When you don’t quite recognise yourself any more.
From the outside, nothing looks wrong. You’re still turning up, still doing what needs doing. And underneath, you’ve lost track of who you are and what matters to you now.
Core Purpose Discovery Framework™
If one of those three questions stayed with you…
Start the programme£249 · Self-paced · 14-day refund promise
Complete Programme: £249 · 14-day refund promise
Maybe this is you.
Life builds up in layers. Mum, dad, partner, son or daughter. Worker, manager, leader. The fixer, the sorter, the one who arranges everything.
Each role made sense when you took it on. None of them is the whole of you, and life rarely stops long enough for you to ask what the rest of you wants.
This is a pause, on purpose. A chance to check in with yourself, whatever your age and wherever you are in life. The Core Purpose Discovery Framework™ is a self-paced programme to help you find your way back, privately, in your own time.
“Somewhere along the way, it’s very easy to lose sight of who you are underneath all the roles you carry.”
Sometimes something has changed
- A job or career has ended, you’ve retired, sold the business, or left an organisation that was your whole world.
- Years of caring for someone have come to an end, or the children have grown and gone.
- You’ve lost someone, and now that the first raw months have passed, you’re asking who you are without them.
- A relationship has ended, or family has become difficult, distant or broken.
Sometimes nothing has happened at all
- You’re the one everyone leans on, and hardly anyone asks how you are.
- You’re surrounded by people and still lonely.
- There’s a tiredness a good night’s sleep doesn’t touch.
- There’s a quiet “is that it?”, or a sense that this isn’t quite right for you, and you’ve never given yourself the time to think about it.
Sometimes, on paper, it’s going well
- You’ve built a career, a business or a reputation, and it doesn’t feel the way you thought it would.
- You’re at a crossroads, with more choice than ever and less idea what you want.
If some of that landed, you probably felt it before you thought it. A heaviness at the idea of carrying on exactly as you are. Something lifting, even slightly, at the idea that there might be more. That’s worth paying attention to. It’s where this work starts.
Start the programmeHow it works, and why.
The programme rests on one belief: people only truly believe what they discover for themselves. So it won’t tell you who you are. It gives you the space, the questions and the steadiness to find out, privately and safely.
It gets you ready first
I talk you through every lesson on video, and you can pause, rewind or mute me whenever you like. Before any deep questions, it helps you check whether now is the right time, settle into a calm grounding practice, and decide whether to work solo or bring in someone you trust.
Then come the questions
Alongside your downloadable workbook and 100+ page written guide, you explore more than 120 questions across three sets, including optional sections for loss, authority, burnout, or family expectations. You don’t answer them all; you focus on the handful that make you stop.
Live with it in your own time
After that, you put what you’ve found into your own words, test it against your real life, try small changes, and live with it for a few months before deciding anything big. And with no expiry date, it’s yours to return to whenever your life enters a new chapter.
A few of the questions
They are the strongest part of the programme. Notice if one of them lands in your body right now.
“Who am I when I’m not fulfilling external roles and expectations?”
“What would the seven-year-old version of me say about how I’m living now?”
“When have I felt most like myself in the past year? What was I doing, and who was I with (or not with)?”
“Is my work an expression of who I am, or have I become an expression of my work?”
“Who am I now that my life looks nothing like I planned?”
“If my body could speak about who I really am, what would it say?”
What you’ll come away with.
It’s different for everyone, of course. The programme isn’t about handing you a polished slogan. It’s built to help you uncover what is genuinely true for you in this season of your life.
What it isn’t
- A quick fix
- Someone telling you what to do
- A substitute for therapy, if deeper emotional work is needed
A clearer sense of who you are now, beneath the roles you’ve played
What fulfils you, what gives you energy, and what’s likely to matter in your next chapter
What doesn’t: the things to do less of, or stop
Which relationships feed you and deserve more of your time, and which cost you more than they give
The handful of values you won’t trade
A sentence or two, in your own words, about what you’re here for at this point in your life, tested against your real life rather than just sounding good on paper
A way of noticing when you’re drifting, and finding your way back
When to wait
Grief doesn’t rule you out. Many people come to this after a loss, once the first raw months have passed. But this work asks a lot of you, and there are times to wait:
- in the first few months after a death, a divorce, or a big rupture in your life
- in an active crisis, whether medical, financial, housing or your safety
- if you’re living with a mental health condition, such as severe depression, anxiety or an addiction, that isn’t yet being treated or supported
- if you’re exhausted or burnt out to the point of collapse
If that’s you, please look after yourself first and get the support you need. Needing to wait isn’t failure, and whether you spend time in our free Here Together community first or simply rest, this programme has no deadline and will still be here whenever you are ready.
The six phases.
Each phase builds on the last. The timings are a guide, not a target. Some people work through it quickly, others take months, and both are right.
Before you begin: welcome and foundations 4 Videos · 74 Min
- Welcome9 min
- Lesson 1: How the framework works, working solo, capturing what comes up22 min
- Lesson 2: Key terms, when not to begin, core principles, pacing25 min
- Lesson 3: Where you are now, and an honest check-in18 min
Phase 1: Grounding A few days
- Lesson 4: The grounding practice and first reflections19 min
Phase 2: Discovery A week, or longer
- Lesson 5: Before you start, if you’re feeling overwhelmed19 min
- Lesson 6: Questions about who you are28 min
- Lesson 7: Questions about what gives you energy, and the difference you make41 min
- Lesson 8: The uncomfortable questions41 min
- Lesson 9: Bringing it together16 min
Phase 3: First words A few days
- Lesson 10: Putting what you’ve found into words22 min
Phase 4: Testing it Around a week
- Lesson 11: Living with your words and seeing if they hold21 min
Phase 5: Small steps Four to six weeks
- Lesson 12: Small steps and weekly experiments27 min
Phase 6: Living with it Three months or more
- Lesson 13: Living with what you’ve discovered21 min
- Lesson 14: A year on: how it deepens and changes20 min
Closing: support and what comes next 2 Videos · 28 Min
- Lesson 15: When you get stuck, and when to look for other support17 min
- Lesson 16: Final thoughts, and where you might go from here11 min
Who I am.
