What is purpose? It's a question I have been asking myself for a while now. Do I have it? Do I need it? Do I want it?
Purpose is very subjective, in the sense there will no doubt be many different and even opposing definitions of what exactly it is, as well as many different individual beliefs and ideas of what purpose is. In this bonus blog, I will look a bit more into purpose and see if I can come up with my own idea about the phenomenon.
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First, let's consider a podcast I recently listened to via Feel Better Live More which is where Dr Rangan Chatterjee interviews a wealth of guests about how we can, as the podcast title suggests, feel better and live more. In the episode I listened to recently, Rangan interviewed an amazing woman called Gladys McGarey, a medical doctor who is currently 103 years old and the co-founder of the Americal Holistic Medicine Association. You can find the YouTube recording of their discussion at the bottom of the page and find out more about the podcast here.
In the discussion, Gladys, who has written the book, The Well-Lived Life: A 103-Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age, says she has "no regrets", a fairly powerful statement from someone who has been on this planet for as long as she has, but from listening to the stories and experiences, it really does appear this woman has no regrets. My question really is how? What seems to be her secret to success and something she shares in the podcast as well as her book is the 5Ls. She calls these the secret recipe to success and these are as follows:
Love
Life
Laughter
Labour
Listening
Gladys talks about love and life as a pair. They need each other no matter what. I often wonder about the so many people in the world who lack this. They have a "life" as in they are medically, biologically and physiologically "alive" but are they truly living? What is clear from the podcast is that Gladys believes each of the other 5Ls, so laughter, labour and listening all feed into life, but can't do this without love, and in some cases are negative or even dangerous without love. She uses the example of labour without love. If we don't love what we do, such as me posting this blog and hosting this website, what's the point? Why bother? It's the same for the other elements such as listening. If we don't listen with love, now that's not to say we need to love the person doing the speaking but to really listen with love and compassion will allow us to be much better people, will contribute to our "life" and then our sense of purpose.
Experts in business for example make the case that purpose is a key to exceptional performance, while psychologists on the other hand describe it as the pathway to greater well-being. Research has found that people with purpose in their lives are less prone to disease. Purpose is increasingly being touted as the key to navigating the complex, volatile, ambiguous world we face today, where strategy is ever-changing and few decisions are obviously right or wrong.
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For me, currently, I feel I am lacking purpose. I work, I have a career I enjoy, and I have family, friends, two sons and a partner, all of which I assume give me purpose and I no doubt give them purpose, but I feel something is missing and am trying to pinpoint that down so I can fill the void, but do I need to? Is this searching I am doing more negative, more dangerous, as Gladys might say? In the podcast, Rangan suggests seeking a single purpose is slightly futile, although great if you can, and suggests instead that we should find meaningful purpose in each and everything that we do day to day. Now although Gladys agrees with this, she does feel there is something about having a purpose overall. A burning desire so to speak to get up in the morning and get going. I am verging on the side of Gladys for this one but herein lies the challenge, what is it?
I do of course try to have daily purpose in the things I do. Being a dad, a friend, a partner, a nurse, a human. But of course, purpose is none of those things. It isnt a title such as father or nurse. It's about the qualities feelings and emotions that said title gives or seeks. Its what springs from our identity and the essence of who we are. Let's look at some definitions of purpose.
Cambridge Dictionary - "why you do something or why something exists", or, "determination or a feeling of having a reason for what you do"
Merriam-Webster Dictionary - "something set up as an object or end to be attained"
Greater Good - "To psychologists, purpose is an abiding intention to achieve a long-term goal that is both personally meaningful and makes a positive mark on the world"
William Damon - "a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self"
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What seems clear from the small sample of definitions I found (I am sure if you really went digging there would be some very interesting ones) is that purpose is fluid. It has, like happiness as suggested in one of the links, no end goal or target as such. It is a fluid experience and emotion jointly. It seems to flourish most when one is giving, such as teaching, sharing, helping and the like. It has got me thinking, maybe I am more purposeful than I thought. Its maybe not purpose I am seeking but instead something else. Purpose seems more about the attitude towards something rather than the thing itself. I think it's really important moving forward to consider one's attitude to all things and how this might relate to purpose and meaning.
Although I do think I have purpose, I would like to experience it more. As Psychology Today explains, purpose offers opportunity. Now I am a writer, a nurse, a dad, a friend, a partner, an award winner, a student, a gardener and so many more titles I won't list, but within each of these, my purpose is key to opening up further opportunity. Now this isn't to suggest the more articles I write the better opportunity for career progression I will get (which of course it might), but looking into this deeper, about what the purpose I experience gives me is the opportunity to express happiness. Gratitude. Thankfulness. It allows me to reflect. To escape. To educate (myself as well as my readers). The unconscious opportunity purpose gives us is really an interesting topic for thought for each and every one of us.
Watch the podcast between Rangan and Gladys below:
Further resources on purpose:
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