Your Governing Purpose Assessment
An In-Depth Discovery Process
Developed by Kevin Brough, MAMFT
Your Intersection Analysis
Where your talents, your passions, and the world’s needs meet: your “sweet spot” for purpose.
Finding Your Sweet Spot
“Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.”
Optional: Relationship Governing Purpose
Add short sections on your couple and family purpose.
Your Governing Purpose Report
Developed by Kevin Brough, MAMFT | VisionLogic
Your printed and saved report includes the personal purpose statement you write below.
Executive Summary
Your Governing Purpose Outline
Your Personal Purpose Statement
Distill the outline above into two sentences. First: who you are and what you value. Second: how you contribute and what you want to leave behind. Read it aloud; if it does not sound like you, keep revising.
Core Identity: Who You Are
Your Core Values
The principles that matter most to you. Your top two are highlighted.
Living Your Values
“Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.”
Guiding Principles: What Matters Most
Impact Vision: How You Contribute
Future Legacy: What You Leave Behind
Your Purpose Intersection
Your Sweet Spot
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
Why Purpose Matters: What the Research Says
- Health and longevity. Across 10 prospective studies of more than 136,000 people, a stronger sense of purpose was linked with about a 17% lower risk of death from all causes (Cohen, Bavishi & Rozanski, 2016).
- Sleep and habits. Higher purpose predicts fewer sleep disturbances over time (Kim, Hershner & Strecher, 2015) and greater use of preventive health care (Kim, Strecher & Ryff, 2014).
- Motivation that lasts. Goals that express your own values (“self-concordant” goals) get more sustained effort and bring greater well-being when reached (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999).
- Having vs. searching. Feeling that life has meaning and actively searching for it are different, and both are normal. Searching is common during transitions (Steger et al., 2006).
These are associations from research studies; purpose is one contributor to well-being among many.
Next Steps: Living Your Purpose
Finish your two-sentence statement and read it each morning. Ask: “How can I live this today?”
Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. Mental contrasting outperforms positive fantasy alone for follow-through (Oettingen, 2014).
“If it is Sunday evening, then I will plan one purpose-aligned action for the week.” (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006)
Talk your purpose through with your therapist, a mentor, or your partner for feedback and accountability.
New routines take about 66 days on average to become automatic, with wide variation (Lally et al., 2010). Missing a day does not reset progress.
Bring your purpose into your quarterly planning, and retake this assessment each year; purpose can deepen as you grow.
A Final Word
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Clinical Insights (For Therapist Use)
Developed by Kevin Brough, MAMFT
