All of these trips give young people a chance to take a break from their constant use of technology; this alone is a powerful force for young people to re-connect with themselves and seek connection with their peers. When I was 14 years old, I boarded a plane for a weeklong backpacking trip in the Rocky Mountains. I had already been to the Rockies a few times with my parents, but this time I was headed out to a “primitive skills week,” run by the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies.
We crafted our own bowls and knives, made fires with bow drills, caught fish with our own hands, and stalked elk for hours. Afterward, they could use that reflection to consider more concrete steps they might take to contribute toward moving the world a little closer to that ideal. Any responses submitted here will never be shared with any organization outside the Greater Good Science Center under any circumstances, ever.
“Identity and purpose development are intertwined processes,” write Patrick Hill of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Anthony Burrow of Cornell University. According to Bronk, it’s also about trying out new things and seeing how those activities enable you to use your skills to make a meaningful difference in the world. Volunteering in a community organization focused on something of interest to you could provide you with some experience and do good at the same time. Work provides a sense of identity and self-worth, and it allows us to contribute to something greater than ourselves, which feels purposeful. Work can also bring us meaning if the money we earn is used to provide for others (e.g., our families). Simply recognizing this can help us see the meaning behind what we do for a living, making our lives richer.
When we have these kinds of mind-expanding experiences, they challenge our view of everyday existence in a way that forces us to think about what life means and what matters. There is a reason many people find meaning in religion—it can give us a sense of self-transcendence or being connected to something bigger than ourselves. But for nonbelievers, there are other ways to seek transcendent experiences that inspire awe and wonder—and these, too, bring meaning to our lives. Though we have tools at our disposal, the path to more meaning is not necessarily straight or narrow, Heine writes, but one involving personal choice and many possible detours. Our personal sense of meaning will be affected by our culture and the events in our lives—how we managed them and what they taught us. People felt happier depending on how much they pursued “inner peace,” with the pursuit of “positive impact,” “physical health,” and “happiness” also tied to happiness more than other sources of purpose.
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Sometimes, just having someone talk to you about what matters to you makes you think more intentionally about your life and your purpose, says Bronk. “One of the most reliable sources of meaning in our lives is the interpersonal connections that we have—in particular, those of our closest relationships,” writes Heine. To stimulate nostalgia, you can look through old photos, listen to favorite songs from the past, or go through old keepsakes and recall what was happening at that time of your life, says Heine. It can be especially powerful to recall times when you were socially connected with others, he adds, since relationships are so meaningful. “Our brains have evolved what I term a sense-making system, which ensures that we feel what we are doing is meaningful and makes good sense . And directs us to make efforts to correct matters whenever it senses anything that no longer makes sense,” he writes.
A new sense of purpose came with the new community and identity she helped to build, of gay and lesbian Christians. In a 2010 paper, for example, Leslie Francis studied a group of nearly 26,000 teenagers throughout England and Wales—and found that those who read the Bible more tended to have a stronger sense of purpose. In a survey of empirical studies, Raymond A. Mar and colleagues found a link between reading poetry and fiction and a sense of purpose among adolescents. While finding purpose can feel like an exciting adventure for young people, who might take gap years or try interesting electives in college, purpose becomes more urgent for adults. Mariah Jordan from Cleveland, one of the winners of the GGSC Purpose Challenge Scholarship Contest, often accompanied her grandmother to doctor’s appointments as a child.
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If young people are exposed from years olds to events to seek purpose, they will increasingly seek them out on their own until the end of their adolescence, giving them a higher likelihood of discovering their own sense of purpose. While purpose tends to be highest in adulthood, old age can come with a diminishing sense of purpose and direction. In one survey of people ages 50-92, only 30 percent reported feeling purposeful. At some age, lacking in purpose becomes unpleasant—but Bronk points out that having purpose isn’t always a picnic, either. Going after eToro Review a big, long-term goal can be stressful and discouraging; as anyone who has raised a child knows, things that bring us meaning don’t always bring us day-to-day fun and good cheer.
Although these experiences started off mainly for privileged teens, many programs have made a huge push to make themselves accessible to teens of all backgrounds. And I had a greater inclination to protect it and be a steward of the natural world. I became interested—addicted, you could say—in taking in new experiences that would transform my outlook on the world and provide those experiences to others. I remember coming over a mountain pass and looking down at what looked like hundreds of ants moving around in a beautiful open meadow. As we started coming down the hill I realized they were elk—hundreds of elk scattered across the meadow.
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By reflecting on existential questions like these and considering our own answers to these questions, we can live a more authentic, meaningful existence. Even though I may feel a vague sense of anxiety around how my life is unfolding and the inevitability of death, I don’t often slow down enough to reflect on what happens after we die or what it means to live life to the fullest. “Purpose and meaning in life have an important subjective element. It wouldn’t be good for an individual to share the same purpose just because others endorse it,” he says.
