To understand your purpose, look at what you can’t stop doing

Posted by John Purkiss on Dec 15, 2011 in marketing, mission, personal development, purpose | 7 comments

Your purpose is much more important than individual goals. It’s the direction that’s right for you. Your purpose arises from your talents and your values. It’s like the horizon. You’ll never get there. You can pursue your purpose for the rest of your life. Martha Beck calls it your North Star. The fact that your purpose is infinite makes it hard – if not impossible –...

Archetypes versus stereotypes

Posted by John Purkiss on Dec 12, 2010 in marketing, personal branding, personal development | 1 comment

In chapter eight of Brand You we use archetypes to help readers build a strong brand identity. Archetypes appear throughout our culture, including Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. The psychologist Carl Jung wrote extentisely on the subject. Archetypes are used in advertising and, increasingly, in personal branding.

On Friday night I gave a talk for Executive MBA students at Judge Business School, Cambridge University. One of them asked about the relationship between stereotypes and archetypes. Having done some more homework on the subject, here is my answer.

Your purpose(s)

Posted by John Purkiss on Oct 25, 2010 in personal development | 6 comments

Chapter seven of Brand You is called Your Purpose. The purpose exercise is one of my favourites. Essentially it asks: “What would you do if you had eternal life and more money than you will ever need?” Putting it another way, “Why are you on the planet?”