Through participating in the GPS Life Purpose Journey, people use DISC to discover their personality.  That understanding puts them on a path to leading a focused, satisfying and meaningful life.  Many, for the first time, begin to understand their traits and whether they are action-oriented, enthusiastic and energetic, warm and relational, or perhaps perfectionistic.  They achieve a measure of freedom because they now know they were designed differently from others, that they don’t have to be like everyone else, and can embrace and enjoy their uniqueness.

Step One: Discover Your Personality

The first step in understanding who you are is to understand your personality.  People have been trying to understand what makes us different from one another since before the time of Christ.  It was Hippocrates (460 BC – 370 BC) that made the first known study of personality.  He held that a person's personality was based on the balance of bodily humours; yellow bile, black bile, phlegm and blood.  He meant well, but ended up being very wrong.  Since then many other physicians and scientists have studied the emotions, attitudes, and behavior that motivate people.

There are many good tools available for identifying personality.  The Enneagram Personality Tests divides the human race into nine behaviors.  Myers-Briggs identifies our uniqueness by focusing on four dichotomies.  The one I recommend, because it is the most widely used method, and the one used in the GPS Life Purpose Journey, is the DISC Personality Profile.  Disk focuses on four personality components:

• Dominance or Drive
• Influence
• Steadiness
• Conscientiousness

“Who am I?” is Everything

This question may seem elementary or the statement of an amnesiac. However, if we cannot clearly and quickly answer it, we risk making poor decisions and perhaps never reaching our full potential. We are all products of our family heritage, educational background, work experience and spiritual experience.  It is very easy to loose our true identity based only on an understanding of “what we do” and “what others expect of us.”  To answer the question, “who am I?” it is essential that we stop for a moment and reflect.

I wrestled with this question for the first time in my early 20’s.  I felt frustrated as I pondered what I had been put on this earth to do.  Fortunately, I had the opportunity to share my dissatisfaction with an older gentlemen who I trusted. As I was describing my situation and the pulling of others to make the choices they had made, he calmly said to me, “You just need to be the best George Gundlach you can be.”  I was stunned by his words.  The thought was both freeing and terrifying.  It was first freeing to find someone without an agenda for me.  The terrifying part was wondering how I was to discover my purpose that was lodged deep within my DNA.

Old, ugly, tired, mean, fat, and broke
I recently overheard a conversation between two Southerners.  One man asked how the other one was doing.  The other man answered saying, “I am old, ugly, tired, mean, fat, and broke.”  Now there, I humorously thought to myself, is a man who really knows who he is!  He was in touch with his identity and he responded with simple clarity.  Most of us, however, have a difficult time simply and succinctly answering the question, “Who am I?”

          
What are Your Core Values?
 
What are the principles, standards, or qualities that you live by?  Most importantly, what are your top five core values?  The easiest way to make your list is from a larger list of possible core values.  In the GPS Life Journey curriculum we use a list of 90 possibilities.  E-mail me and I will send the list to you.

Knowing your core values will help you demonstrate character and get and stay motivated.   They are formed in us through people we know and experiences we have.  To be successful in our life purpose it is essential that we know them and reflect on them frequently.  Fernando Cardoso, accomplished sociologist, professor and politician has said, “It is impossible to build enduring institutions (or a successful life) without solid values.”  Much like spokes in a wheel, our values help us move through life honorably, consistently, and successfully.

Directive: Write down your top five core values.  Display them.  Review them.   Live by them.

Successful Organizations Know their Values.

Earlier I recounted the story of the young businessman who did not understand the values that had made his family’s business successful.  Organizational Coach Jeannette Buller Slater says of an organization’s values, “They are deeply held convictions, priorities, and underlying assumptions that influence your attitudes and behaviors.  Core values describe the unique way people in an organization work and relate to one another.”  She continues on to say that core values are the “personality and character” of an organization.