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Sometimes it can be hard to single out one or two things that matter most to you because your circle of care and concern is far-ranging. Understanding what you value most may help you narrow down your purpose in life to something manageable that also truly resonates with you. Some careers lend themselves easily to finding meaning—such as those serving the needs of others, like teachers, health care workers, or the clergy, writes Heine. However, it can be challenging to find meaning in work for many people. Part of that comes from changing trends in the work world itself—like more remote work and less stable employment.
Each of the four experiences listed above has components of at least two of the three purpose-seeking experience factors. A trip abroad and service trip (often combined) focus on serving others in a meaningful way. A contemplative retreat and wilderness trip intentionally change life circumstances for youth, giving them the space to create an opportunity for finding their purpose. Years ago, Bronk interviewed young people about their sense of purpose, hoping to gain some insight into how it developed. Afterward, she was surprised to hear how much the participants enjoyed the conversation. In fact, she and her team discovered that talking with young people about the things that mattered to them actually increased their sense of purpose in life—an outcome the researchers hadn’t even been looking for.
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For example, students who are encouraged to consider education as relevant to their life purpose are more likely to try harder in classes they find boring or hard—such as science and math classes. And businesses that put purpose at the forefront tend to be more enjoyable places to work and more financially successful in the long run than those who only pursue profit. John Leland, a New York Times reporter, had the opportunity to follow six New Yorkers over 85 for a year and get an intimate glimpse into their lives. They became his friends, he says, and their stories were featured in his book about happiness.
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Answers to these questions are hard to come by, because most research on purpose doesn’t look that granularly at the concept. Instead, it’s often measured by asking people how much they agree with general statements, like “I have aims and objectives for living” or “My life is meaningful”—not specifically what those meaningful aims are. The trouble is that this underlying purpose involved making other people more like them. When she came out as a lesbian at age 27, Amber’s family and community swiftly and suddenly cast her out.
- As Heine writes, the search for meaning is an inherent part of being human.
- Instead, it’s often measured by asking people how much they agree with general statements, like “I have aims and objectives for living” or “My life is meaningful”—not specifically what those meaningful aims are.
- Meanwhile, organizations like Stanford’s Advanced Leadership Institute and the Modern Elder Academy offer college-like experiences for older adults looking for a fresh start.
- Once you find your path, you’ll almost certainly find others traveling along with you, hoping to reach the same destination—a community.
- In other words, we have some power over the meaning we attribute to events and how these come together to shape the meaning of our lives overall.
Awe experiences, people’s lives often feel more significant and meaningful, as they have the sense that they are connected to something much vaster than themselves and that their existence extends beyond the material world,” writes Heine. On the other hand, he and Mask couldn’t explain why seeking purpose through family did not predict meaning in life much, except in Poland, where it ranked second. Given research on how close relationships bring us a sense of meaning, they’d expected it to pop up at the top of the list for all countries. Of course, giving lip service to having a purpose in life is not going to cut it.
- For example, studies have found that for every one-point increase on a six-point scale measuring purpose in life, adults with heart disease have a 27 percent decreased risk of having a heart attack over a two-year period.
- Connecting their habits to a service-oriented purpose inspired better behavior.
- Unfortunately so many young people today are not actually able to explore—teens are often either disillusioned from the banality of school or over achieving students are on the treadmill and cannot step off for fear of falling behind.
- To psychologists, purpose is an abiding intention to achieve a long-term goal that is both personally meaningful and makes a positive mark on the world.
Reading about the work of civil rights leaders or climate activists can give us a moral uplift that can serve as motivation for working toward the greater good. Adults can do this if they need feedback, too—either formally or informally in conversation with trusted others. People who know you well may be able to see things in you that you don’t recognize in yourself, which can point you in unexpected directions.
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At work, we might feel fulfilled in supporting our coworkers, making a difference in the organization, or contributing to society, Damon writes. According to researchers, purpose is a long-term aim that is meaningful to the self—but goes beyond the self, aiming to make a difference to the broader world. We might find purpose in fighting poverty, creating art, or making people’s lives better through technology. In her work with adolescents, she’s found that some teens find purpose after experiencing hardship.
“In our culture we expect young people to explore what matters most to them, but by midlife, we expect them to have sorted this out,” write Bronk and her colleagues. Alongside the self-help hype is a body of research on purpose across the lifespan, reaching back more than 30 years. Following people as they grapple with their identity as teens, settle into the responsibilities of adulthood, and make the shift to retirement, this research paints a more complicated picture of purpose—but a hopeful one, too. However, sometimes looking at these larger-than-life examples can be too intimidating, says Bronk. If so, you can look for everyday people who are doing good in smaller ways. Maybe you have a friend who volunteers to collect food for the homeless or a colleague whose work in promoting social justice inspires you.