Richard Leider, the author I recommend on my Resources pages for clients working to change their careers or their life directions, shares his view on the role of purpose and its power in our lives: Richard Leider on why we need a purpose.
“Purpose is fundamental. It is universal. Indeed, it’s the key to health, healing, happiness and longevity.”
“Richard Leider has made it his purpose to explore the importance of purpose in our lives over a career that has spanned more than four decades.”
“If you have a pulse, you have a purpose. You’re here for a reason. Purpose—an evolutionary impulse to make things better—is in our DNA as humans.”
“If you’re unsure of your purpose, start with considering this default purpose: Grow and Give. Two simple words. If you get up every day with the intention to grow and to give rather than to take, you’re living purposefully.”
“Purpose is a verb. It’s what we do on a day-to-day basis to activate purpose that makes for a fulfilling life. When you ask yourself every morning How am I going to grow today? How am I going to give?, you will be on your way to discovering your purpose, to determining why you were born.”
Stages of Discovering Our Purpose
“The biggest mistake people make when they think about purpose is that it’s a goal, like helping my family or making money. But purpose is not a goal. Instead, it’s an aim larger than yourself and outside of yourself—and something you bring to everything you do. In other words, it’s a mindset. Purpose has three stages, maturing from self to others to all of us.”
“Again, purpose has three stages. Stage 1 is uncover. It typically occurs when we’re young and involves uncovering our gifts, passions and values. We’re becoming self-aware and learning who we are. We are completely focused on ourselves.”
“The next stage of purpose is discover. Discovering is about more than “me”—rather, it’s about “us.” Oftentimes, that us is our community and who we are collectively, however we define it.”
“Finally, Stage 3 is rediscover. As we mature, we rediscover that purpose is universal for all of us, knowledge we have thanks to “the wisest of the elders” who often hold a larger lens on—and so have a broader sense of—purpose.”
Counseling with Elaine Korngold
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), a Certified Brainspotting Therapist and an Approved Consultant, and a Certified IFS Therapist. In career and personal counseling with clients we work on connecting to our deeply held beliefs and feelings about having a meaning in our life, work, and relationships, and discovering the power that purpose brings to ourselves and our relationships. To learn more, please contact me to schedule a 20-minute phone consultation.