Like in a family where core values come first from a mother or father, in business core values first come from the founder or its’ leadership.  Great organizations spend time making sure that everyone in the organization understands and demonstrated its’ values.  It is not unusual for the top values to be visually presented and frequently quoted.   Speaking on the importance of knowing ones’ values, Roy E. Disney, who was the last active family member in company that bares his name said, “It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
          

When we “leave the nest” and venture into the “real world” people and experiences continue to shape our values.  We are impacted by professional mentors, ministers and other public speakers and life changing events.  From the professional mentor we might gain values like excellence, leadership or team-work.  A minister or speaker might influence us to be compassionate, helping others and acceptance.  A life changing event might make us value family, friendship or health.

Core values begin to form in us from an early age.  It is usually a parent that is the first depositor into our core value account.  Family psychologist Dr. James Dobson has said, “Children are not casual guests in our home. They have been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving them and instilling a foundation of values on which their future lives will be built.”

A great example of this is a story my wife Nancy tells.  One Christmas she questioned her father on why he was giving to the poor when their own family had unmet needs.  Her father responded, “Because there are people who are worse off than we are.”  That simple interchange produced a core value in her of sacrificial giving.

In our early years teachers and coaches can also influence or core values.  I remember my high school civics teacher, Mr. Sokol.  He would walk around the classroom asking students questions about the prior evening homework assignment.  When we did not have a ready answer he would way, “Something for nothing.  You can’t get something for nothing.”  His daily recitation instilled in his students the value of the importance of learning. 

In its “Guidelines for Developing Personal Core Values” the GPS Life Journey curriculum makes these three initial observations:

1. Your core values are the most important beliefs that you hold.  These are the things that you value most.  They demonstrate the core or center of what you believe.
2. Your core values direct your behavior. You behave a certain way because you believe certain things.
3. Your core values help you make right decisions. You decide to do or not do certain things based on your values.

 

To Succeed
You Need to Know
Your Core Values

I was speaking to a young business man who was in training to become the third generation to lead his family’s business.  I told him, “You have a great heritage to continue.  All you have to do is to keep doing good for people.” However, his blank expression concerned me.  It was as though a “Vacancy” sign lit up in effect saying “I do not know the core values that have made the organization successful for two generations.” I realized that without this understanding, it was unlikely that the organization could prosper under his leadership.

In order to be successful as individuals, families and organizations, we need to understand our core values.  Core values are essentially the ethics that we live by.  They are principles, standards, or qualities we consider worthwhile and desirable.  They dictate our behavior and help us get and stay motivated.

Meet More Modern-Day Caleb’s

There are many more examples of people who, although they suffered bumps and bruises along the way that gave them wisdom, maintained their youthful zeal.  Susan B. Anthony was past 80 when she formed the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Alexander Graham Bell was 75 when he received a patent for his work on a hydrofoil boat. Grandma Moses received her last commission as an artist when she was 99. General Douglas MacArthur was 70 when given command in the Korean War. Pablo Picasso produced 347 engravings in his 87th year.

These are well known examples of people who never left life until life left them.  They pressed on daily taking hold of the purpose they felt they had been born to engage in.  My friend’s daughter, at this stage of her life, lacks many of the wisdom producing experience life has taught me. However, she has something that I need and I hope you realize that you need it too.  Join with me each morning, take your vitamins and don’t forget that shot of youthful zeal!  It is a required component if we are to fully engage in the life purpose we were created for.

Directive:  Don’t act your age.  Instead, mix experience with youthful zeal for the perfect life purpose tonic. 
 

Someone Who Never Lost His Youthful Zeal

There once was a man who, at 85 years of age, still sought challenges in the same way as he had in his youth.  He did not believe in retirement and those who knew him well said that he had a “different spirit” (being more fully engaged) than most.  You may know him as the biblical character Caleb.  Caleb demonstrated four key attributes:

• He did everything wholeheartedly and never held back.
• He had strong convictions and he lived by them.
• He continually loved challenges.
• He wasn’t fearful and was always ready to swing into action.

His story so impressed me that my second son carries his name.

