Purpose in Motion
Evolving with Strength & Landscape
Purpose isn’t fixed — it adapts, transforms, and flows like life itself.
Reflecting on purpose can feel deeply personal. Growing up in an evangelical household, the idea of “calling” brought me great anxiety. What if I missed it?
Fresh out of college, I thought there was only one concrete reason for my existence — and I needed to find it fast, before my one shot was gone. Over time, I came to see something different: I had many versatile strengths and gifts to bring into the world. The question wasn’t about finding a single destiny, but discerning the most life-giving path in the moment.
Like any living organism, we evolve in co-creation with our environment. At every moment, we are shaped by the world around us — and we shape it in return.
Purpose as Living, Not Fixed
Individual purpose is not carved in stone. It morphs with the daily landscape of our lives: our habits, relationships, resources, and sense of safety. Organizational purpose shifts too — influenced by markets, social and political rules, and the freedom leaders have to innovate.
These landscapes are rarely simple. They are often volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The question isn’t whether change will come, but how present we can be — to ourselves, to one another, and to the moment at hand — as we navigate it.
Strengths as a Thread Through Life
Since those early years, my own expressions of strength have evolved — but the thread running through them remains. Even as a child, I was fascinated by collaboration done well: the give and take of being in harmony with people and environment. “I’ll cook if you do the dishes.” “I’ll play your game if you play mine.” (And yes, I still like to trade back scratches.)
Nearly all of my clients can point to ways their strengths showed up in childhood. These patterns remind us that strengths are part of our nature, evolving with us as we grow.
Wisdom from Laloux & Palmer
Frederic Laloux, in Reinventing Organizations, writes:
“Nature, humankind, relationships: everything evolves, driven by a life force, to adapt, transform and grow. From [this] perspective, organizations are viewed as an independent energy field with a purpose that transcends its stakeholders. In this paradigm, we don’t own or run the organization; instead, we are stewards, listening to where it needs to go and helping it to do its work in the world.”
This view echoes Parker Palmer’s invitation in Let Your Life Speak. He reminds us:
“Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks — we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.”
An Invitation
At Canon Collaborative, we see purpose as dynamic and co-created. Individual and collective empowerment come alive when people stand firmly in their authentic strengths and gifts — not in search of one fixed calling, but in the practice of listening, adapting, and contributing from what is most true.
Why not embrace this dynamic process of co-creation? Why not invest in growing awareness of your innate strengths, cultivating resilience and confidence to navigate the shifting landscapes of work and life? Why not extend this same awareness to organizations, cultivating agility and interdependence for the challenges ahead?
Why not.
