Tend Your Garden - 90 Days to a life of purpose

Introduction: Transformation Stories

We want to take you on a journey of transformation, a journey we and many others have gone on. Along the way, we will share many stories of discovery and growth.

What Transformation Looks Like

Before we do that, however, we want to introduce a framework we use to conceptualize transformation in our lives. While everyone’s journey will be unique to them, the process itself tends to follow a predictable pattern:

Nudge

Something triggers us. Maybe it’s the realization that we are not doing something of value. We don’t feel fulfilled, we’re not making a difference, we don’t truly enjoy our work. It might be a situation where we see someone who loves what they are doing and are excited about the journey they’re on and we envy them or feel dissatisfaction with our own lives. Maybe it’s a life changing event that rattles our brain or heart.

One way or another, something nudges you to want to change. In other words, you’re finally ready to do what you were designed to do.

Discovery

We begin the journey through prayer, talking with people, and identifying who we are—our strengths, passions, experiences, that is, our gifting. This can take place over a series of events and a long time. You may experience excitement, uncertainty, fear, confusion, all of which are normal as you start to transition into this new discovery.

Actions

Once we start understanding our gifts, we take small steps along our path-to-purpose. Each small action leads to more clarity and to subsequent next steps, moving us down the path.

Living God’s Plan

Our objective is to define the elements of our dream, mission, purpose, and vision so we can be living in God’s plan for our life. This is where true satisfaction is experienced. This is where God’s blessings are enjoyed.

Typical Transformations

After doing thousands of DNA® exercises with people, we’ve discovered that people tend to experience one of three kinds of transformation:

Minor Course Correction

This is the most typical outcome for the DNA® process. People stay put in their personal lives and career but make adjustments that help them live into their gifts where they already are.

Your journey down the path-to-purpose doesn’t need to upend your whole life. In one sense, it is simply a process of pushing out (deleting, delaying, deferring, diminishing) the things that run contrary to your gifting and pulling in things that are aligned—and doing this on a consistent, gradual basis. Although people around won’t see the changes, over time they add up to a material transformation.

Examples of Minor Course Corrections

A manager in a Big 4 accounting firm realized she needed to work with other partners in the firm in order to expand her network. So, she started introducing herself to a small, select list of partners she admired to let them know she was available to assist them on their work. Over time, they started giving her assignments, thus expanding her reach.

A senior pastor of a church desired to spend more time with people and preparing for weekend sermons but found himself spending most of his time in administrative meetings and putting out fires around the office. When he realized how unhappy this made him, he hired an associate pastor to run the church and rewrote his own job description to allow him to focus on the things God gifted him to do.

An entrepreneur was nudged into integrating his Sunday spirituality into his Monday through Saturday work life. He set a target to read a chapter in the New Testament on a daily basis for one year.

A finance director sought out and volunteered for special projects that had nothing to do with his current job but were higher profile initiatives in his area of interests.

A Principal in a Big 3 consulting firm had to address his anger problems caused by stress. He decided to forge a habit of running. After a few successful months, he made a habit of running three times per week. It is now a lifestyle change for him.

After an analysis of why she was unhappy in her job, a Big 3 consultant decided to stop traveling on Sunday nights. This had a major impact on her family life.

All these people went through a discovery process to identify key elements needed in their life, took small steps which further clarified their elements that led to additional steps, and moved down the path-to-purpose. As they followed the process, they went through a life-altering mindset shift. They saw their prayers being answered, and they felt the joy of living a more purposeful life.

Sideways Shift Within Same Company/Industry

Many people discover that their current employer provides great opportunities for them to shift their role or emphasis in ways that better leverage their gifts and make more impact. In other words, sometimes you have found the right industry or field but are not in the best role to feel challenged and satisfied.

Examples of Sideways Shifts

Darren Ho, the Director of Sales/Marketing in Eli Lilly, used this platform to move into a passion for him: coaching. The company happened to be focusing on creating a coaching culture, so he applied and became the Director of Leadership and Employee Development of China, then rolled out a successful pilot which in turn catapulted him to a global role.

Kevin Gao, Head of Manufacturing for Baxter China, wanted to expand his horizons beyond China. Although there were opportunities outside, he realized Baxter gave him the platform he desired. After going through the discovery process, he took the needed small steps to get to the Head of Asia Pacific Manufacturing.

A Big 3 consulting firm principal was suffering poor results in the healthcare sector. This led him to question if the firm was the right place to be. After identifying his elements, he took the small steps of moving to the tech sector, networking with key partners, and building a business case for the value he could add.

A senior pastor realized that all the time spent preparing for sermons and ministering to people was draining him. He discovered he was more gifted in the area of finance and strategic planning, so he approached other leaders in the church and suggested that he change seats. He encouraged the church to find a new senior pastor so that he could focus on the areas that would better edify the church.

A life insurance executive changed his focus on where he wanted to have an impact, from Greater China to his home country of Singapore. While it was a difficult transition at first, over time it became a major stepping-stone to his next career.

Change of Vocation

This kind of transformation is the most difficult one to make. Before deciding to make a leap of faith, many have to process the feeling that changing vocations means they have wasted their years in their current vocation. This, however, is a mistake in thinking. It’s the experience they’ve accumulated over the years that has put them into a position of purpose.

Lance’s Story: A Change of Vocation

My (Lance’s) own story is a good example of this last and most dramatic type of transformation. At any rate, if we expect you to be vulnerable enough to open yourself to transformation, the least we can do is share our own journeys. My transformation was a major one in terms of career but not so large in terms of my passions.

Nudge

At 35, I had already become an executive at Pepsico in Tokyo. The ride up the corporate ladder was wild and fast, and I was blessed by the opportunity, but there was something missing. I knew in my heart of hearts this role wasn’t my destiny.

Then I read Stephen Covey’s First Things First. He taught me that we must identify and act on the things in our life that are important even if they do not feel urgent—for example, health, relationships, and our life and career dreams. It was the nudge I needed.

Discovery

I began to take any assessment tool I could find to learn more about myself. These tools were good in that they helped me to expose my strengths and passions, but they all fell short in practical application. I wanted a tool or process that would help me to identify more specifically my gifts so that I could make a real change. In the middle of my self-discovery process, I began to put together the principles for what would become the Dream and Achieve® (DNA) method.

Three years into the period of my self-discovery, my wife and I met a couple at a party who invited us to their church. The pastor at the church was a Biblical scholar who ignited my desire to understand the intellectual side of the Christian story. This invitation proved to be another nudge—a divine one—and it led me to want to integrate my emotional and intellectual self with my faith. It led me to want to marry my faith in Jesus with my entrepreneurial gifting.

Actions

Through the process of learning...