How to Discover Your Soul Purpose and Grow Your Business Up to 1,900% by Garrett Gunderson

I started my first business at age 15. It was a car-detailing business, and I made a deal with the local bank to detail their repossessed cars before they were resold.

It was hard work, but as a teenager, the extra-money was welcome.

I’d made about $600 when someone suggested applying for the state of Utah’s Young Entrepreneur Award. I took their advice and was given a chance to stand in front of a panel of judges to state my case for deserving the award.

In 50 minutes, I spoke passionately, explained the business model in simple terms and made them laugh. It was enough to win the award, which came with $500.

That was when I first started to realize a rewarding way to express my Soul Purpose: it took dozens and dozens of hard working hours to earn $600, and just a few minutes of sharing my passion to earn $500.

Simplifying concepts that I’m passionate about, like finance, and passing along that passion is aligned with my Soul Purpose.

It’s how I am uniquely designed to add the most value to the world, thus, it’s my unique path to wealth.

Finding Your Soul Purpose

Your Soul Purpose is your calling, your mission—the highest expression of who you are in service to others.

Living your Soul Purpose means doing what you love, what you’re most gifted at, what you’re passionate about and what feeds your energy. It’s the things you’d do even if you weren’t getting paid. It’s the things you may not even value because they come so naturally to you—yet others are willing to pay you a premium for.

Your Soul Purpose will have an abundance of all three of those attributes: a gift, a passion, and an economic driver.

A gift, because it’s something that you’re naturally good at, rather than a skill you’ve developed over time.

Passion, because it’s something that gives you energy, rather than takes it.

And an economic driver, because it delivers value that people are willing to pay good money for.

Determining the best ways to express your Soul Purpose is not always obvious.

You may think that if you’re a dentist, then your Soul Purpose is dentistry. But that may not be true. There could be many things about dentistry that you despise, and only some things that you love. There may be areas of dentistry that you’re extremely passionate about, and other areas that you merely tolerate.

To truly discover your Soul Purpose takes some effort.

You can start by asking yourself these questions:

1. When am I happiest?
2. When am I most creative?
3. What does an ideal life look like for me?
4. What activities make me excited to get up in the morning?
5. The things I am most passionate about in life are...what?
6. When do I feel that I am living my purpose?
7. What hobbies/interests do I have that could potentially cross over as income?
8. What talents/attributes am I regularly complimented on?
9. What talents or activities do I enjoy and am currently being paid for?
10. What areas/activities did I excel in during the past, such as in my childhood/teenage/college years?

Answering these questions will bring you closer to discovering your Soul Purpose. Sometimes, however, even after serious thought the answer could elude you.

So I recommend taking a personality or strengths test. My favorites are The Kolbe Index, Myers-Briggs, Wealth Dynamics and Strengthsfinder.

These tests have a way of identifying your talents, your instincts and your quirks in a way that you can’t see yourself. They’re incredibly valuable at helping you learn how to work with your strengths, instead of against them.

Then there’s one more thing to do. It’s less scientific, but just as valuable.

Ask 5 people who know you best what they think is the one thing that you do really well.

Sometimes others can see your strengths better than you can see them yourself, so you’ll likely be surprised at the answers.

To recap, find your Soul Purpose by answering thought provoking-questions about yourself, taking a personality or strengths test like the Kolbe and asking the 5 people who know you best what you’re great at.

Once you know your Soul Purpose, it’s time to give it your full attention.

Make Space for Your Soul Purpose

Because when you create space for your Soul Purpose, you can get 4 to 19 times the leverage and grow your business 4 to 19 times.

Here’s how.

There’s that popular business concept, the Pareto principle, that says 80% of your results comes from 20% of your time and effort.

I believe that when you become an expert, or when you’re utilizing your Soul Purpose, it’s more like 95% of results come from 5% of your effort.

But let’s start with 80/20.

Right now, 20% of your time and effort produces 80% of your results. Well, what if you spent all of your time on those 20% of activities bringing in most of your results?

You’d grow your business 4 times, that’s what. Take a look.

Or said another way, if one-fifth of your time and effort delivers 80% of your results, then try to do those activities all the time. You’ll spend 5x as much time and effort on your most valuable activities, and in doing so you’ll increase your results...

5 x 80% = 400%

...by 400%, or 4 times.

And if you’ve reached expert level, then 5%, or one-twentieth, of your time produces 95% of the results.

So try to do those activities all the time, or twenty times instead of once, and you’ll increase your results...

20 x 95% = 1,900%

...by 1,900%, or 19 times.

So you can get 4x, and 19x leverage by focusing on your Soul Purpose.

To create this space, you’re going to need to delegate the other 80%?or as much as possible—of your time-consuming tasks to others.

You may even need to “hire” another person. But the increase in your business will make up for it.

Next, Get Uncomfortable

Once you clear out 80% of your day, or 95% of your day, by hiring more people and/or delegating tasks so there’s space for your Soul Purpose to expand into, it’s going to feel really uncomfortable.

Good. This means you’re doing it right.

The first day, you’ll feel like you should be doing something, anything, to keep busy. But don’t. What you’re doing is waiting for your Soul Purpose to expand to fill the time.

And when you’re able to do your Soul Purpose 100% of the time, or even 80% of the time, rather than 5-20% of your time like before, your business growth and revenue will soar.

One final note. Part of being a business owner, or entrepreneur, or CEO is resisting the temptation of activity.

There’s always something you could be doing, but if it’s taking you away from your Soul Purpose, then it’s not worth it.

So identify your Soul Purpose. Create space for it. And stick with the discomfort until it becomes comfortable. Do it, and you’re on your way to scaling business revenue in a major way — and retiring IN your business in 3-7 years.

Build the Life You Love,
Garrett Gunderson