Kill the buzzwords, and start with PURPOSE
As someone who makes their living as a coach, I probably shouldn’t say this…but I am SO OVER the word PURPOSE and relentless focus and glorification of finding your purpose! or living your purpose!
[insert the most intense teenage eyeroll you can imagine]
With the rise of coaching and self-development (yes, two realms I love and feel are deeply important), purpose has been elevated to feel like the pinnacle of your life’s focus – as if everything else you do is just filler until you find it.
Well I disagree.
At this point, just the word purpose has been so overused that most of us can’t even define it, let alone recognize it. And at the same time, it’s been inflated so much to mean something so grand and world-changing that it feels impossible to live up to.
That’s a lot of pressure for something so abstract.
And here’s what gets lost: life isn’t just a quest for meaning. It’s also about living in the reality of our worlds. Paying bills. Caring for family and friends. Doing things that bring us joy (or maybe even just relief!), even if they don’t feel transcendent.
Now, I respect the intention here – wanting to live a meaningful, aligned life. I’m all for it.
But maybe we’ve made it too big. Too precious. Too out-of-reach. Maybe purpose doesn’t need to be a calling.
What if, instead, we paid attention to the things that quietly show up again and again in our lives? The ways we naturally engage, what we care about, what we’re drawn to. The things that follow us like friendly shadows.
So instead of asking What’s my purpose? – a question that can send even the best of us spinning – maybe we ask:
What matters most to me…and how do I do more of that?