You can be Better than a Basset Hound
 
My father was a pretty bright guy, but I have found that there is a better way than to “act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.”  That better away is finding what your passions are and engaging in them.  Once you gain this understanding you will not need to get hyped-up for the tasks at hand.  When you are passionate, work is not what must be done, it takes on a new character of what you love to do.  Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up excited about the day and then at night lay your head down with a sense of great satisfaction?  Hundreds have taken the GPS Life Journey and are living out their passions.  You can be next.

Directive:  Turn enthusiasm into boundless enthusiasm by discovering your passions.

What I Learned About Me

Through GPS I learned that I am passionate about four things.  The first two related to my personal life and the second two my professional life.

1. Loving my wife.
2. Giving wise counsel to my children (who all but one are fully grown).
3. Helping not-for-profit organizations flourish and grow.
4. Leading others through GPS so that they can live purposeful and passionate lives.

For me, I found great clarity of passion in my personal and professional life by working through this innovative and unique program.

How do You Identify Your Passion?

I discovered what I am passionate about through the GPS Life Journey (GPS).  GPS is a coach-led curriculum that I took several years ago and now teach.  I was asked to answer nine critical questions to help me identify my passions.  Here are a few examples:

• If you could do anything you wanted to do, what would it be?
• What are the things that really should be done to improve life?
• When you are dreaming about the future and what you would like to do “some day,” what is that dream?
• What things have you done in the past that really excited you? 

The beauty of this process is that it allows you to step back from the demands of the day and begin to get in touch with who we are, think big thoughts and even bigger dreams.

What is Better than Enthusiasm?

There are days when we are just not “feeling it” and, like the poster says, we have to pump up our enthusiasm to perform.  There is also a higher form of enthusiasm called passion.  Passion is boundless enthusiasm! It is something for which we feel intense emotion.  Passion compels us in our thoughts and actions.  Merriam-Webster describes passion as an “intense, driving, or overmasting feeling or conviction.”  We always have the energy to engage in activities we feel a passion for.

Act Enthusiastic and You will be
Enthusiastic

My father was the head of marketing for the world’s largest boat manufacturer.  He was also a lover of exotic automobiles.  On occasion when his car was in the shop (which seemed to be quite frequent), my mother and I would pick him up from work.  Mom would stay in the car, and I would go to his office to tell him that we had arrived.

The executive offices of this behemoth boat company were palatial.  They were much like you would remember from a 60’s movie.  They were oversized, had lots of windows, and were decorated to the hilt.  One day, as I sat quietly waiting for him to finish his dictation, my eyes were drawn to a large wall poster.  It was a big picture of a Basset Hound (a dog with the saddest of faces) and the headline read, “Act Enthusiastic and You will be Enthusiastic.”  The contrast of the picture and the caption made a powerful point.

We All Need a Coach
Athletes have coaches.  Debaters have coaches.  Business leaders have coaches.  You and I need a coach as well.  That person helps us excel in one of the biggest gifts we have been given…the gift of this life.  I know that I was created for a purpose and I believe that the same is true for every human being. That is why having a good coach is critical.  He helps us to: 

• Identify barriers.
• Weigh opportunities.
• See the bigger picture.
• Establish goals.
• Explore options.
• Make decisions.

Working with a coach will help you produce the next steps and a plan of action for your life.  Don’t you think it is about time to be done with mediocrity and to pursue the thing you were put here on earth to do?  Your Life Purpose Coach will help lift you out of the muddy mire, help you to dry ground and guide you on your way to identifying and perusing your destiny.

Directive:  Get a Life Purpose Coach and begin actively pursuing your future.

What is a Life Purpose Coach Anyway?
A Life Purpose Coach is someone who is a trained master in creating significant conversations.  A coach asks questions, listens and then helps you recognize what you believe to be true.  Here’s an example:  I was recently coaching a person who said that they were very unhappy in their career and wanted to do something to make peoples' lives better.  He spoke very lengthily and confusingly about what this new thing might look like.  As he spoke, it was as if he was walking through deep mud. He was getting no where.  All he could clearly articulate was that he hated his present profession and couldn’t fathom going back to it and working for company x, y or z.  Then I asked him to talk about his professional experience.  His entire demeanor changed.  He moved forward in his chair, became articulate and engaged and started talking passionately about what he would do regarding a specific opportunity.  I listened and then stopped him briefly and said, “You just spent 45 minutes vaguely talking about some new possibility and telling me how you hated your profession of 30 years.  Then when I asked you about your profession you came alive and were articulate, passionate and focused.  It doesn’t sound to me like you hate your profession after all.” 

