Does My Life Have a Purpose?

Purpose can seem like a very big word.

We sometimes imagine that having a purpose means discovering one great thing we were meant to accomplish with our lives. Until we find it, we may wonder whether we are missing something everyone else seems to understand.

But perhaps the question is larger than finding the right career, achieving an important goal, or identifying one particular calling. When we ask whether our lives have purpose, we may really be asking: Is there a reason my life matters?

Purpose Is Bigger Than What We Do

It is easy to connect purpose with accomplishment. We ask children what they want to be when they grow up. As adults, we often introduce ourselves by explaining what we do. Success can become one of the primary ways we measure whether our lives are going somewhere.

Yet what happens when the job changes, the children grow up, retirement comes, the plan falls apart, or something we worked toward no longer seems as important as it once did?

If our purpose depends entirely on what we accomplish, then purpose can disappear whenever our circumstances change.

That suggests there may be a difference between having goals and having purpose. Goals give us something to pursue. Purpose gives significance to the life in which we pursue them.

Maybe Purpose Is Closer Than We Think

Some of the most meaningful parts of life can seem remarkably ordinary: caring for someone, raising a family, doing honest work, creating something beautiful, keeping a promise, helping a neighbor, teaching someone what we have learned, or simply being present when another person needs us.

None of those things necessarily attracts attention. Yet they can carry a sense of significance that accomplishment alone often cannot.

Perhaps purpose is not only about finding one extraordinary mission. It may also be discovered in the way we live, the people we love, what we give ourselves to, and the kind of person we are becoming.

A Life That Matters

There is another part of the question that is harder to ignore. Our lives do not last forever.

Knowing that our time is limited can make the question of purpose feel more urgent. If we had unlimited time, almost any direction could eventually be changed. But because our days are finite, our choices matter. What we give our attention to matters. Who we become matters.

You may not be able to describe the purpose of your life in one sentence. Perhaps you do not need to. It may be enough to begin noticing what seems genuinely worthy of the life you have been given.