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Summary. Do you know what your “purpose” is? If you’re eager to find it, here are three actions you can take right now to move forward: Seek out new experiences and reach beyond yourself. It’s important to cultivate your passions and seek out experiences that can reveal how...
Do you feel like you have a strong sense of purpose guiding your career aspirations?
Purpose can be defined as an overarching intention that is personally meaningful to you and of consequence to the world beyond yourself. Your purpose can help you organize your life, give you a clear direction, and motivate you — especially when you encounter life’s inevitable setbacks and disappointments.
For example, maybe you’ve always had a strong desire to contribute to the greater good, leading you to pursue a career in medicine or nonprofit work. Or maybe you’re most energized when lifting up others and want to entertain them through a creative career. Or maybe, you’re still figuring out your purpose — that’s okay too. In fact, one estimate suggests that only a fifth of young people have a clear idea of their purpose.
Finding your purpose early in life can benefit you in many ways. Those who report a strong sense of purpose at younger ages tend to have better mental health and are more resilient against setbacks. Finding your purpose is also a precursor to being an effective leader, and working in a meaningful career that can make a positive impact.
So, what does it take to find your purpose?
How to Find Your Purpose
To learn more about the role purpose plays in our lives, we conducted an in-depth, mixed-methods study with about 400 students graduating from high school. We first identified “purposeful students” by measuring their sense of purpose quantitatively through questions such as “To what extent do you feel a sense of purpose and direction in life,” and “How much of your daily activities are guided towards a meaningful long-term goal?”
Then, we focused in on the participants who reported feeling the most confident in their purpose — around 20% of respondents. We analyzed these students’ responses to open-ended questions about how they think about purpose, and how their parents, friends, and families support their exploration of it.
If you’re eager to identify your own purpose, our research revealed three critical actions you can take right now to help you find it.
1) Seek out new experiences and reach beyond yourself.
Our data revealed that the first step to finding your purpose is to engage in diverse life and career experiences. Those who reported a strong sense of purpose in our research spent a significant amount of time cultivating their passions — in everything from biology to art. Further, they did not wait for their passions to simply appear one day. Just as research shows, their passions grew out of skillful engagement with an active pursuit of their interests.
But personal interest and passion is only one piece of the puzzle. One’s purpose begins to emerge more fully when we find ways to connect our interests to the world beyond ourselves. For young people in our data, this meant engaging in experiences that showed them how their interests can help them contribute to others’ lives in ways that are personally meaningful.
For example, many of our participants shared the impact of engaging in “socially useful” opportunities, such as volunteer or nonprofit work, shadowing teachers or medical professionals, or engaging with for-profit jobs and entrepreneurship that contribute to the greater good. To explore socially useful opportunities, purposeful students in our research reached out to their social networks to find internships or meet with professionals to learn from their experiences in these types of roles.
They also specifically highlighted the benefits of being in environments where they could meet people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. For some, these environments were accessible at school, while others discussed pursuing these environments through internships, extracurricular activities, or other programs outside of school. Seeking out diverse experiences can provide you with perspective about social issues and help you further clarify your values and beliefs. One high-purpose student stated, “This multicultural environment led me to have a better vision of life.”
But it’s not just about collecting experiences. Purposeful students also expressed a commitment to applying what they learned through their experiences to take moral action every day. They expressed considerations about what creates good or bad outcomes for others and mentioned wanting to “do the right thing” and help others in their lives whenever they could.
These types of experiences, however, won’t just fall into your lap. As we learned from these purposeful young people, finding one’s purpose requires active participation in life. If you’re eager to gather more life experiences to help you define your purpose, but you don’t know where to start, ask yourself these questions:
- Who or what inspires me to get out of my comfort zone and connect with the world beyond me?
- How can I connect meaningfully with individuals and communities with different backgrounds, beliefs, and values than mine?
- What is a simple first step I can take right now to start exploring socially useful career opportunities?
2) Reflect on your experiences.
Experience, however, is not enough. Our research also found that purposeful people tended to combine their varied life experiences with self-reflection. Our data showed that these individuals not only recollected their activities — they also remembered the impressions that those experiences left on them. As one student said:
My parents are doctors themselves, so even when I was little, when I got to see them in action in the hospital, it was very interesting for me to see them work. I also got to see the impact their work had on people from ways in which people thanked them, from kind words and phone calls to small presents. I fell in love with the concept of doing what you love and being helpful to humankind at the same time. As I grew up, not only did this feeling stay in me, I wanted to become a doctor too. So, my parents just being themselves, getting me into their classes or operating rooms, and telling me what they do in detail helped me during my process of purpose discovery.
