A sense of purpose is key to living a meaningful life. It is the heart of passion and it can bring us to deeper levels of long-term happiness, providing resilience amidst great hardships. A sense of purpose is something we often talk about wanting, seeking, or having, but it is somewhat illusive in our world of ongoing life-projects, characterized by multiple careers and highly fluid sociality. This philosophical investigation will provide a detailed blueprint of the concept of “purpose” and will hopefully help the reader along their DIY life-project.

The concept of “purpose” comes from the  Anglo-French “purpos,” referring to an intention, aim, or goal. Broadly speaking, it can refer to purposely getting drunk on the weekend, purposely caring for your loved ones, or even purposely putting the toilet seat down; therefore, purpose is goal-oriented action. In order to talk about the specific type of purpose I alluded…