I have been reading about personal development, productivity, and health for several years, and have been in search of my own purpose, personal mission, and core values every since. I also felt that everything was connected somehow, but didn’t know how. Then, a few weeks ago, things suddenly clicked. I translated my epiphany into my own Personal Growth Framework (PGF), which serves as a structure in which to place every piece of information I read or hear. As I believe that this structure will remain consistent over time, I decided to base my logo on it. So from now on, the banner on this website will have a bit more color. :)
Audrey’s Personal Growth Framework
My framework consists of six building blocks: Purpose, Vision, Core Values, Goals, Productivity, and Health. Together, they guide my actions, behavior, and success. As I mentioned above, I believe that the structure will remain the same, but the content will continue to evolve. For instance, I recently published my Core Values, and for this period in my life they ring true to me. However, I will review them several times a year to check whether I still relate to them, and whether I want to add, replace, or remove a value. The position of my Core Values stays the same in the framework, but the actual contents are flexible.
My Personal Growth Framework - also available as .pdf download!
Purpose, Mission, Core Values
These three elements are closely related. At the top is purpose, which can go as deep as to why you are on this earth, or it can be more of a North Star, something that you want to achieve in the far future, a type of person you want to become, or a certain lifestyle you want to have. It took me forever to figure this out. I read multiple blogs, tried to complete several questionnaires, and followed a webinar, and still I couldn’t come up with answers. So, I let it sit in the back of my mind, hoping that my subconscious would continue processing all that I had read and heard, and then one day my purpose emerged from my subconscious to my conscious state of mind, and it clicked.
Looking back, I think the most impactful questions you can ask yourself in search of your purpose are the following: At your funeral, what would you like your loved ones to say about you? What is your legacy?
Once you have your purpose, it’s relatively easy to define your mission. I see the mission as the actionable counterpart of the purpose. For instance, my purpose is to lead by example and inspire people to live the best life they can imagine. From that, I derived my mission, which is to help people get in the driver’s seat and go live the best life they can imagine. While my purpose influences my actions - if I want to lead by example and inspire, I need to walk the talk - my mission gives me a more specific target, which is to reach people and help them.
The last part of this trinity, core values, influence your day-to-day behavior. I elaborate more on how I determined and live by my core values in this article.
Goals
Based on your mission and core values, or totally unrelated to them, you can set your goals. Since the start of this year, I set new goals every 3 months. The first quarter I didn’t have a purpose, mission or core values, so my goals were focused on health and how often I took the train to work instead of the car.
In the third week of the second quarter, I established my purpose, mission and core values. The goals I had set did not relate to them at all and to be honest, I wasn’t doing so well on my goals at the time. I reviewed my goals to connect them more to what I stand for, but even then I had difficulties setting them. It didn’t feel right to embed my core values in a goal, and making a goal from my purpose felt like I was devaluating my purpose. Then I remembered that my purpose and core values are there to guide my actions and behavior, and are not a dot on the horizon to achieve one day. So, I set a goal based on my mission, and that is to grow the reach of this website to help and inspire more people.
Productivity
An important note on productivity is that for me, being productive is not a goal. It is a tool or a portfolio of tools to help me achieve my goals, or to complete the obligatory things in a more efficient manner so that I have time left to spend on doing things I love, such as writing articles for this website.
That said, I dedicated an entire category for productivity because there are so many techniques and hacks to write about, and because it just is a fun topic to explore.
Health
Last but not least, there is health. I consider health to be twofold: mental health and physical health. I want my physical health to be good so that I have enough energy to do the things I want. To achieve this, I pay attention to nutrition and exercise. For my mental health I use meditation. I’ve noticed that meditation helps me recognize faster what I feel, and rather than reacting to that feeling or acting it out on someone else, I simply acknowledge the feeling and let it go.
What I still want to improve is to recognize more quickly that I am ruminating. I’ve noticed that my mind wanders a lot, and most of the time it goes to the past and I dwell on things that happened or have been said. I believe that meditation can also help with this, but I need to utilize it more intentionally.
I need help!
As you can see, I positioned Health separately but (hopefully) with the message that it spans all aspects of life. It’s more than a building block, it’s perhaps the one determinant for the quality of life. However, I have some difficulties connecting this block to the other blocks. The only clear connection I see is that it boosts productivity, but my gut feeling says that it’s related to other blocks as well. Or maybe it doesn’t even have to be connected and it’s strongest as a stand-alone pillar.
I turn to you, my reading community, for help and ideas! What connections do you see between Health and other elements of the framework? Or do you think I should keep it separate?
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