Step 3.7: Connect The Dots
We've all been doing it since kindergarten: connecting dots to reveal the hidden picture. But here's what they didn't tell you in preschool – life's biggest dots only make sense when you look backward.
Your PURPOSE, MISSION, VISION, and NORTH STAR aren't separate entities. They're dots in a constellation that tells your story. When you connect them right, they reveal something powerful: the authentic you.
Steve Jobs nailed it in his Stanford speech: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward."
He wasn't just talking about career moves. He was talking about finding the thread that makes you, uniquely you.
Think about it:
Your PURPOSE is dot #1 – that fire under your ass that keeps you moving when everyone else has gone home
Your MISSION is dot #2 – the change you're creating in the world while the mercenaries are chasing their next payday
Your VISION is #3 – your personal moon shot that makes people's spines tingle when you describe it
Your NORTH STAR is the line that connects them all – the essence of who you are distilled into a single, burning point of light
"To be successful, you don't have to change who you are; you have to become more of who you are." Sally Hogshead wasn't just dropping a nice quote – she was giving us the secret to connecting our dots.
Most people try to draw new dots. They chase trends. They copy successful people's playbooks. They try to become someone else's picture. But that's like trying to force a giraffe to look like an elephant – it doesn't work, and you waste a perfectly good giraffe.
Your Playbook - connect your existing dots:
What themes keep showing up in your life?
What problems do you solve even when no one's asking?
What makes you lose track of time?
What would you do even if you never got credit?
These aren't random points. They're coordinates on your personal map.
Your job isn't to create new dots. Your job is to reveal the picture that's already there. To turn up the contrast. To make the lines bolder. To let the image emerge with such clarity that others can't help but see it too.
Because success isn't about becoming someone new. It's about becoming more clearly yourself. It's about connecting your dots so boldly that they become a beacon for others trying to find their way.
Stop trying to draw someone else's picture. Your dots are already there.
Start connecting them.
The masterpiece is you.