24 | Purpose is what moves through you

We’ve been taught to think of purpose as something we must find.

A job.
A role.
A calling.
A title.
A mission.
A destiny.
A label.

Something external.
Something fixed.
Something you choose.
Something you achieve.
Something you become.

But purpose doesn’t work like that.

Purpose isn’t something you go and get.

It’s something that moves through you.

Purpose is not a career.

It’s not a job description.
It’s not a productivity outcome.
It’s not a performance metric.
It’s not a success story.
It’s not a personal brand.
It’s not an identity badge.

Purpose is expression.

It’s life finding a way to move through a human being.

You don’t discover purpose through thinking.

You feel it through:

• resonance

• pull

• curiosity

• care

• meaning

• interest

• aliveness

• energy

• engagement

• concern

• compassion

• attention

It shows up as:
“This matters to me.”
“I care about this.”
“This moves me.”
“This pulls me.”
“This feels meaningful.”
“This feels alive.”
“This feels true.”
“This feels like me.”

Purpose doesn’t arrive fully formed.

It grows.

It evolves.
It shifts.
It changes.
It deepens.
It matures.

What moves through you at twenty
is not what moves through you at forty.
What moves through you at forty
is not what moves through you at sixty.

And that’s not confusion.

That’s life.

We break ourselves trying to make purpose permanent.

Trying to define it.
Lock it in.
Fix it.
Stabilise it.
Name it.
Brand it.
Monetise it.
Explain it.

But purpose isn’t static.

It’s movement.

Purpose isn’t asking:
“What should I do with my life?”

It’s asking:
“What is life asking of me now?”

Not forever.
Not for always.
Not for the rest of your life.

Now.

Sometimes purpose looks big.

Leadership.
Creation.
Contribution.
Change.
Building.
Influence.
Impact.

Sometimes it looks small.

Care.
Presence.
Listening.
Holding.
Supporting.
Teaching.
Nurturing.
Staying.
Resting.
Recovering.

Both are purpose.

Purpose is not always dramatic.

Sometimes it’s quiet.

Sometimes it’s simply:

• being a safe person

• being a kind presence

• being a steady system

• being a calm nervous system

• being a truthful human

• being a coherent life

This is the paradox:

We search for purpose as something special,
but most purpose is ordinary.

It’s human.
It’s relational.
It’s relational.
It’s lived.
It’s simple.
It’s daily.
It’s embodied.

Purpose is not about being important.

It’s about being useful.

Not useful to systems.
Not useful to institutions.
Not useful to productivity culture.

Useful to life.

When you live coherently,
purpose emerges naturally.

Because your energy flows somewhere.
Your care flows somewhere.
Your attention flows somewhere.
Your compassion flows somewhere.
Your concern flows somewhere.
Your interest flows somewhere.

That direction is purpose.

This is where ambition becomes clean.

Not pressure.
Not comparison.
Not striving.
Not proving.
Not status.
Not competition.

But direction.

Ambition becomes the courage to express what moves through you.

To give it form.
To give it life.
To give it space.
To give it movement.

Purpose doesn’t demand you become someone else.

It requires you to become more yourself.

Not louder.
Not bigger.
Not more impressive.

More honest.
More aligned.
More true.
More coherent.
More embodied.

You don’t need to chase purpose.

You need to listen.

To what moves you.
To what pulls you.
To what matters to you.
To what you care about.
To what breaks your heart.
To what makes you angry.
To what makes you hopeful.
To what makes you stay.
To what makes you act.
To what makes you speak.
To what makes you move.

Purpose is not a destination.

It’s a direction of travel.

A current.
A flow.
A movement.
A becoming.

And it doesn’t belong to ego.

It doesn’t belong to image.
It doesn’t belong to identity.
It doesn’t belong to success.
It doesn’t belong to recognition.

It belongs to life.

Moving through you.

Some people are here to build.
Some to heal.
Some to teach.
Some to protect.
Some to create.
Some to guide.
Some to disrupt.
Some to hold.
Some to love.
Some to nurture.
Some to change.
Some to witness.
Some to restore.

Not because they chose it.

Because it’s what moves through them.

You don’t need to name your purpose.

You don’t need to define it.

You don’t need to explain it.

You don’t need to justify it.

You don’t need to package it.

You just need to live it.

Purpose is not something you have.

It’s something you become.

By following what feels alive.
By trusting what pulls you.
By honouring what matters.
By expressing what moves through you.

Not loudly.
Not perfectly.
Not dramatically.

Honestly.

Quietly.

Humanly.

You don’t need a grand mission.

You need alignment.

Because when your life is aligned,
purpose flows naturally through it.

Not as a task.
Not as a burden.
Not as pressure.

But as meaning.

As direction.

As contribution.

As life, moving through a human being.

That’s purpose.

Not something you find.

Something you allow.