Purpose, Revisited
Clearly identifying and connecting to purpose is an essential element in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
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The nature of purpose and its characteristics were described in a past article. This was in the context of considering passion and philosophy. These elements are important to clearly delineate as they serve as a guiding light in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. Particularly during challenging and difficult times, a clear acknowledgement of these factors, particularly purpose, is important in order to persevere towards accomplishing tasks and objectives which are of most importance to us. It is also crucial to recognize that these elements are dynamic and can shift and evolve over time. For this reason, it is important to spend time revisiting that which we consider to be our purpose, passion, and philosophy.
While passion and philosophy are important considerations, the remainder of this article will focus on purpose. Ideally, our purpose is comprised of three parts. It should be something which is of importance to us. In order for the identification of purpose to be a true north star, it must be regarded as something of significance. Otherwise, what would the point be in further pursuing tasks within the domain? Secondly, our purpose should impact more than ourselves and also be oriented towards the future. These elements serve to ensure further contribution towards the significance of the chosen purpose. These aspects are often discussed by performance psychologists and others within the domain of human performance.
From the polyvagal informed perspective, there is an additional important consideration in the identification of purpose. It must be in alignment and resonate with our physiology. In other words, in order to fully realize the power of determination of purpose, it cannot be something that we try to convince ourselves is of importance. Rather it must, effectively, feel right within our body. The importance of this is to avoid dissonance between that which we cognitively consider to be our purpose and that which we truly feel to be of importance to us. If there is not sufficient alignment between these two elements then it is possible for the resulting discordance to create cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat, particularly during high demand situations and high consequence scenarios.
Maintaining our purpose front and center in mind is relatively more straightforward when we are not experiencing high demand situations or facing cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat. In essence, when there is sufficient ventral vagal stabilization, our purpose can be more readily acknowledged and expressed. An important and empowering aspect to clearly determining purpose is its ability to provide guidance and direction during high adversity situations in which there are substantial cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat.
When we face high demand and high consequence situations, it is possible for the associated cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat to lead to biological state shifts towards sympathetic and dorsal vagal states. When this occurs, our ability to perform to our capacity decreases and it becomes easier for us to lose sight of why we are undertaking the tasks and activities in which we are engaged. In essence, we can lose connection to our purpose. When this occurs, it can become more likely that we quit our current activity on account of having lost the orienting function of why it is important to us.
In such circumstances in which shifts in biological state lead to a loss of connection to purpose, it is important to employ polyvagal informed skills and strategies to increase ventral vagal stabilization. Once this has been achieved, we can then implement cognitive skills to reorient towards our purpose. As discussed above, this process is particularly dependent upon an alignment in purpose between that which we cognitively identify and that which we feel in our body. Especially in situations in which we lose connection to purpose, it is not possible to utilize cognitive skills to, effectively, convince our body of our larger purpose. This is likely to lead to further cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat and resulting biological state shifts towards sympathetic and dorsal vagal state.
When we are able to initially increase ventral vagal stabilization and then reconnect to our purpose, we can provide important cues of stability, consistency, safety, and connection to our biology. This further increases ventral vagal stabilization, thereby further contributing to an overall improved alignment between physiology and psychology. Within the context of performance, this then results in increased ability to be at our best and results in the best opportunity for achieving our objectives.
Considering an extreme example can be informative. If we are to consider an individual encountering a life threatening situation in which action must be taken in order to save lives, we can readily appreciate how the existing cues of risk and threat can lead to biological state shifts towards sympathetic and dorsal vagal states. Particularly if the situation is especially dire, it becomes possible for the individual to shift into dorsal vagal states and, effectively, freeze. As Polyvagal Theory informs, this is not the individual’s conscious or deliberate choice. Rather it is a subconscious and instantaneous reaction within the nervous system. It can also be appreciated that in such a scenario, a freeze response will not allow for the individual’s best opportunity to survive the situation. In this circumstance, identifying cues of connection, including purpose, in order to increase ventral vagal activation is essential in order to optimize and align psychology and physiology so that the individual can determine a course of action and execute that plan to the best of their ability. The first step in this process is often to employ body-based skills to increase ventral vagal activation and then reconnect to purpose and implement additional mind-based skills. This provides a practical example of the importance of identification of purpose, development and implementation of polyvagal informed mind-based and body-based skills, and connection to purpose.
The acknowledgement of purpose also provides the opportunity to orient our self-identity towards our purpose rather than on our ability to perform tasks and achieve various outcomes. Performance psychologist Michael Gervais, PhD has recently described the fear of other people’s opinions which he believes to be a significant, perhaps the most important, element in reducing our ability to be at our best. From his perspective, an overemphasis on performance and outcome can lead to excessive self-identification with outcome which increases susceptibility to this fear and its negative impacts. Rather, by developing stronger elements of self-identity reflective of purpose we are able to better separate ourselves from the reliance on obtaining outcomes in order to feel as though we are successful.
The polyvagal perspective provides an additional important consideration to this realization. Within an over-emphasis on performance and outcome, there is inherent evaluation and concern regarding outcome. This can provide significant cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat which can lead to biological state shifts towards sympathetic and dorsal vagal states. When we orient more strongly towards purpose, these cues related to evaluation often become less frequent and intense.
As can be appreciated from the above discussion, there are many important benefits associated with clearly identifying purpose. In order to optimally pursue health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, an important factor within the polyvagal informed toolbox is purpose. As such, this is a bedrock element in the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete. To learn more, including about polyvagal informed coaching for healthcare professionals and others in high demand domains, visit www.darindavidson.com.
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REFERENCES
Allison, M. The Play Zone: A Neurophysiological Approach to our Highest Performance. https://theplayzone.com.
Gervais, M; Lake, K. The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying About What People Think of You. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2024.