School of Purpose

How we understand purpose in life affects what we do to obtain it. How can we gain a more robust understanding of what purpose is?Todd Kashdan is a professor of psychology at George Mason University where he studies purpose and other facets of well-being. He's currently working on an article that reconceptualizes the concept of purpose. In this episode, he shares how we can think about purpose more accurately. In this episode, you'll learn about:Purpose as articulated understanding vs. b...

What would your life look like if you devoted everything to following your dreams?The Giffords did just that. In 2002, they realized they wanted something different than the typical American life of house and job. They created a six-year plan to live sailing about the world with their three children. Since 2008, they have done just that. As a family, they go where their sails take them.In this episode, you'll learn about:Converting "someday" plans to "now" plansMaking long-term plans for purp...

Purpose is idiosyncratic. Everyone has their own view on what matters most in their life. However, is it possible to create a single system that many people can use to find purpose?Kristin Sherry has spent years helping people find purpose. In that time, she's asked countless questions about what people find fulfilling in work. From her investigation, she has identified four essential aspects of career fit. If you have these four, you'll have a deep, rich, and meaningful career. In this episo...

Colleges have extraordinary responsibilities in the lives of their students. Sometimes overlooked is guiding students into purposeful careers.Tim Clydesdale is the author of The Purposeful Graduate. It's an evaluation of a large-scale program funded by the Lilly Foundation that paid for 88 colleges to create purpose programs for their students. In this episode, you'll learn the lessons from these programs, including what worked and what didn't. In this episode, you'll learn about:R...

Severe childhood trauma changes one's life--often for the worse. Sometimes, however, it has a redemptive effect as it leads one into purpose.Michael Unbroken experienced a level of trauma in childhood that's difficult to fathom. Yet, today he feels fully alive and health, and he works with people around the world to help them overcome their own trauma. He's used the pain in the past as a prompt for purpose. In this episode he tells his story.In this episode, you'll learn about:How to find cla...

How do you make sense of the world when you had a lot and then lost just about all of it?John Lefebvre co-founded Neteller, a publicly traded online payment company often used by gamblers. In 2007, John ran into legal problems and lost almost $500 million dollars that he had earned by starting the company. He went to jail and started his life again in hi mid-fifties. Now John writes and advocates for good in the world, including addressing climate change. In this episode, he shares his journe...

Young people face many difficult decisions in their transition to adulthood. Chief among them is identifying what matters most in life so as to live with purpose. Some young people do this successfully. How do they do it? How do then differ from other young people? Kendall Cotton Bronk has studied purpose for decades. She has interviewed thousands of adolescents about their path into purpose. In her work, she has identified key factors that enable young people to find purpose...

When it comes to purpose, we often think of making goals. However, we live our lives in terms of stories. Especially important are the stories that we tell ourselves about our lives.Julia Winston guides people in creating the stories of their lives. She walks them through a process of intentional story making that is rooted in life purpose. This gives a dramatic arc to our lives that takes us even deeper into purpose. In this episode, you'll learn about:Stories versus goalsThe role of in...

In today's world, it's so easy to become disconnected from our inner, true self. When this happens, what should we do?CEO and author Jaclyn Gallo joins us in this episode to point the way forward. She shares effective strategies and techniques for finding authentic meaning and purpose in a world of distraction and busyness. In this episode, you'll learn about:Taking back ownership of your lifeHow to change your identityHow to discern what you really want in lifeHow to follow your intuiti...

Do you ever wonder if you were created for a specific purpose in life? That's the logic of having a calling. It extends to communities as well as individuals.This week we're joined by Jane Patterson and Jesse Bazan of Communities of Calling-A network of congregations and organizations working on calling in their own contexts with the aim of revitalizing the church’s mission in the world today. They'll share their unique insights into the interplay between one's calling and the context in whic...