Purpose helps many people find a fulfilling, peaceful, and impactful way through life. But what actually is purpose?
The problem
The world today is overwhelming. It is almost impossibly immense, staggeringly complex, deeply ambiguous, and ever-changing. We have near-infinite news, information, perspectives, and opportunities right at our fingertips, all vying for our scarce time and attention. There are a million possible paths stretching out before us.
At the same time, humanity is beset by many seemingly impossible, urgent challenges that demand the world of us: the climate crisis, oppression, war, poverty, authoritarianism, diseases of despair, powerful yet potentially devastating new technologies, and a pervasive sense that the world is just falling apart before our eyes.
People today are inundated with more information and opportunities than at any other time in history. And we perhaps demand more of ourselves than at any other time in history. How can we possibly not take advantage of all these wonderful possibilities and opportunities? How can we possibly let a minute go by when we aren’t trying to save the world? We must go, go, go. We must do more, more, more. We must bring ourselves to our breaking point on a daily basis. At least this is what many of us tell ourselves.
We yearn to “be the change.” And yet we struggle to figure out what we can do in such a vast world amid such deep, intractable challenges. We struggle to find our right path among the millions of paths lying before us. We struggle to find a way to make a meaningful contribution while still maintaining our sanity and peace of mind.
The good news
That’s the bad news. The good news is that you don’t have to feel this way. There is a powerful antidote to the overwhelm, confusion, and hopelessness many of us feel today: purpose.
Through purpose, you discover and live your one authentic path. You say “yes” to that which most brings you alive. But you also say “no” to all the paths that are not yours to walk down, that distract you from your highest callings, and that needlessly drain you of your energy.
Through purpose, you make your contribution to the deep, intractable problems facing humanity today. You tap into and leverage the unique gifts offered to you in this life and offer them back to the world.
In doing so, you not only cultivate lasting meaning and fulfillment but also a deep sense of peace and clarity that sustains you even through the darkest, most turbulent times.
What is purpose actually? What’s my life purpose?
There are many ways we think about and define purpose. Purpose can simply be an intention. When we do something on purpose, we do it intentionally. Purpose can also be a feeling of determination to contribute to something beyond our own limited self-interest and self-imposed limitations. When we act in this way, we garner a momentary sense of purpose.
But purpose can be something much more central to your life. Purpose is also the ongoing path through which we contribute to the greater good and infuse our lives with meaning. It is the overarching intention and driving force behind our decisions and actions. It is our why.
Some call this our life’s purpose. But the term life’s purpose can perhaps be overly daunting and restricting. In reality, very few of us have a purpose that is stable throughout our entire life. And the task of trying to find something that drives our whole entire life might be paralyzing. For most, it’s most helpful simply to consider our true purpose for this chapter of our life. That chapter might last three decades. It might last three minutes. Who knows? The point is: Purpose is not a prison. It grows, shifts, and evolves over time as we do as individuals and as the circumstances around us change. Sometimes, a path that gave us that sense of purpose runs its course, and it’s time to step into something entirely new and different.
Our true purpose is the one path of the million before us that is most authentic to who we really are. It offers us our best opportunity to contribute something meaningful to the world and foster that deep sense of meaning and fulfillment we yearn for.
The five pillars of purpose
Ultimately, purpose is the primary focus of the doing aspects of our lives (as opposed to being). It is whatever we create broadly through our actions that gives us our deepest sense of fulfillment, contribution, and clarity.
Our true purpose is built on five pillars:
- Intention: We may stumble upon our right path unwittingly, but we do not walk down it unknowingly. We must consciously choose it and know why we are choosing it to unlock its full power to guide and fulfill us.
- Passion: Purpose inherently leverages our greatest gifts and interests. It lights our own internal fires. It inspires and enlivens us.
- Service: Through purpose, we inherently make a contribution beyond ourselves. This might be for a single loved one, our immediate family, our community, our country, or all of humanity. The scale doesn’t matter. But purpose is always in service to something beyond our own self-interest.
- Fulfillment: For most, purpose is a key ingredient, perhaps the key ingredient, to a truly fulfilling life. By walking the path, we infuse our lives with meaning. By giving away our gifts to the world, we fill our own cups.
- Journey: Purpose is the path we walk down, not a destination we arrive at. It fulfills us simply through the act of following it. Through purpose, we learn to derive our motivation and meaning not from achievement and accomplishment, but from the beautiful adventure unfolding right before us in the now.
Perhaps the simplest way to think of purpose is whatever you can focus on in your life that both fills your cup and offers a gift to the world. If you’re not contributing in some small way to something beyond, even one person, it’s not purpose. And if you’re not personally inspired, fulfilled, and f***ing in love with it, it’s not purpose.
Purpose is passion plus service.
Are you walking your path of purpose?
More from the Purpose 101 series
You can skip the Hero’s Journey
Can you have purpose and passion?
Antidotes to meta-crisis despair
Inner purpose, outer purpose
Find your change leader archetype
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Hi, I’m Peter Schulte. I’m a purpose coach. If you’re interested in getting support in your career, relationships, creative projects, or inner explorations, let’s connect.
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