Astro Teller runs a moonshot factory. As CEO ofX,字母的未来技术实验室,he oversees projects that strive to crack some of the world’s biggest challenges.
X, where I work as a consultant, has developed cars that drive themselves safely. It’s invented robotic buggies that roam crop fields to make agriculture more resilient and networks of balloons at the edge of space that beam high-speed Internet to remote areas.
The technology and business challenges of launching moonshots are endless, especially during the pandemic — which is why it’s notable that, during a recent company all-hands, Teller chose to focus his employees’ attention on a resource that feels scarce these days: joy.
他告诉X员工通过视频聚集，每次他与一支特定团队的两个成员遇到的时候，他们都会愉快。“脸上有一千瓦特葡萄酒，”他说，他鼓励所有人在工作中寻找快乐。
千瓦瓦格雷德：这就是连接到目的的样子。
Finding that deep sense of meaning — and honoring it in your work — is a major element of sustainable leadership.
Finding that deep sense of meaning — and honoring it in your work — is a major element of sustainable leadership.
Purpose sparks your energy and creativity. It brings forward the best version of you. It inspires you to be brave and bold in how you show up in the world and the actions you take.
它也让你，以及你周围的人，更快乐。许多研究，如research由耶鲁大学管理教授Amy Wrzesniewski表明，将其工作与其意义感对齐的人更加满意。他们表现得更好，越来越多，并照亮他们周围的人们的情绪。
我们都有目的，即使我们还没有登陆捕获它的单词。
It’s not something we think our way into, executive coach Richard Leider wrote in his book "The Power of Purpose." Rather, it emerges through self-reflection: by mining our life stories for major themes that reveal our gifts, our passions and our values.
Purpose acts as a tuning fork, letting you know if you’re on-pitch or off-pitch in the way you’re living.
The project Teller spoke of at the X all-hands was a scrapbook of memories compiled from the company’s first 10 years. The project lead, Angelie Agarwal, later told me that she feels most alive in her work when she’s bringing people together at scale, which is exactly what the scrapbook project allowed her to do.
The work was wickedly hard, she said, but getting clear on why it brought her meaning — and why she was so well-suited to run it — kept her fire burning throughout.
我们有时相信我们的工作是我们的目的。不，我们的工作只是一种强大的方式，我们可以在世界上表达我们的目的。
不久前，我犯了错误，让我的工作困惑。
I’d spent two years creating my dream business: my own coaching practice. I kept my own schedule, had open-hearted conversations and helped high-achieving people with things such as navigating job transitions, cultivating more effective leadership skills and getting promoted.
Then I started feeling a familiar flutter in my stomach. It soon turned into an ache. I knew what it was telling me: This isn’t it.
I liked my work. I liked my clients. Yet something was missing.
To figure out what it was, I did an exercise: On sticky notes, I wrote the names of three clients who brought me lots of energy. If I could clone these people and build an entire portfolio of clients just like them, I would.
When I noticed what they had in common, I smacked my forehead. All three were leaders in environmental sustainability or social impact, as I had been at Apple a few years earlier.
Of course.
What made me feel alive, fired up, filled with purpose wasn’t what I was doing. It was what I was doing it for.
What made me feel alive, fired up, filled with purpose wasn’t what I was doing. It was what I was doing it for.
I feel more connected to my purpose when I’m helping heroes shine. I feel on-mission when I’m supporting people who care for our communities and fight for equality, justice and a healthier planet.
I want to light up others so they can light up the world with goodness.
I realized that I especially love supporting leaders and their teams inside of companies, fighting the good fight, so they can truly make an impact at scale.
意识到这一点很快，我开始与环境和社会影响领导者更加刻意地工作。
我的能量帮助我找到了我的目的。
我的目的帮助我找到了我的声音。
And in finding my voice, I found my audience: I began writing thisSustainable You关于个人可持续性的专栏。必威体育2018
所以，如果你现在感到冒犯，谈到，别担心。它在那里，刚刚掩盖了日常生活的繁忙和压力。
I encourage you to slow down, find some stillness and mine your personal history for clues.
What first attracted you to this work? What parts of it still excite you today? What makes you smile? What puts you into a state of flow? What unique gifts do you bring to your work? What deeply held values are you honoring by doing it? What keeps you from quitting when things get hard?
Wrestle with those questions and you’ll probably find yourself in the neighborhood of your purpose. Because, as a wise coach of mine once told me, purpose isn’t an exact address, it’s a neighborhood.
A pretty good sign that you’re in the neighborhood of your purpose? Your face is wearing a thousand-watt grin.
