Book review – Purpose Ignited by Alise Cortez

Put simply, purpose is Cortez’s raison d’être, and this is her roadmap out of apathy and resignation to living with passion and working on purpose.

Cortez comes with a strong pedigree as a management consultant developing leaders and organisations and host of her own ‘Working on Purpose’ radio programme, so her foray into print is bursting with inspiring anecdotes, exercises and food for thought.

This book is written with two people in mind – those who are already in leadership positions and anyone who is aspiring to develop the capacity to live with passion, work with purpose and step into leadership. Cortez tells the reader to consider this their ‘invitation to officially quit the walking dead’. This is her phrase to describe those who are ‘unmindfully going through the motions in life – running the hamster wheel, dropping into bed exhausted, only to repeat the same exercise the next day’.

Purpose Ignited is designed to spark you into life, motivate you to make a change and make you commit to unleashing the very best version of you, every day. Read the first page and the author tells you that this book is to turn you on because we all need to discover the unique gift we are in order to better the world through the contributions of passion and purpose. And I think she hits the mark with this book because her enthusiasm is contagious, and it shows in her words.

Written during the pandemic, it would have been so easy for this to be another self-help type book which takes you through the motions rather than spurring you into action. Instead, she has managed successfully to fill the chapters with inspiration, gives you the incentive to reflect and stokes you into wanting to find more meaning and purpose in your personal and professional lives as soon as you can.

I think Purpose Ignited will resonate with a lot of managers, leaders and coaches because it offers a good introduction into the topic and is easy to understand. However, it also gives the subject matter real depth because it is underpinned with psychological theory and for readers who want more, there are also videos and worksheets that accompany the book.

This is a very timely book with so much being written and talked about organisations needing to work with purpose rather than profit. Cortez has generously poured some of her expertise into this treasure trove of a book and it provides an excellent starting point for anyone who is wanting to find more fulfilment and live a life of worthwhile meaning and purpose.