You may think purpose is a destination, but psychology professionals say it’s more of a project – one you have to continually reshape
From the outside looking in, Tenise Hordge had it all. After spending 18 years climbing the corporate ladder, the 39-year-old engineer had the impressive title, big salary and corner office. But she wasn’t happy. After her daughter was born prematurely in 2017, she began to feel adrift at work. ‘Who cares about this title I have?’ she remembers thinking. After all, the money wasn’t helping her daughter come home from the hospital any sooner. She was already struggling to care about her projects when 2020 arrived. Tenise was exhausted, in so many ways. ‘I didn’t want to continue being this person I no longer was,’ she recalls.
You might call it an identity crisis, but psychologists would describe what Tenise was going through as a crisis of purpose. It’s a driving force in your life that connects you to your values and ideals bigger than yourself, says Chloe Carmichael, psychologist and author of Nervous Energy. Some prioritise nailing it in their careers. ‘The drive to be excellent as a professional can be a purpose,’ Dr Carmichael explains. But it can also take other forms – you may be motivated to devote yourself to religion, create art or advocate for a social cause.
All this talk may seem abstract, but research shows purposeful living has a real impact on our wellbeing. People who have a defined purpose are more likely to stay happy in their jobs, they’re also better at keeping up with regular health screenings, are less likely to have anxiety and depression and may have greater longevity, too.
Rethinking and renewing your purpose can help you stay in tune with what’s important to you at different points in time, too. FYI: adults are more likely to feel happy if they have a purpose and concrete strategies to carry it out, found a study in Frontiers In Psychology.
On that note, let us introduce you to a process called ‘life crafting’. This involves reflecting on your life via writing and thinking exercises – then setting goals to change how you spend your time, so it starts to align with what you value most, says Michaéla Schippers, professor of behaviour and performance management at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, in the Netherlands, who coined the term. You’re prompted to take an honest look at your passions, skills and social life. ‘Without realising, a lot of people find themselves working a certain job or living in a way that their parents wanted for them or what they think society demands of them,’ says Professor Schippers.
In Tenise’s case, it took time to figure out her next step
