#84 2/2 Finding your purpose and identity, Tim Jones founder of The Grow Good Guy

Tim Jones joins Purposely Podcast. Episode 2 of 2 with Tim Jones, founder of The Grow Good Guy.  In this episode we talk purpose and identity. Tim is full of energy and is a great communicator as you will hear. As well as guiding clients to gain their B Corp certification, he delivers consults trains and coaches individuals and organisations. His aim is to help them achieve meaningful goals in life and work, by tapping into the potential of their purpose fuelled performance. We haven't met in person but have read a description of you that caught my attention, it said that you have the thinking ability of Russell Brand, the energy of Tony Robbins and the humour of Greg Davies - who is the real Tim Jones? ‘That's a great question. I think the version of me now is not who I've always been. I went to a strict private school in England where there wasn't really much realm for artistic creation. It went along the lines of yes sir, no sir. You were basically told what to do. I spent 10 years in a sales role and time in the British Army. I'm not a complete introvert and I would probably an ambivert, which is when you're comfortable with silence and your own energy, but equally, you don't mind being in an extravert position where you might have to talk or you might be surrounded by people.’ I would like to talk about purpose and identity, this is something you have really focused on? ‘I think it's massive and think this is one of the big contributors to the general modern mental health malaise, I think, it is at the core of it. Purpose is something that is not mentioned, when we talk about mental health crisis. This lack of meaning that a lot of us get through the work that we do. However, a big part of that purpose journey is identity, who are you? And there's a couple of good expressions on that one. This is a bit of a tongue twister and I can't remember who coined it but it's basically, ‘I am not who I think I am. I am not who I think you think I am. I am what you think, I think I am’. ‘You need to know who you are today and why you’re that person. To do that you need to go back and work out what has led you to be who you are today. Self-exploration is the journey that we all need to go on find our purpose. Who am I? Why am I who I am, and what has led me to be who I am today. Working out who you are and what has constructed you is massive. Most people don't want to do that because it's hard and you must go and fight some demons and you must go and challenge everything that you hold to be true, you need to go and challenge and not many people want to do that.’ So, there's, I think that's a big part of it, the other part of it of identity. So again, in front of me here, I have a big Welsh dragon flag, because, you know, I'm a Jones, let's face it, and, you know, as far as Welsh is you can get.’