I’m Russell. You may know me from my posts, from my book The Pattern, or from our Here Together community.
I spent over thirty years being the person things were brought to, first in the Royal Navy’s submarine service and then in some very large businesses. I was a long way into my life before I learned how to sit on the other side of that conversation.
When I left the Navy, I let life stumble me into whatever came next. I wish I’d spent time then working out what I was for. I’ve been working on purpose, my own and other people’s, ever since I went back to university as a mature student in the mid-nineties.
The framework itself started with a conversation with Alex, as he was leaving an executive role and asking what came next. It’s built from lived experience, not theory: mine, and that of the people I’ve sat alongside.
From people who’ve done it.
Hear directly from Alex, Rebecca and Jonny on what brought them to the framework and what shifted as they worked through the questions.
Stepping out of a senior executive role and asking who he was, and what mattered next, beyond the job title.
Making the space to pause, answer the questions honestly, and reconnect with herself beneath day-to-day demands.
Moving from surface-level ideas to practical, grounded clarity that holds up in real life.
What you get.
Everything you need to work through the framework privately, at your own pace, with no expiry date.
Core Purpose Discovery Framework™
Immediate access on any computer, tablet or phone with a browser
Dollar prices include currency exchange and international card fees.
- 16 lessons, with over six hours of me on video talking you through every one
- The full written framework, more than 100 pages, to work through at your own pace
- The Core Purpose Discovery Workbook, made for this programme, to download and print
- Pause, rewind or stop me whenever you like
- No expiry date: come back to it whenever you need, on any computer, tablet or phone with a browser
- 58 CPD credits, if your work asks for them
No expiry date. 14-day money-back guarantee.
Immediate private login: You receive your personal login straight away to access the programme on any computer, tablet or phone.
9-minute Welcome & Workbook: Download your printable Discovery Workbook and watch the short welcome video before any deep questions begin.
Go at your own rhythm: Take a few days on Phase 1, pause whenever life gets busy, and take a full 14 days to make sure it’s right for you.
Independently accredited
The programme is independently CPD accredited and carries 58 credits of continuing professional development. If your work asks you to log CPD, it counts. If it doesn’t, it simply means the content has been independently assessed against professional standards.
14-day refund promise
If you start and find it isn’t right for you, email [email protected] within 14 days and we’ll refund you in full.
Questions people ask.
How much time will it take, and what if I need to pause?
The videos alone run to over six hours, and the reflection takes as long as it takes. Some people get into it and give it hours at a time; others go slowly, a little at a time. Both work, as long as you give what comes up time to settle. And if you need to step away for weeks or even months, that isn’t failure, it’s respecting your own pace. You keep your access with no expiry date and can pick up right where you left off.
I’ve read the books. How is this different?
Books give you ideas. This asks you questions, in a particular order, and gives you room to answer them honestly. It moves at your pace, it pays attention to what your body tells you as well as what your mind thinks, and it doesn’t hand you a purpose. It helps you uncover the one that’s already there.
Is it live or pre-recorded, and how do I get to it?
It’s all self-paced and pre-recorded, with no live calls. I talk you through every lesson on video, and you can pause, rewind or stop me whenever you like. You can access everything online on any computer, tablet or phone with a browser (or through the Kajabi app), and download the workbook to print or fill in on screen.
Can I do it with someone else?
Yes. Most people do the core of it on their own, and the programme explains when and how to bring in a friend, a partner or someone else you trust.
Am I too old for this?
No. The person you are at 65 or 75 lives out what matters differently from the person you were at 30, because you’ve lived more and understand more. This isn’t about starting from nothing. It’s about finding what’s true for this season of your life.
How is this different from A Conversation with Russell?
A Conversation is one-to-one with me, live. This programme is the work you do in your own time, with me on video. Some people would rather start on their own and see what they find first. If you want to talk any of it through with me, Conversations are always there.
Is it spiritual?
It doesn’t ask you to believe anything. If you have a faith or a spiritual practice, the programme sits alongside it, and there’s a part written for people whose faith or culture shapes how they think about purpose. If you don’t, nothing here asks you to. Noticing what’s happening in your body isn’t mystical. It’s listening to what your nervous system is telling you.
Is this therapy?
No. It’s self-guided reflection, and it isn’t a substitute for therapy if deeper emotional work is needed. The programme is clear about when to pause and look for support, and Lesson 15 helps you work out what kind.
What if it isn’t right for me?
If you start and find it isn’t right for you, email [email protected] within 14 days and we’ll refund you in full.
Can I do it from outside the UK?
Yes. It works anywhere, and you can pay in pounds, US dollars or Canadian dollars. The dollar prices include currency exchange and international card fees.
When you’re ready.
There’s no deadline and no rush. Purpose isn’t something you find in a hurry. It’s something you uncover layer by layer, when you make the space for it.
Dollar prices include currency exchange and international card fees.
No expiry date. 14-day money-back guarantee.