Phoebe's Story
Phoebe is a harbor porpoise, smaller and much cuter than her cousin the dolphin. She lives in the North Atlantic Ocean. For a long-time, she felt that she had a special purpose in life, but didn't know what it was. When she talked about this with her pod mates, they were eager to give her ideas. Olympic swimmer and fisher-porpoise were the most often suggested.
Phoebe got why these were the natural things to think of - but when she considered these, they weren't what lit her up. She decided to give herself the freedom to dream without any restrictions or limitations.
Phoebe first spent a lot of time thinking about her Top Strengths. Of course, swimming and fishing were on this list. But the strength that resonated most was Appreciation of Beauty. When she looked into her Positive Past, Phoebe realized that she felt most alive when she was plugged into her creativity. And when she imagined her Fantastic Future, she saw herself painting beautiful underwater scenes, inspired by the world that she swims through every day.
She decided that her Concrete Commitment was to set a goal to create art. Her Authentic Action was to paint for an hour two to three times a week. She also thought hard about what she would do to overcome challenges, so that she could keep moving towards her goals no matter what. (It isn't easy to paint underwater!)
Phoebe had done her homework. She knew that spending as little as 30 minutes once a week on something purposeful has a lasting impact on happiness. She also understood that it is much better to find your true purpose, even if you can only invest in it part-time, than never find it at all.
Phoebe still swims and fishes in order to keep herself full and fed. But as she does so, her artist's eye is always looking for her next painting. This helps expand her purpose-driven happiness into her daily life. Does she dream of increasing the time she can spend as an artist? Absolutely. Part of her Authentic Action is to find an agent to represent her. She has a strong belief in the market demand for porpoiseful art.
But with things just as they are, she is a Porpoise with a Purpose and she is happy.