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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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