I suspect most of you have heard of the Rosetta Stone, a granite slab containing a decree written by Egyptian ruler Ptolemy in 196 B.C. presented in three languages: hieroglyphics, Demotic, and ancient Greek. The stone was not discovered until 1799, and that discovery provided the means to crack the code of the long-forgotten language of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Today, the term “Rosetta Stone” is used idiomatically to describe the first essential “key” to a new field of encrypted knowledge. In the same vein, this article aims to be your Personal Rosetta Stone for Finding Your Life’s Purpose.
What is your Life’s Purpose?
In my mentor practice, I work to help my mentees find their true purpose in life, and to align their life choices with that purpose. Finding and understanding that purpose is a struggle for most mentees, yet without that knowledge, aligning life-work choices becomes an even greater challenge. In life, as in most other things, a system’s view of decision-making means that these discrete choices ripple across a person’s life impacting and often limiting future opportunities, sometimes to the extent that fulfilling their life’s purpose is unobtainable. Mentees, indeed, all of us, need a personal “Rosetta Stone” to decipher and understand the “language” of our life’s purpose with answers to these three central questions:
- What is my unique purpose in life?
- What are my unique gifts to share with the world?
- At the end of my days, what will matter the most to me?
Key to Personal “Rosetta Stone”
I have discovered a key to help you not only find your own answers to these questions, but also to create your own “Rosetta Stone” to provide focus for the rest of your life. What would you be willing to pay for such a gift? If I told you that you can have it for free, would you believe me? Truth is, the key is free, but that does not make it easy to find or to use. After reflecting on this for a few decades, I believe the key is embedded in your answers to the following two questions:
- How do you define wealth?
- What enduring legacy are you seeking to create during your lifetime?
Alignment of Purpose and Behavior
In my book, “Growing Mentor Intelligence – A Field Guide to Mentoring,” I describe integrity as alignment in mind, body, and spirit. When I see mentees floundering and frustrated with life choices and lost opportunities, I ask them to take the time and energy (emotional, spiritual, and physical) to candidly reflect on these two central life-defining questions to gain some degree of clarity around the misalignment between their desired purpose and behaviors. Sometimes that misalignment comes from a mentee’s sense of immortality! It is more often a disconnect between their answer to the first question and that of the second. Regardless of cause, alignment is possible with reflection and effort.
The Wisdom of Age
I believe that the older a person gets and the more experienced they are with mortality and loss, the answers to both questions dovetail into an elegant overarching life focus often obscured by youth. With age, it becomes easier to understand your own personal Rosetta Stone—the difference between temporal wealth and temporal legacy, and enduring wealth and enduring legacy. Reflecting on mortality becomes more natural, and you become more acutely aware of the press of time. Part of the work that I do as a mentor is to help my younger mentees take a more strategic, mature view of these two questions, to journal their evolving answers as life experiences shape them, and to help those they mentor do the same. The effort is never easy, but the peace and fulfillment that come from the search and the journey are well worth the effort.
Seeking Realignment
If you find yourself feeling out of alignment and frustrated with the direction of your life, the best remedy is absolutely free. Life is too short to be spent in regret for what could have been, so do something about it. Find a quiet spot, grab a notebook to record your thoughts, sit down with a nice glass of wine (or other beverage of your choice), turn off your cell and computer to escape the distractions, put on some quiet music, and listen to the answers your mind, body and soul give you to these two key questions. As with most disciplines, this exercise will be difficult at first, but grows easier with repetition. I encourage you to do it well and often!
The Gift
If you approach this with candor and integrity, the answers will come, and when they do, you will gain the central focus you need to sift through the “noise” of your life. You will own the key to being aligned, to sharing your unique gifts, and to fulfilling your noble purpose in this world. That will define your enduring legacy and at the end of your days, nothing else will matter more. That is the gift, and the promise, of finding, and using, your own “Rosetta Stone.”
