You may already have found your life purpose. Or you may still be searching for it. Either way, having one comes with some important health benefits. Read on for some helpful ways to find your calling—no matter your age.
It's no secret that a strong sense of life purpose can enhance your happiness and well-being. But you might not realize it also supports wellness, including better brain health.
Research suggests a greater life purpose may help:
- Lower your risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease
- Lessen the severity of Alzheimer’s disease in adults who already have it
- Lessen your risk for depression
- Motivate you to choose healthier habits
- Reduce stress
- Improve sleep
- Lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, and other chronic health conditions
- Increase your longevity, due to a lower risk of chronic health conditions
Those are some pretty compelling reasons to develop your purpose in life.
What does life purpose mean?
Your purpose in life is what inspires and fulfills you. It’s what drives your life and gives it meaning, direction, and focus. The Japanese call it “ikigai,” which means your “reason for being or living.”
How will you know when you’ve started to tap into your unique life purpose? You’ll know you're on the right path if pursuing that purpose inspires you to get up each morning and gives you a strong sense of passion and anticipation.
Life purpose can take a lot of forms and is different for each person. Yours might mean working for a cause you care about deeply. It might mean traveling to new, exotic destinations. It might mean spending more time with friends and family. Or it might mean learning new skills, like playing a musical instrument or learning a new language. Your life purpose might also be a combination of many things.
“My sense of life purpose has many aspects,” said Sharon, a semi-retired writer in Southern California. “But my music (playing the piano) is one aspect of my life purpose that brings me constant joy.”
Music nurtures Sharon’s sense of life purpose in a range of ways—from teaching, to performing, to interacting with fellow musicians.
“I’ve loved teaching others to play the keyboard. And playing with an orchestra at a local church has also fulfilled me musically—as well as socially. I’m part of a group of wonderful, caring people who encourage each other in their music and in life,” Sharon said.
“When we perform, and people smile and spontaneously clap along with joy, that feeds my soul,” said Sharon. “Moving others by sharing beautiful music with them is—bottom line—my life purpose.”
As you can see from Sharon’s experience, the key to a richer life purpose is doing the things you truly enjoy and love to do. It’s about pinpointing what gives your life joy and meaning.
Can you have more than one purpose in life?
Most people, at any given time, don’t have only one, true life purpose. Nor should you. Your life purpose doesn’t have to be centered on accomplishing one huge goal or following only a single calling. Your life purpose is more likely going to emerge from an ever-changing collection of smaller dreams, goals, values, passions, and callings.
Keep in mind, too, that your life purpose does not tend to be static. It will likely evolve as you go through life. Your career and family may have provided your life purpose for a long time. But as you age, your values, passions, and dreams tend to change. So, your life purpose is naturally going to change as well.
You can discover your life purpose at any age
If you’re still not sure of your life purpose, you may think it’s too late to find it. It’s not. In fact, you may be in a better position to find your life purpose now.
When you were younger, you most likely were building a career, gaining financial stability, and raising a family. That may have left you with too little time or energy to really focus on your life purpose.
The truth is, it’s never too late to discover, nurture, and follow your true calling. All it takes is a bit of time, self-reflection, and exploration.
4 steps to help you find and form your life purpose
Doing some soul searching and some exploring may help you pinpoint—and then cultivate—your life purpose. Here are 4 steps to help you get started:
1. Identify and live by your values
Pinpointing and drawing upon your core values can help you shape your unique life purpose. Your values are those things that make your life feel most worthwhile and meaningful. They are what you care about most and would not want to live without.
Values come in many forms. Check out the sample list below. Then ask yourself which ones resonate with you:
- Love and deep bonds with others, such as family, friends, and/or pets
- Your hopes, goals, and dreams (for yourself, for others, or for the world at large)
- Health, fitness, and mental and emotional well-being
- Your experience, skills, and knowledge
- A desire to give back—to help people, animals, or the planet
- A drive for lifelong learning
- A deep love and respect for nature, and a desire to spend more time in it
- Your spirituality
- Finding awe in works of art or science
This list is not exhaustive. There may be other values that you feel define you. Once you pinpoint your values, ask yourself which matter most to you.
2. Explore new avenues
To help jump-start your life purpose, you may want to try novel activities. You might try learning a new skill, trying a new hobby, or taking a class. You might want to work on a cause you care about. Or you might want to deepen your bonds with friends and loved ones. The choices are endless. You might have to experiment a bit to find something that inspires you or sparks your creativity. But that’s okay. Exploration is half the fun.
3. Think about “being,” not just “doing”
As you tune into your life purpose, also think about what you hope to become—not just what you hope to do. Maybe you want to be more relaxed and peaceful. Maybe you want to be more content with what you have. Maybe you want to be more empathetic. These kinds of dreams and wishes can help define your life purpose, too.
4. Pinpoint what feeds your passion
Ask yourself what goals you still would like to reach or values you’d like to develop.
Also, think about experiences you’ve always dreamed of having but have not had the chance to yet. Perhaps you’d like to travel. Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn to salsa dance or write a book. And perhaps your work is what inspires your life purpose. You may also want to start a new career or continue in your current one.
“My purpose has been to help others live healthier lives,” says Elizabeth, a registered dietitian in San Diego. “And I’ve done that through my career. But it’s also been to heal the environment to allow a healthy lifestyle to thrive in the first place. Working on something bigger than myself is inspiring. It keeps me going.
“Being able to see the big picture has shown me how our health and the planet’s health are so closely intertwined. It’s also been a dream of mine to help bring sustainable agricultural practices into the mainstream,” she continued.
Once you have a better sense of your life purpose, you can nurture it and even build and expand on it. You can see how Elizabeth’s work is a cornerstone of her life purpose. At the same time her work inspires her to pursue other related pathways and callings that further expand and enrich her core purpose.
Enjoy the journey
As you cultivate your life purpose, try to be patient with yourself and with the process. Some people become frustrated or anxious when their purpose does not reveal itself right away. Some people give up. Try not to let this happen. Give it time. Trust in the process and in yourself. And take breaks now and then from actively searching if you find you’re growing too frustrated.
Have faith that you will unearth your life purpose, along with the best steps for nurturing and fulfilling it. Doing so is worthwhile. After all, finding, strengthening, and following your purpose in life can shift the course of your life in a positive direction. It can help support the health of your mind and body along the way. And it may lead to a longer and happier life, too.
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This information is not intended to take the place of regular medical care or advice. Sharon and Elizabeth are not members of the Silver&Fit Program. Images used for this article do not depict Sharon or Elizabeth nor any members of the Silver&Fit Program.
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This article was written by Gail Olson, edited by Nora Byrne, and clinically reviewed by Nancy Strot, MS, RD.
