Finding Your Purpose Is a Game Changer By Paul Frasca

Finding your purpose can change your whole outlook on life. For many people, their goal is to leave the world better than it was when they got here. That can feel like an overwhelming goal, but the truth is that each and every one of us can contribute to a better tomorrow for the planet we call home and the people who live here.

When was the last time you sat and thought about your purpose in life?

Some people think finding their purpose as a sustainability advocate means they have to upend their life and become frontline activists, but that simply isn’t true. You can work in Australia’s thriving hair and beauty industry and still be living your purpose as someone dedicated to the environment.

There’s no denying that the workforce is changing. If you’re not seeing it around you, then the recent ‘great resignation’ should have alerted you to a few key trends. People are sick of the office, sick of the commute, and most impactfully, they’re sick of working in jobs that don’t fulfil their desire for purpose.

COVID-19 forced us all back into our homes and many took this opportunity to re-evaluate. Spending more time with our kids made us ask ourselves questions like ‘what kind of world are we leaving for our children?’ For decades, profit was king, but now people are looking for ways of working that support more than just their financial needs.

The perspective change brought on by COVID-19 played into a shift that has been in the works for quite some time now - a move to sustainability and a way of living in sync with the world around us.

Purpose is not just important for you to feel fulfilled and to be at ease with your place in the world, it’s important to your clients too. Your clients are ordinary people, just like you and me, who are seeking a purpose for themselves and thinking about the legacy they’re leaving for their kids. Just like you and me, your clients want their day-to-day lives to align with their values and their sense of purpose. You can offer that to your clients and fulfil that need for them while also benefiting your bottom line. placed a bucket at the front counter where clients could make a gold coin donation to a local cause. Whenever someone made a donation, the person at the counter rang a little bell and all the staff stopped what they were doing to applaud the donating client. It’s extravagant, sure, but those clients left the salon feeling fabulous about more than just their hair.

Those clients will likely return to that salon because it’s fulfilled a very specific need; their desire to have their ‘good person’ status confirmed. Not only that, but those clients may well go on to make other environmentally friendly decisions throughout their day or week. Doing the right thing feels good, and that feeling leads us to want to do even more good.

Still not convinced? Ask your clients directly what they want. A simple questionnaire that you hand out to some of your clients to fill in while they wait for their appointment can help alleviate any niggling doubts you have. Ask them things like this:

How important is it to you to frequent businesses that align with your personal values?

Why do you choose our business over others? Think about what you need to know from your clients to feel comfortable implementing more sustainable practices in your salon. Will they be willing to part with a few dollars for your salon to join a program like Sustainable Salons? Will they happily pay a small sustainability fee for hair treatments that are ethically and sustainably sourced?

If the answers to these questions don’t convince you, look around. Look at what is happening on a global scale, or even just look up and down your street. Corporations, super funds, banks, governments, and everything in between are dialling up their green credentials. It’s beyond time that we all thought long and hard about what our purpose in this one precious life we have is. I’d bet yours isn’t to contribute to the degradation of the environment and to leave a wrecked planet behind for the next generation. Together we can make small changes that will add up to big impacts on the world we live in. Let’s put people and planet first; the profit will follow.

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