He agreed and we conclude our coaching session with him establishing to rejoin his profession.  We also reserved future time slots for additional coaching sessions so that he can begin to define the next steps for pursuing his desire to eventually transition into significant work.
You see, I didn’t really have to tell him anything he didn’t already know.  I just asked questions, listened and repeated back what he had told me. That’s what a coach does.  Coaches do very little in overtly giving direction, but it takes the involvement of a coach to enable most people to focus and move forward.

I Found the Antidote

There was a time when I had a skewed idea of what a coach is.  My earliest memories of people who called themselves coaches are that of older men yelling at me in gym class.  I suspect you may have had a similar experience, so let me make it clear, they were not coaches.  In my case, they were just “grumpy old men” dealing with kids who had bad attitudes.  They were terrible roll models as well.  In one instance my junior high coaches mercilessly made fun of the class of mentally challenged kids calling them “F Troop.” Perhaps you remember “F Troop.”  It was a popular television show, of that day, about a western outpost manned by a quirky collection of misfit Army soldiers. Simply put, this was not a good introduction to coaching.

Good coaches are altogether different.  It was former Colorado football coach Bill McCartney who said, “Coaching is taking a player where he can't take himself.”  Alabama’s legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant knew that the solutions resided in his players when he said, “No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it’s what his players know that counts.”

One of the best things that ever happened to me was finding a coach and mentor who I could bounce ideas off of and one who was committed to drawing the best of me out of me.  He is called a Life Purpose Coach.  He does not impose his will on me but instead, like coaches McCartney and Bryant, help me to know myself better. Like daredevil Baumgartner, standing at the edge of space, my coach motivates and encourages me to consider all the options and opportunities that are before me.
 

Make a Roadmap for Your Future with the Help of a Life Purpose Coach

You probably saw it, too. Self professed daredevil, Felix Baumgartner, standing poised in the open hatch of his capsule, suspended 24 miles above the Earth.  He was about to descend back to Earth in a 9 minute free-fall at speeds greater then the speed of sound.  No man had ever attempted such a feat.  As he was about to jump, he said he felt “humbled.”  Perhaps you also saw the picture of him standing outside his capsule with the curvature of the earth behind him.  On one hand he must have felt very small, but on the other he was likely impacted with the vastness of life and all the opportunities that exist.

Scenes like this really motivate me.  I like to think about the possibilities and “what if’s” of life.  Unfortunately, that is not the way I live most days.  Most days are spent in my little world doing what must be done, wondering if I will get it all done, and questioning whether or not I am doing it right.  Perhaps that describes most of your days as well.
 

Find Three People to Compliment.
It was tenor, Robert Brault who said, “There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment.”  In the next week find a minimum of three people to surprise with a compliment. Choose one from your family, one from your work and another from the community.  First, identify the person, single out something they did and quantify the result it had.  Next time you see them you will be ready to compliment them. Be generous with compliments and be one who is known for bestowing disproportionate happiness. “You (will) look simply marvelous.”

Directive:  Compliment people: use their name, tell them what you observed, and state the good they produced. 

Look for the Good. 

We have heard it said that we should compliment ten times to every time we criticize.  We also know that this is admittedly hard to do in some relationships.  Some people are just plain difficult!  Who is the one person in your life that rubs you the wrong way, but whom you cannot avoid?  We all have one.  Compliment them?  No, I am not kidding. Yes, you can do it.  There is always something that you can find in someone to compliment. I’m not saying it will spring into your mind immediately, but no one is without some worth.  No one on your list of relationships should be excluded from those you are responsible to compliment.