Transcriber: Amna Omar Reviewer: Denise RQ
About seven years ago,
I'm sitting in the audience much like you are right now.
The speaker asked a question, and it seeps down into, "Who I am?"
I'm going to ask the same question.
I want you to open your hearts and your mind
and let it sink down in also.
Perhaps maybe you already have an answer to this question.
Think about living your life in accordance with your answer.
What I found is that many people don't know the answer to this question
much like when I heard it the first time.
The speaker said, "What is your purpose?"
He said it again, "What is your purpose?"
And inside, I couldn't answer.
I really went to work on it.
Where went right in here.
I want to share a true story with you to illustrate this.
It was about three years ago; I'm at an event,
and in it is a woman ordering a diet soda.
It's not what she ordered,
it was what she said after she ordered it that caught my interest.
She said "You know, I can never stop drinking diet soda.
Her husband comes over and confirms this and says, "Yup.
"I've tried to help her. There is no hope."
A lot of words of encouragement there, right?
She proceeds to tell me all the reasons why she can't stop;
it tastes good, it goes with every meal, - breakfast, lunch, and dinner -
"Its caffeine gets me going,"
and on and on; and I said, "Yup. You're trapped
because you think that you can never quit drinking diet soda, you won't."
I said, "You know what though?
If you think differently about this, there might be some hope.
Let's take for example ice tea. Do you like it?"
She goes, "I love ice tea."
I said, "Alright, we might be onto something here."
I go, "Do you have the ability right now to order an iced tea instead?"
She says, "Certainly. I have done it before."
I said, "Well, hurry up because the waiter is coming back."
She turns and says,
"You know, I'd like to add an ice tea to my life instead."
The waiter brings it back, she takes a sip.
I said, "What just happened?"
She looks at me and says, "You know, I'm drinking iced tea."
I said, "No, because you added ice tea
there's no more room for diet soda."
Let's break this down further.
I said, "You said you can never quit drinking diet soda."
The word 'quit' -- how do you feel
when you move to quit something in your life, that you want?"
She says, "You know, I feel a sense of loss.
Definitely deprived and not a good feeling."
I said, "Let's do the inverse here.
If you add something to your life that you want,
how do you feel?"
She says "You know, I feel joy, fulfilled."
I said, "OK."
Let's look into this further. You know what?
I believe her mind is like an internet search engine.
if you were to type in, "Don't find diet soda,"
images of diet soda would pop up;
even though you told it not to look for it.
I said that this is the obvious true;
if you look for ice tea, ice tea would show up in these images.
I said, "If you start to think differently here,
and you focus on adding ice tea to your life,
and you have a positive association with it,
the behaviour likely to change."
She goes, "Why are you even talking like this?"
I said, "You see, seven years ago,
there was a speaker that asked me a question
of what my purpose was.
She goes, "What's your purpose?"
I said, "It is to add value by helping other people think differently."
She goes "Ah, like adding ice tea?" I go, "Yeah!"
(Laughter)
You know, it's not really about what you are drinking,
it's the fact that you said you were trapped in your mind.
If I can get in here and have you change your mindset about something,
there is a likelihood of changing your behavior.
This is a true story.
And I check every so often to make sure that she's never had a diet soda,
She hasn't. She stopped right there.
And so this question that seeped deep down inside me about years ago,
really started to come out in just common conversation.
I think of it in terms of time now.
There's a young man.
He's loaded with talent,
and everyone believes he can change the world,
and so, in his 20s he seeks to do so.
His focus is changing the world.
Ten years go by.
"Because I'm not having much success. I'm going to narrow my focus.
I'm going to change my country."
Ten more years go by, and he says, "Nah, I need to narrow this more.
I'm going to go to my state."
Ten more years go by.
His city.
Ten more. His neighborhood.
Watch!
Into his 70s, he looks back to his life, and he goes, "You know?
I have missed the point.
I missed reflecting inward.
I missed changing myself.
I missed answering the question of purpose or who I am.
See, if I would've answered that question with purpose,
I would have been like many other people that have seen that have added value,
because they would have lived their why.
It would have clarified the way in which to conduct themselves.
He was lost at the end.
He realized the way in which he went about
whether was to change the world
or what it is we drink.
It was rooted in his purpose.
So don't let this time go by.
Let this question sink into like it did in me,
and if you've got the answer to this already,
then go and live accordingly to it.
Think of it in regards to what we've all seen.
There's been a pond of still and calm water,
and a rock is thrown in and there's a ripple.
Think of yourself as the rock.
But be intentional with a purpose and where you're headed
because you affect many other people as soon as you leave this room.
If you know your purpose, you can clarify
where it is that you're going to cast stone,
and what ripple and effect that you're going to have.
So the challenge is simple.
Think about this: purpose,
and may your life be fulfilled.
Thank you.
(Applause)