What's your stake?

Wow! Time flies by so quickly. The past month has seen me in Atlanta assisting a Fundamentals coaching course for CTI, in L.A. experiencing delicious time with dear friends who live there, and in northern California for the third of four Leadership retreats. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, garden seedlings are growing like mad and the days continue to be warm and sumptuous. Face-to-face coaching clients have really enjoyed me moving my office out to the deck lately!

So what's top of mind for this coach today? Lots of things. Here's one to try on, though: what's my stake in the world?

We've all heard the phrases, "put a stake in the ground" and "claim your stake." (And here all this time you thought it was "steak"!) :-) This is really about purpose, either one you feel has been assigned to you or one you get to make up from scratch, either way, doesn't matter. What does matter is that we're all consciously up to something in our lives...about something in our lives.

Lots of times, new clients will freeze up at the question, "what is your life purpose?" It can feel far away and overwhelming, or impossible to discern. But, to quote a favorite band, "the thing we need is never all that hard to find." So, consider any of these three questions as a starting point:

- What's happening in the world that I'm not okay with?
- What's missing that the world really needs?
- What something already meeting a deep need in the world that I want to align with and contribute to?

And when you look at those places, what do they tell you about what kind of stake you might have to make in the world?

Here's an important point: often we look inside for our purpose. We navel gaze, ponder, wish and wonder years away waiting for some huge epiphany to strike. But guess what? The answer is out there. In the eyes of the person sitting across from you, or the thing you hear on the news that's just not okay, or the work being done that you admire so much you can hardly dare to believe that there might be a place there for you, too.

It's a radical idea, I know, that our purpose is to be found outside of us. The key is to get out there and start doing something, and your purpose will walk up and wrap you in its arms, welcoming you home!