and to follow your curiosity. Until you die. Then, it will be too late. But if you’re reading this, you’re still alive. So let’s get this show on the road.

I remember reading the first few pages of the book Course in Miracles. That’s actually all I ever read because I found this one part to be all I needed to motivate me to move in more purpose driven directions. Those first few pages have all these little sayings and there was one that drove me until this very moment. It went something along the lines of this; When you live inside your purpose, you live outside of time. Because once you’ve found what you’re meant to do, you do that purpose forever and time ceases to exist. I have always wanted to live outside of time. Art was always a way for me to lose giant chunks of time. I thought that was my purpose for years because it was one of the only things I could lose time in. What are the things you do that you lose track of time doing?

I remember thinking “WOW! So that’s the real time machine right there. Purpose.” We have this thing in humanity called Time-Sickness. It’s awful and it is real. to travel through time without time-sickness. Larry Dossey coined the term in 1982. But we’ve been doing this thing where we are sick with time since the dawn of civilization. Yes, we all suffer from time-sickness. It is a manifestation of our culture and it is exhausting. I, for one, would like to live outside of time. Maybe it’s why I have always been obsessed with time travel and teleportation. I digress. So, after I put the book down I got a little frustrated with my timeline of life but I realized time is not linear and there is still time to live outside of time! I had always thought I’d know by this age what my purpose it. This was 2019 and I was 36. I realized that maybe instead of worrying about time and liking what I’m doing for work, a better use of my time would be to really lean into my purpose. I should start by simply having A PURPOSE. I thought finance was my purpose but was it really? Why did I go into finance. WHAT IS THE WHY we are doing things. Doing something with purpose seemed like the path I had been on to get me to that job, but where was it leading me? How was I helping people, women specifically? I went into finance because I wanted to help women get access to funding for start ups, if I was being honest with myself. But was I on the right path to do that? I realized I was on the right path-is but wanted to get closer to that timelessness purpose and feel closer to my work and the people I was working with…or was it time to change sectors again?! Eek. Well, I decided the following. My purpose has been changing. Not everyone’s purpose is just so obvious and who’s to say that your purposes in life won’t grow as you grow?! If you don’t know your ultimate purpose, just have A PURPOSE you can follow for now. You don’t need to know what you’re complete utter life purpose is to thrive at work and love what you do. You just need to feel like what you’re doing has a purpose for now. It has to interest you and answer a big Why? And honestly, if you don’t know how to get there, Curiosity is your key.

People always talk to me about passion fueled work. And I always say Uhhh Sorry but No to passion. I did passion and it led me astray and landed me with all sorts of financial issues. For 15 years I did a passion. It was a flame that I never thought would go out. Fashion was my passion for a decade and a half. And it was BRUTAL. Not just because fashion was an abusive industry but also because I could feel the flame flickering on and off the whole time and it terrified me. And then one day the light went out.
And I was in the dark and boy was that a scary time in life. By that time, I was surrounded by a whole lot of processes that damaged the planet and grossed me out while having to interact with a bunch of humans who did not care about me or other women like me, who cared way too much about material, money and surface driven things. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t all bad. I had a blast. I lived all over the world. I wouldn’t change those 15 years. But I couldn’t do it for another 15. I figured out what I got out of it. I had to find what I was grateful for to move on. I had made friends for life, all over the world. I had learned how to do every part of business inside of a fashion company as a designer and as a model. After my passion for the work and the industry went away, then I had to walk through several very strange careers just to get to a place that I am now. Now I am striving towards my purpose with ease and I feel great! But my goodness, it was not easy. It was downright painful and I blame it on listening to people who said follow your passion. It didn’t have to be so hard. All along I knew I was smart. If you’re reading this, you are too. Now, I say FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY. THAT will not lead you astray and if it does at least you’re enjoying it along the way. Leave the passion for your hobbies so it can come as go as it pleases.

If I was honest about what I was really curious about in life, I would have gotten to this point I am at now, 10 years earlier. I tell people to follow that curiosity without apologies to the people raising eyebrows at you for doing so. If you follow your heart + your brain, you will enjoy the journey and the growth. It works like this: You follow the thing you are most curious about. The thing you wake up thinking about and go to bed reading about. The great thing about curiosity is that it’s the perfect gateway career. That is because it will always lead you to more things that endlessly interest you and that you are even more curious about. So each new thing you do, remains exciting or at least grows your expertise. You want to get expertise so people will just pay you for all you have learned. That’s the best way for women to make money - using their brains. The odd thing is that one day after following a whole lot of curiosity paths, and being happy along the way because you’re interested in your work, you realize - AH! There is my purpose! It’s just sitting there like it was waiting there for you all along to just commit to following what actually interests and motivates you. You need to listen to the strings that pull at your heart.

The added value to listening to yourself, and honestly some irony too, is that consumers actually WANT to spend on and work with brands and founders that follow the leader on purpose driven work. While you decide what company you want to start ( see the blog about more VC funding for women and minorities than ever before) that really helps you live in your purpose, try to find a company in a sector that you’re curious about. Try to find a company that is fueled by purpose and curiosity and that you look up to. If you join early enough you might even get equity in a company that you help build, doing something that you find totally fascinating. When you aren’t interested in it anymore, it’s time to move on. Life is too short and time is to precious to torture yourself. And doing something your heart isn’t in, really isn't good for anyone. I’m not gong to bore you with statistics of depression for people in the work field because we are an optimistic blog and most of us know what that feels like. Instead let’s end with some honest statistics around purpose driven businesses.

