From Busy to Purposeful—Why Our Vision Matters More Than Our Motion

Once expanded to the dimensions of more significant ideas, the mind never returns to its original size.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week, I met with a client who was struggling. They were caught in a cycle of doing—responding to challenges, fulfilling requests, and checking off their boxes, but they had lost sight of the purpose of their actions, responding, “That’s what I was told to do,” when I asked why. Throughout the years at FS/A, I have had similar exchanges with many new clients. How can we help everyone on their team connect to the organization’s purpose?

Are We Purposely Moving Towards Our Vision?

Being busy is easy, but being productive requires intention, and being purposeful demands courage and discipline. However, if we do not align our actions with our vision, we risk becoming irrelevant—individually, organizationally, and even as a society. When we take the time to slow down and connect our actions to what we may make possible, we discover energy not only from what we do, but also from why we do it.

In our Culture Clarification Retreats, we help leaders and teams forge that connection. Visioning clarifies the future, aligning action with purpose. Purpose is the thread that gives meaning to our work and our lives. Each organization, family, and individual has a purpose—yet many of us remain unaware of our connection to that greater story. What we do may be ordinary, but why we do it can be invigorating.

In healthcare, for example, while financial professionals play a vital role, they often lack a sense of purpose behind the numbers, failing to recognize how their accuracy and timeliness impact the well-being of others. Without this connection to purpose, their work may risk becoming mechanical.

Our book, The Shift from Me to Team, explains how that connection fuels not just short-term action but also long-term fulfillment. Our survival instinct, which dates to prehistoric times, rewards us with adrenaline and dopamine, hormones that provide us with the energy and focus to act quickly throughout our busy days, but they ultimately take their toll. In contrast, when we operate from purpose, we experience something deeper: the calming, health-giving presence of the “happiness hormones” oxytocin and serotonin. We reap the rewards of strategic, values-aligned living.

When we reconnect with purpose and choose to make everything we do in service of a compelling vision that our purpose will ultimately make possible, we open our minds to greater possibilities.

And as Emerson reminds us, once expanded, we do not return to our former smallness.

Reflection Questions

• What part of your day seems busy, but may lack purpose?
• What is the purpose of your current work? Who benefits from your efforts?
• If you were to pause and ask “why,” what might change?