There’s a lot of talk about purpose in the social impact and changemaking world. Finding your purpose, your passion. Purpose-driven businesses, purposeful careers, purpose conferences.

A recent survey by Harvard Business Review on purpose-driven businesses defined purpose as an aspirational reason for being, which inspires and provides a call to action which benefits local and global society.

Finding your purpose: From boredom to freedom?

The typical journey for most of us who think about our purpose, and how to create a life guided by this, is to leave boredom in search for freedom. To get away from unfulfilling, soul-destroying desk jobs and step into the unknown. And instead live a real life. This is difficult, risky and takes courage. But we decide to jump off the cliff.

The next step of the journey is fun and exciting. We drink coffee with wise people, go to inspiring events, seek advice from those who have done this before, and also look for others who are in the same phase as us— those who have also jumped off the cliff recently; the organisational refugees floating on a makeshift raft across the ocean, looking to fulfil their purpose.

Your goal now is to find a project. A project, where you can use your skills to purposefully help make the world a better place for all.

But there are dangers in this.

Serial social entrepreneur Max St John writes:

The world is full of projects and businesses created by people who thought they needed a thing — to fulfil an expectation, to prove they matter in the world, to get free of the desk job.

And the world is full of purposeful yet unhappy, anxious entrepreneurs who wonder why they haven’t got the freedom and satisfaction that they’ve been chasing for so long.

We’ve fallen victim to the tyranny of ‘being purposeful’. The oppression of ‘getting free’. The dangerous game of ‘standing up for what matters’.

St John argues that the question that was never asked is (as often) “why?”.

But rarely do we slow down, and ask ourselves why. Instead we charge on, building on unchecked foundations.

And my experience tells me that there’s nothing more oppressive and toxic than finding yourself committed to something built on the wrong base.

We often rush into things when we really should slow down.

Our role in enkel?

So what does this mean for us in the enkel collective?

We all work towards creating a new generation of changemakers. As Bev, one of our members recently pointed out;

The creation of changemakers is our mission. The enkel product is the changemaker, not the product that they generate.

I.e. enkel shouldn’t really care about what these changemakers do — only what they are and what they have the potential to be.

Those of us who have been in this field for a while know that there will be many ideas, projects and failures in the future. Once we jump the cliff it’s very hard to go back. And for every new thing we do, we will learn, develop, think differently, feel differently, be differently and consequently act differently.

So what is the role for enkel in helping these budding changemakers to play “the dangerous game of ‘standing up for what matters’” well?

Do we need to help them work on their project? Get it up and running, incubating, accelerating? Mentoring, coaching, providing contacts from our vast networks… legal advisors, pro-bono business advisors, potential investors? Create safe spaces where they can work together with their peers; other budding changemakers?

Our inspiring friends in Amsterdam, Knowmads Alternative Business School, do all these things.

But before all this they start with you.

Not your project, your value proposition, your business model canvas, but your dreams, your fears, your self.

So perhaps that’s our most important role; to help people who come to enkel explore who they are. No matter whether they come to the changemaker school, visit one of our physical spaces, join our workshops, attend our conferences and events, or work with us in the organisational arm of enkel.

Manna, who’s project leading enkelU — our School for Changemakers — puts it simply:

Leave your project at the door when you come in and explore who you are first. Things will arise from that.