1
Go Beyond Passion and Success

ALMOST WITHOUT FAIL, when I ask people to tell me their highest goal, they give me what a company would call a purpose, a part of its organizational vision. People are often magnanimous, saying they exist to improve the lot of others, to leave the world a better place or simply to serve. Sometimes they refer to their own personal development. One person, for example, told me her highest goal was to adapt.

If I keep asking the question in different ways—“That’s good, but what goal do you have that supports you in living out that purpose?” or “What allowed you to get past that difficult time that you had last year?”—most people eventually begin to get at their highest goal.

Few people say their highest goal is something material—the very nature of the question goes deeper than a desire to win the lottery or own a beach house. Still, very few people talk about the highest goal that probably has been with them from the beginning of their life and that has been supporting them in everything they do. I suspect that is because we are conditioned to talk about our highest goal in terms of our potential contribution, rather than about the force that helps us to make that contribution.