You Don’t Find Your Purpose — You Build It

We’re all looking for purpose. Most of us feel that we’ve never found it, we’ve lost it, or in some way we’re falling short. But in the midst of all this angst, we’re also suffering from fundamental misconceptions about purpose. Challenging these misconceptions could help us develop a more rounded vision of purpose. The first misconception is that purpose is a thing you find. Purpose is a thing you build, not a thing you find. The second misconception is that purpose is a single thing. Most of us will have multiple sources of purpose in our lives — in our work, family, or community, for instance. Acknowledging these multiple sources of purpose takes the pressure off of finding a single thing to give our lives meaning. The last misconception is that purpose is stable over time. Just as we all find meaning in multiple places, the sources of that meaning can and do change over time.