Renegotiating Purpose

You don’t need a grand calling. You need a direction worth following.
For a lot of us, purpose came built in for decades. The job shaped the week. The family shaped the calendar. Other people’s needs set the agenda, and we were good at meeting them.

Then that structure loosens, and a quieter question shows up: what is all this for now?

If “purpose” feels like a big, heavy word right now, you’re not alone. It can sound like something you’re supposed to have already figured out.

In Life Reimagined, journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty offers a more workable way in. Purpose at this stage rarely shows up as one clear calling. It tends to grow from two simpler places: what you’re curious about, and what you want to contribute. She points to research from Dr. Patricia Boyle at Rush University linking a sense of purpose to better health as we age, and the good news is that it can start small.

If you were with us last time, this picks up right where we left the old story about age. If this is your first session, here’s all you need: the research says this stage of life is a turning point, not a decline. We start from there.