Monday Musing – Find Your Purpose

Discovering  our “purpose” is important but can be burdensome, more so when you’re criticized for taking the time to search. Millennial idealism or just not wanting to be a grumpy old cynic, we all crave purpose. Seeing various forms of this infographic I’ve always tried to pinpoint where I fell and how many were aligned. I’ve realized I more often fall in the area of profession, balancing what I’m good at and what I get paid to do, or vocation because the world needs good teachers.

I, like many struggling to find purpose, have fallen into the trap of general dissatisfaction. Why are we portrayed as so bummed out all the time? Is this our generational affliction? To seek and never find? I don’t think the difficulty is unique to our generation but we still clutch to hope and will continue to do so perhaps longer than previous generations.

When did our older generations give up their search? When did they stop asking questions? If all the media is to be believed, at a lot younger age than we are now! When I was your age… I was older! And some such nonsense. So let’s play a game!

• List 3 things you love:
• List 4 things the world needs:
• List 5 things you are good at (not necessarily aligned to what you love):
• Who or what brings those together?

If the answer leads you to design and build modular furniture for classrooms, then DO IT! I tell my students who turn in mediocre work, “You must take the time to do it right, or make the time to do it over.” Don’t we owe it to our purpose-yearning selves to take the time NOW so we aren’t crotchety old people constantly reexamining our mediocrity and perpetuating a cycle of disparaging future generations? Career changes can be scary, but maybe fulfillment is on the other side!