One of the most over-used words in the last 10 years is purpose. Since 2010 it has appeared in the titles of more than 400 new business and leadership books and thousands of articles.
But what have we learned from it?
Has it been helpful, making most of society run circles around themselves, looking for their purpose as if it was a remote control – always somewhere around but never quite revealing itself, on which the happiness of the entire rest of your evening depends.
This famous idea was first floated by an ideas man, who prior to writing a couple of books, had never actually ran any kind of company before. In fact, his main work was in advertising, and not even in a leadership role. We are taking leadership advice from someone who has never actually been a leader?
Only a brilliant advertising brain could make that a reality. I must say, the output has gotten much better since his experience has grown, and thankfully so, because so many people read his books, I’d worry about global GDP.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some huge benefits of defining company vision, ethics, and, well, purpose. But its application must end there; while it works at the company-level, ‘finding your purpose’ does not have the same impact at the individual-level. In fact, it very often causes huge problems.
My predicament with ‘finding your purpose’ is that it only exists in the future. It is elusive. We are sentient beings, we change every day, every week and year. We are learning and growing all the time. The very act of trying to define the purpose of our lives while we are actually living them seems somewhat complicated.
And what does it produce in the meantime? Feelings of frustration, negative self-talk when you can’t find it, (which most people can’t) confusion, issues with self-esteem… why is it so unfulfilling these days having a job that you enjoy, which suits you very well, and where you are brilliant?
Your life’s purpose is your life itself–the purpose is in the living itself. It is the journey, not the destination, which is important.
It’s time to look for something beyond purpose, and find happiness doing jobs we enjoy, surrounded by people we like, and stop the search for some kind of label to attribute a higher meaning.
Better spend your time looking for the remote control… you might actually find it.
Originally published by Delano.lu on 23.07.2024