How to know your life purpose in 5 minutes | Adam Leipzig | TEDxMalibu (2023)

Introduction

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Adam Leipzig has overseen more than 25 movies as a producer, executive and distributor. and has produced more than 300 stage plays and live events, and he was one of the founders of the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
AdamLeipzig.com

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Video

Transcriber: Yulia Kallistratova Reviewer: Denise RQ On, the last evening of my 25th college reunion.

There was a party in a tent with dancing, and music, and noise.

So much noise that a lot of us started to drift out of the tent.

So we could hear each other talk and catch up with classmates that we had not seen in more than 2 decades.

As I talked with my friends.

I made an astounding discovery:.

80% of them were unhappy with their lives.

"I feel as though I've wasted my life, and I'm half way through it,".

They said.

"I, don't know what my life is.

All about." I was privileged to go to Yale, and we were standing on a summer evening in the middle of Yale's, old campus, and the people that I was speaking with were privileged, and highly educated, and financially well, off, and in positions of power.

And.

They had the first house, and the second house, and they had the first spouse, and the second spouse.

(Laughter) And 80% of them were unhappy with their lives.

Who was happy, the 20%? Well.

We had studied literature and Renaissance rhetoric, and we were the theater people, and the history geeks.

We had studied classes for the joy of learning, not because we thought they were going to put direct us to a specific job.

We still got jobs.

We were living our lives expansively, with life's ups and downs, and we did not feel that we had wasted a single minute.

And, as I spoke with the 20%.

The happier 20%, I discovered that each of them knew something about their life purpose, because they knew five things:, who they were, what they did, who they did it for, what those people wanted or needed, and what they got out of it, how they changed as a result.

Does that sound hard?, It's not, it's actually really simple.

In fact.

It's so simple, that you can learn your life purpose, now.

You're, going to know your life purpose now, in the next five minutes.

Would.

You like to know your life purpose in the next five minutes? (Audience) Yes.

Can, you be a little bit louder? Because.

They are making a lot of noise in the tent, and there is just a silly little microphone next to my cheek to hear you.

Would, you like to know your life purpose in the next five minutes? (Audience) Yes!, Thank, you.

Actually, it's not even going to take five minutes.

So, can I share something else with you? If you're like a lot of us.

You have wondered and worried about your life purpose for a long time, and there are books, and magazines, and workshops, and seminars about it., In, fact, Amazon lists 151,928 books that refer to how you can learn your life.

Purpose.

(Laughter), Well, I, know some people who have spent their entire lives, trying to learn their life purpose.

Look.

We can all agree that the unexamined life is not worth living, but if all you're doing is examining, you're, not living., (Laughter) So, let's figure out the life purpose right now, together:, who you are,? What you do, who you do it for, what those people want and need, and how they change.

As a result.

Shall, we do it? (Audience), Yes., All, right.

Everybody, on the count of five.

Shout out your first name.

One, two, three, four, five: (Audience shouts) Fabulous.

That was the first one, only four to go.

That's, who you are.

(Laughter) Now.

What do you do? What? Do you love to do? Do? You love to write, cook, design, create iOS apps, write code, crunch numbers, talk, teach? What.

Do you love to do? And? If there is a lot of things that come up for you focus it down by asking yourselves this one question:? What is the one thing that right now, you feel supremely qualified to teach other people? Think about that in one word., Hold it.

Don't release it yet.

On the count of five.

What.

Do you do? One, two, three, four, five:, (Audience, shouts), Great.

That's? What you do.

Now, think about who you do it? For, picture them in your mind, be ready to say it on the count of five.

Hold it, don't release it! Yet.

One, two, three, four, five:, (Audience, murmurs) OK.

Who do you do it for,? Let's see it one more time.

A little bit louder, please, over the people in the tent.

Who.

Do you do it? For? Together: (Audience, shouts), Thank you.

That is the spirit that we need.

OK, now.

What.

Do all those people want or need? What? Do they want or need that you have, that they've come to you, so you can give them this thing.

What.

Do they want or need? In, just one or two words.

Hold it, don't release it yet.

And on the count of five: one, two, three, four, five..

(Audience, shouts), Fantastic.

Now.

This is the best one.

How.

Do they change? How? Do they change or transform as a result of what you give them? On the count of five,? How do they change or transform as a result of what you give them? One, two, three, four, five: (Audience shouts) Terrific.

Now.

We're going to put this all together kind of in a sentence, OK? Everyone together, louder than the people in the tent: who are you?, (Audience responds) What.

Do you do? (Audience responds) Who? Do you do it for? (Audience responds) What? Do they want or need? (Audience responds) How? Do they change as a result? (Audience responds) Fantastic.

You have all just done something that people who went to Yale could not figure out for 25 years., Congratulations.

Give yourselves, a hand.

(Applause) Now.

Why is that formulation, so powerful? Because of all of those five things that you need to know to know what your life purpose is, only two are about yourself.

The, other three of them are about other people: who they are, what they want or need, and how they change.

As a result., That formulation forces you to be outward facing.

And all the happier people that I met outside the tent on that warm New Haven night.

They were outward facing.

They were not inward facing.

They knew very clearly whom they served, what those people needed, and how those people changed as a result.

And.

You may have intuited this already that the most successful people in any field always focus most on the people that they serve than on how they are served.

Themselves.

Happier people make it a point to make other people happy, and do things that make them feel well taken care of and secure.

If.

You make other people happy, life teaches us.

We will be taken care, of, too.

So, since you all did so well.

We have time for just a little bit of extra credit.

(Laughter) One of the most difficult things that happens when you meet people for the first time.

Is they ask you this question, "So,? What do you do?" And, if you're like some of us,? That's a really challenging question: sometimes.

Particularly, if you're in these moments, where you're between things, or you're feeling vulnerable, or it isn't defined.

Or, what you seem to do, isn't what you really do, or what you paid to do? Isn't how you define yourself.

So.

When people ask you this question, "So, what do you do?" and also, you've got this mental monologue going on, "Why? Is he asking me? So, what do I do? Is it because..." It's that transactional thing where it's like: "He wants to know.

If he should really spend time talking to me?" (Laughter) Or, it's that other thing.

So he can tell me what he does because he's sure it's, "Oh, really, so much better than what I do?" (Laughter) Right? So.

When somebody asks you that question, here's what you do: you just say, the very last thing you called out, how what you do changes the people you do it for.

So, for example, you might say, "I, give kids awesome, dreams." If your life purpose, is: "I write books for children, so they can fall asleep at night, so they can have awesome.

Dreams." Or! You might say: "I help people look and feel their best,".

If your life purpose is: "I design, apparel for men and women who need affordable choices, so they can look and feel their best." Or.

You might say: "I help.

People get great work into the world,".

If your life purpose is: "I, train entrepreneurs and creative people to take decisive actions, so they can get their greatest work into the world." And then, that little snippet that you just said becomes your personal elevator, pitch.

And.

It will always start a conversation, because the person that you were just talking to has to ask you a question, "How.

Do you give kids great dreams?" "How? Do you help people look and feel their best?" "Can people really get their greatest work into the world?" And.

Then you get to tell them, and you get to share your life.

Purpose.

And.

You get to share how they may come to learn.

Theirs, too., (Applause).