Tiny Wisdom: On Finding Your Purpose

“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.” ~Anais Nin

Someone asked me recently if I feel as though my life has changed since I found my purpose and started living it. This struck me as odd because it seems to imply before I discovered a professional path that felt meaningful to me, my life was meaningless.

It’s a logical conclusion: The opposite of having a purpose is being purposeless, doing without intent or value.

But in retrospect, I have always had a purpose, even if it wasn’t work related.

When I was at some of the lowest points of my life, my purpose was to get strong. When I was trying to find what I want to do professionally, my purpose was to explore. And I’ve learned we’re all born with a shared purpose we can acknowledge or deny—to simply be good for other people.

These things may not seem significant in the grand scheme of things, but they’re absolutely meaningful.

We might not always feel like we’re making the impact we’d like to make on the world, but that doesn’t mean that what we do doesn’t matter. Just like every action has its own purpose, every day contains its own meaning. It’s up to us to decide whether or not it’s something valuable, for our own evolution and for the people we love.

What does today mean to you?

Photo by Rose Zhang