Finding Purpose in 2017

I had a conversation with a friend recently and she said she felt purposeless. I think we’ve all been there. I definitely have. Conventional business journalism and self-help books, which can largely be full of manure, tend to frame getting out of this purposeless cycle in some flash of innovative lightning. Like -- you feel adrift and then BAM, you create some product that aids millions. It almost never happens like that. James Dyson created 5,126 failed vacuum prototypes before he finally hit on the right one. I bet he felt a lot of purposelessness during those 5,126 iterations. Now his name is synonymous with a brand/industry.

It makes sense why we often feel a lack or purpose. We spend a lot of time at working as adults and work is often a place where purpose and priorities are unclear. Look at this article from Fast Company from a few years back, for example. It’s about PwC trying to create a “sense of purpose” at a large company (theirs). If you read through it, it has a few good points -- but you could toss a penny onto the page and have a strong chance of hitting a buzzword. We love to interject buzzwords into any discussion about purpose as is tried to work; I honestly think “purpose” itself might be a buzzword to a lot of people.

Whenever I’ve felt less than purposeful, I don’t wait for some epiphany. I just start working towards something. That’s usually the path, because the path will change and meander. Take an example like Bill Gates. He was a college student, then he dropped out. He created something, then he had to manage a company around it. He then had to grow that company. Now he’s a philanthropist. Those are about six different life iterations. Think about someone like Angelina Jolie. She was a model, then an actress, then a producer, then a director, and now she’s a charitable voice in the world. Again, multiple iterations -- multiple purposes.

My mom, who is not as famous as those people, was the same way. She was a nurse, then a financial advisor, then a business owner. She always told me to work towards something you want to do in the now, or for the foreseeable future. That’s how you get back into a cycle of purpose. It’s not some magic wand.

Here’s a final piece about trying to find purpose at work: right now, the average North American job tenure is about 4.6 years, or maybe 54 months. If you think your life purpose is going to be defined by a place you’ll spend less than 60 months in, I have a few different bridges I could sell you. Purpose comes from working incrementally towards goals, not via a company or in some eureka moment. That’s career advice more people should be getting.