An archetypal personal DNA map is shown below. Like the base pairs of genetic DNA, the personal DNA has four cornerstones represented by the four questions mentioned earlier.

Four Essential Questions

North Star

Question 1: What is my North Star (highest aspiration) that ignites my natural genius and that of my organization (family, company, community or educational institution)?

Many people work on or think about finding their purpose in life. We call the noble aspiration as North Star because it represents something above that beckons and helps us to orient ourselves. Some of us maybe clear about our North Star, while others try to find it by rejecting everything that is not their purpose. Just as the real North Star is not visible to the naked eye during the day, when we have other strong influences that are dominating us, we cannot see our own unique purpose. We have to work at it and also find ways to filter out external influences to be able to identify our North Star.

When we do identify our North Star and use it to guide our future, we can truly go far beyond our wildest expectations of ourselves. Considering that we spend much time in fear or survival mode, our future usually is predicated based on our past fears and unconscious limitations. Being aware of our North Star allows us to break through those limitations and participate in co-creating a future based on our genius.

The conventional goal-setting process starts from the present and extends into the future. We sometimes extrapolate what we want now into the future, wishing for a better or faster version of what we currently have. It is shaped by our past experiences and fears and, many times, and it is about hope. No wonder that such a goal-setting process is experienced as depressing by many people, because it reminds us that whatever we have now is not good enough and many of us do not feel inspired to keep our resolutions and work towards those goals. We fall back into old patterns because our goals are generally not inspiring, challenging or have a clear direction. We choose certain goals because that is what we are supposed to do and not because we are passionate about them (not inspirational). Since we want to succeed and are afraid of failure, we create goals that are small and do not require much risk (not challenging). We engage in a goal setting process more to escape from our past than to create a future (no clear direction).

Therefore, it is useful to ask the following questions to clarify whether our goal or purpose is truly a
North Star:

• Does my North Star inspire me (especially when I am down)?

• Does my North Star challenge me (when I feel smug)?

• Does my North Star give me direction (when I am lost)?

When we identify our unique North Star, it can be used to find our true direction. These three qualifications for North Star are adopted from conversations with Prof. Vijay Govindarajan around the theme of Strategic Intent (private conversation, 1998). Even though the Strategic Intent framework was evolved first by C.K Prahalad and Gary Hamel in the organizational context, I find it to be applicable and meaningful to individuals when we use it with the qualifications Govindarajan has evolved.

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