People often talk about wanting to “find their purpose.” Of course, on some level, I think of this as a helpful and important pursuit. Purpose can offer us so much in terms of clarity, focus, and fulfillment. That’s why I’m building a whole program around it.
But I believe we often talk about purpose in an unhelpful way. We use metaphors that don’t help us orient to it constructively.
In particular, when we say we want to find purpose, we treat purpose as something outside of ourselves that is lost or hidden from us. We then think we have to set out on a journey to seek it out.
The dominant metaphor for purpose is one of a treasure that we must go unearth somewhere. We keep turning over stone after stone, only to come away empty-handed. It’s always just beyond our reach. We return home from that journey discouraged and disempowered.
The problem is that, at least in my experience, purpose is not out there waiting to be found like some treasure chest. It’s not something we come across and discover. It doesn’t reveal and announce itself to us. It hasn’t been pre-determined and assigned to us.
Purpose is something that we cultivate within us. It’s something we can shape and color however we want. It’s something we create for ourselves.
I think of purpose more like a garden. We get to choose which seeds we sow. We get to choose if and when we harvest. When we feel a lack of purpose, we don’t go out into the woods digging for it. We plant some seeds, pull some weeds, water (but not too much), and give it time. We recognize that in some seasons of our lives, the garden is abundant and fruitful. And in others, it is barren, preparing for the next bloom.
You are not going to find your purpose. You’re not going to find it because it doesn’t even exist until you create it. You have to intentionally grow it within you. You have to choose it. You get to choose it.
Peter Schulte
I help aspiring changemakers do good in the world and feel good in the process.