How do you define your purpose?

Where do we find our purpose? Why, when we are toddlers, do we dream of working? We didn’t need to work, our lives were filled with problems that working would not solve yet we still had the idea of ‘When I grow up…’. Is it because we need purpose in our lives? Is it built into us and our humanity? The urge to have a job as a toddler is to give ourselves an ultimate purpose, that goal to aim for, even though we could never articulate that. Do toddlers follow the examples they are given – where they see their parents’ purpose lying?

So what happens when that purpose is taken away from us, just like it might have been now? Do we crumble or are we able to find something new? Maybe this comes down to how we define ourselves. If we define ourselves by our job, by money or by our hobbies then when these are gone it can leave a gaping hole. If teaching is how you define your worth in yourself, then if this is ripped away, as it has been now, then it could be a massive struggle. Of course, we have so many more aspects to our lives that give us worth – but we don’t always see them.

Now, after this maybe we redefine how we value ourselves and where we place our worth. Is it now in family and making time? Is it taking up a new hobby? Has our purpose shifted? Should our purpose shift? If it does then perhaps the purpose we thought we had becomes a means to end, serving a new purpose, rather than the be all and end all we were treating it as?

Repurposing our lives has not, and will not be easy. But in doing this and redefining where we place our worth and self identification perhaps we will be ultimately happier and find life more purposeful. It’s always a balance, one we won’t always get right. Maybe though, now is the time to tip the scales one way rather than the other.