Living with Intent and Purpose
”You can’t leave it to forces outside yourself to create your destiny. You have to do it.” Bozoma Saint John
There have probably been more words written and deep thoughts had about the purpose of our lives than any other topic. Humans seem to have a unique and universal desire to understand why we are here, and what we are supposed to do to make our lives matter.
It can be surprisingly easy, though, to lose sight of your life’s greater overall purpose in the daily grind of tasks, responsibilities, and habits that we all fall into. So how do you live with intent and purpose?
Define Intent and Purpose for You
The first step for all of us to live with more intent and purpose is to define what that means for ourselves.
Bozoma Saint John, named World’s Most Influential Chief Marketing Officer by Forbes and previously CMO at Apple, Uber, and Netflix, has talked a lot about this. In her interview with Forbes, she tells of her early days as a marketer and how looking up at the people in charge she didn’t see anyone who looked or acted like she did. She listened to and read all the tips and tricks for getting to the top, but knew that she couldn’t rely on any of them because she wasn’t like any of the people who came before her. She had to make her own rules, follow her own intuitions, and pursue greatness without a set plan because no one else could make one for her.
So if you aspire to live with intent and purpose, sit down and think about what that means to you. Write it as a mission statement for yourself, or as a bulleted list of your core values, or sketch out how this looks for your own life. There isn’t a right or a wrong answer, as long as it is true for you.
Doing Things with Intention
Once you have a clear vision of the big picture of what matters to you, it’s time to put it into practice. Few of us have time to focus all day every day on only doing things that fulfill our big picture priorities—most of us have to do the dishes and go to work at some point. But, all of us can reframe our actions to better align with our purpose.
So how do you do things with intentions? Let’s think about a typical ten minute work break that someone might take. WIthout the framework of intent and purpose, this could be getting a quick cup of coffee and mindlessly scrolling social media. But if your personal mission statement is to protect and appreciate nature and the environment, that same ten minutes could be getting coffee in your reusable mug and drinking it outside with your bare feet in the grass while chatting with like-minded people in an environmental activist social media group. It is the same ten minutes, filled with the same activities, but the purpose and intention are different.
Working hard and playing hard can still be what you do, they can just be done within the framework of your larger goals. Life isn’t always going to be the big, impressive gestures—doing the small things in the little moments each day are what living with intention is about.
Technology and Intentional Living
Technology plays such an incredibly huge role in all our lives, that any discussion of how we live has to include thinking about the role of technology. So does technology make it harder or easier to live your purpose? The answer is that it depends on how we use it.
In some ways technology—especially our ever present phones—make it easier to do things without intention. It can be so easy to escape our daily lives by plugging into our devices that we don’t feel like we have time to focus on our bigger picture priorities. On the flip side, technology is an incredibly powerful tool that can help us do anything we choose, including living our daily lives in line with our personal mission statements.
Let’s think again about our person whose mission statement is to protect and appreciate nature and the environment, and explore examples of living with intention that technology makes possible. These are some ways that technology allows small tasks and moments of downtime to become moments of intention in an average day for our environmentalist:
Brewing her morning coffee from sustainably sourced coffee beans found and ordered online
Composting the spent grounds and other food waste in a countertop composting system to keep them out of landfills
Unplugging her electric car from her solar powered house to start her morning commute
Using a search engine that plants trees with it’s ad revenue (like Ecosia) while at work
Signing an online petition for stronger environmental protection laws to her local and national representatives on her lunch break
Remembering to bring her old batteries to work, where there is a battery recycling program to keep these batteries-responsible for 20% of hazardous waste in landfills-from further polluting
Connecting with a local hiking group via social media for an in-person walk after work
Paying for her groceries on the way home with a credit card designed to support her environmental goals (like one from Amalgamated Bank that does not lend to fossil fuel companies, and invests a quarter of their portfolio to climate protection companies).
Each of these things that allow our hypothetical person to live her life with intent and purpose are made possible (or made much easier) with technology. Tech is a tool, how we each choose to use it is up to us.
How a Tech Company Can Operate with Intent and Purpose
We at Moser believe that doing business with our big picture purpose in mind matters. Our 8 core principles guide our actions as individuals at work, and the direction of the company as a whole. Here’s what we think matters most in our day:
Accountability - We believe accountability is a key characteristic of the servant leader. We outline clear expectations and empower our employees to model our core values. We encourage sharing of ideas, overcoming challenges and celebrating successes as a team to create a culture of trust and accountability.
Balance - We promote and encourage work-life balance by providing a healthy work environment, flexibility of schedule and resources to allow each person to define their own measure of a healthy lifestyle. As life circumstances change, our employees have control and flexibility to adapt and remain energized to do their best work while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Collaboration - We foster a positive workplace for our employees through collaboration and teamwork. This creates a foundation where challenges are overcome through interactive problem-solving and new ideas are matured through healthy dialog and participation from the entire team.
Focus - We create a rich customer experience through listening to our customer's needs, inclusion in the decision-making process and understanding their measure of success. As a partner, our mutual goals and expectations allow us to focus and succeed together.
Integrity - We maintain a culture of integrity at all levels of the organization through honesty, transparency and trust. Strong ethics and uncompromising values begin with leadership and that's modeled throughout the organization. Honesty and integrity are the foundation of our long-term partnership with employees, customers and suppliers.
Social Responsibility - We invest in our communities through support of causes, volunteer opportunities, projects, and local activities. For our global community, we recognize our broader responsibilities by supporting sustainable efforts that protect the environment. And we focus on making a positive impact by improving social AND economic futures. Volunteer projects
Support - We support our employees' professional development by providing technical training, mentoring and access to technology resources, allowing each person to achieve their full potential. We foster a sense of pride and accomplishment through teamwork and partnership with our customers.
Transparency - We think that being honest and authentic is the foundation for effective communication and that it creates a safe environment for sharing of ideas and accountability. We know it's the best way to build relationships, develop trust, and create opportunities for innovation, empowerment and recognition.
To learn more about Moser, our values, and our services, visit our website or listen to our podcast.