Not all reflection, however, will bring you insight into your purpose. Your reflection must be directed at finding positive meaning — psychologists call this adaptive reflection. As you reflect on your experiences, ask yourself the following questions to help you gather insights about your purpose:
- How did this experience shape who I am? How did it impact my values and worldviews?
- What was most challenging for me in this experience? What strengths showed up as I overcame these challenges? How can I make sure that others do not suffer from the same challenges?
- What were some of the gifts of this experience? Who am I grateful for and how do I want to give back?
It is also important that your reflections stretch beyond yourself and help you connect to your greater place in the world. Therefore, you may want to critically think about what is going on around you and how you can contribute. This type of “moral discernment” is important for determining your purpose. The following questions can help kickstart these reflections:
- What is an issue that affects others that keeps me up at night?
- Which local or global problem am I most capable of addressing given my strengths and skills?
- In what ways might my emerging goals and aspirations harm or benefit others?
Your answers will help you gain insight into the aspects of the experiences you’ve most enjoyed, derived meaning from, and want to continue pursuing.
3) Discuss your life goals and gather feedback.
In our research, those with a strong sense of purpose also reported frequently talking about their life goals and interests with their friends. They felt these conversations gave them diverse perspectives and helped them see their goals in a new light. As one student said: “When we share our goals with each other, I think it really helps us see why we want what we want in life.” Students also experienced emotional benefits such as feeling energized: “When my friends are passionate and excited about their own career goals, it motivates me to get excited about mine.” Or less anxious: “We discuss our future plans together, which makes me feel a little bit calmer about my future.”
Here are some relational (rather than transactional) prompts you can use to kickstart these types of conversations:
- I have been thinking about what I want from life lately and would love to share some of my ideas with someone. Do you have time to talk? I would enjoy learning about your life goals as well.
- I would appreciate a sounding board as I think about my future. Would you play this role for me? I would be happy to do the same for you.
- I am curious, what are your plans for the future? What kind of life do you want live? What energizes you the most as you look into the future?
In addition to discussing your goals, it’s important to seek feedback during these conversations. Our research found that purposeful students often relied on the positive feedback they received from their counsellors, parents, teachers and friends to help solidify their purpose.
Feedback from others can often carry significant information about ourselves, showing us where our strengths lie, and directing our energy into areas where we can have the largest impact.
Here are some questions you can ask to uncover this valuable feedback:
- You’ve known me for a long time. What do you think are some of my greatest strengths? What am I really good at?
- Thinking about our relationship, how do you think I contribute to your life? Are there some things that I do to improve your life that others don’t?
- I wonder if you’ve noticed… what are the moments that I shine? When do I seem most energized and excited?
Balancing Your Approach
It’s likely you already engage in some of the activities above in one way or another. For example, you might naturally find yourself seeking out new experiences. Or you may already enjoy journaling and find self-reflection an easy pursuit. Or maybe you’re a social butterfly, always bringing honesty and insight to your conversations with friends.
The key to truly finding and living your purpose, however, is to continuously engage with and balance all three actions. If you’re struggling to identify your purpose, consider where you may fall on this diagram:
See more HBR charts in Data & Visuals
You may be a highly reflective individual, always thinking about your goals and strengths. And you may be very social, always talking with and learning from others. However, you may be lacking in life engagement. If this sounds like your experience, you might be a “ruminator.” Based on our research, you should focus your efforts on participating in diverse experiences and finding ways to take specific action on an issue of concern for you.
Or, you may be very actively engaged in your purpose exploration already — always jumping from one life experience to another, talking to others, and consistently receiving feedback. But you’re not spending time on your own to reflect and synthesize these experiences. If this sounds like you, you may be “over-socialized.” Keeping a contemplative journal can help you move forward.
Another possibility is that you may be very reflective and engaged with life but not connecting with others enough. When you are missing out on social feedback, you may be too self-focused. If this sounds familiar, it may be time to engage in some intentional conversations and explore diverse viewpoints.
By taking these actions, based on what you need most, you can fall into the “ideal discovery-of-purpose zone,” which will help you clarify and move forward with your purpose.
. . .
As you take stock of what you’ve learned from this process and start to engage with the building blocks of purpose discovery, expect your purpose to slowly crystallize. Your purpose may become something you can articulate — a mission statement that you can put in your social media bios or on your resume. Or maybe, it’s simply something you live by day-to-day — a lens through which you navigate the world.
Either way, discovering and living out one’s purpose is a life-long pursuit. Taking these actions does not mean your purpose will automatically arise or that your journey will be free of struggle and confusion. But these proactive behaviors can help you form the building blocks of your emerging sense of purpose, and discover a deeper shared purpose with others.
Author’s note: We thank The Koç School and Vehbi Koç Foundation for their collaboration and financially supporting this research.