There are some AWESOME statistics around this topic on The Business of Purpose’s website. I’d spend some time on there if you need more convincing that purpose driven business is where it is at. The following quotes on this blog are taken from their website. Concerning consumers; “64% of global consumers find brands that actively communicate their purpose more attractive. 62% want companies to take a stand on issues they are passionate about, and 52% say they are more attracted to buy from certain brands over others if these brands stand for something bigger than just the products and services it sells, which aligns with their personal values.” Then they reported that Purpose driven brands do better in the market “Brands with a purpose set on improving our quality of life outperform the stock market by 120%.” 120%? Seriously? How can we argue with that?!! People are getting the memo, especially millennials. “There is a rise in people’s expressed importance to live life with a sense of purpose: 80% in 2016, 89% in 2017, 91% in 2018.” Yet this statistic contradicts that importance. “Only 28% of respondents in a PwC employee survey reported feeling fully connected to their company’s purpose. Just 39% said they could clearly see the value they create, a mere 22% agreed that their jobs allow them to fully leverage their strengths, and more than half weren’t even “somewhat” motivated, passionate, or excited about their jobs.” Wow. Also kinda duh, right?

It contradicts itself, which explains why our society is so strange. If people don’t feel like they see the value they create, yet they want purpose driven work, why do they stay in those jobs? Especially when “employees feel they are working towards a good cause, it can increase their productivity by up to 30%.”. The issue might be that people just feel stuck or are breezing by doing the minimum or are scared to move professions. I get it. But being in your fear, laziness, or limbo is really no way to live. We must be the change! I switched industries 3 times in my 30s. The second time I was past 35. I’ll probably change a few more times as I feel more and more in my purpose. The good part is that once you change once or twice, it becomes addicting in a way. You can almost hear your purpose driven time machine calling to you. It was really awkward to get out of fashion for me, but staying in fashion was actually more scary that just doing what I needed to do to grow out of it. I know in my gratitude that I have for a 15 year career in fashion, that I will always have the skills to design and manufacture and distribute and market clothing. That is my MBA from the school of hard knocks. But the passion left the building. The curiosity was not there. And that’s the beautiful annoying thing about life, it will get to a point where staying put is more painful than doing the growth. In the book Owning Your Own Shadow by Robert Johnson he actually recommends changing jobs int he middle of your life, because we need to grow in totally new directions and to honor the other side of our lives. Change doesn’t mean it will be all rainbows and sunshine and we all know this. But it actually is a lot brighter on the other side of major life shifts. One that was totally worth it when all has been said and done. You might say you have too many responsibilities or you cannot afford to change. When I felt that way, I knew it was time to put my head down to work hard to save up to 6 months of my living expenses, spending way less that I was used to spending in order to do this, and moving to a cheaper state away from all my friends. All so that I could study for 6 months to learn so that I could change. I did a lot of studying at night while still working on things I didn’t really love. But I did do it. People with less than me figured it out, so I did too. I read all sorts of books like Everything is Figureoutable and You are a Badass to keep me motivated. Now I share the journey because I am proof that if I could get out of fashion and into finance by way of real estate and a ton of studying in my 30s, along with following my curiosity, then you can too. You just need to have an idea about what really sparks your interests and move toward the interests that you feel will continue to interest you for a long time. Most of all, you have to be brave.

The best thing in the world is to get paid for doing something that you find interesting or want to learn more about. This is not a recommendation to go back to school. Honestly I think unless you’re going to become a doctor or lawyer, school is way too expensive these days… and unnecessary. I love this Elon Musk quote about college for all those who are considering taking out loans to change their lives. You do not need to go broke to be an educated adult or even to attain college degrees. Almost all necessary information for all sectors are free and online. I believe in growing your own mind on your free time and in apprenticing. I believe in asking for help and finding mentors. Most of all, I believe in honoring your curiosity. I believe in changing direction (pivoting) when you feel that the path you’re walking on is leading nowhere - as often as you feel this. If you grow yourself and your life in the direction of purpose driven work, chances are that in a few years, you will be thriving and you will be in shock of the simple truth that all you had to do was follow your curiosity.

There is no such thing as “You have to” do anything. “You can do anything but not everything, so choose wisely.” I don’t know who said that but I think about it a lot. It’s so true. I want to live outside of time. I want to feel like every day is an adventure and that I’m really feeling alive inside my life. So, to thrive, do your curiosity. You have to be strong, brave and smart if you go on this quest. And most of all you need to believe that what you will do on this planet matters, that people out there need you, and that you will figure out how to time travel by way of trusting in what those heart strings pull you towards. Time is a tool. You use it until you find your purpose. Using it in curiosity has surely served me the most.

Please share your journey with us on IG. Tag us #themelroseshow and @themelrosepodcast if you decide to share your own curiosity path!