Not knowing why you are going wherever it is that you are going sounds silly, but so often folks live life without thinking about their purpose. We believe that thinking about your purpose and trying to identify what it might be is one of the most impactful things you can do to level up your life, career, and general level of happiness and fulfillment. Having a sense of what your why is will help you become a better decision maker which inevitably will improve your life. Below, you’ll find some interesting discussions, stories and perspectives around find your purpose.

Dwight Thomas

I think finding my purpose stems from my ability to adopt tunnel vision. Sometimes when we have many influencers, the world, trends, outsiders and the closest people to us we tend to blend into what others are doing but making it our own. It wasn’t about just doing what makes me happy, it was about doing what I would find full filling and purposeful. Read More>>

Vaun Mayes

I grew up drastically different than the typical Milwaukeean, as in I had chance as a child to escape most the ills and situations most youth experience here by getting sent to live in Greenwood, MS with my great uncle. I liken the experience to that of Will Smith on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, as I got to attend private catholic schools from K1-7th grade, I got to see a positive male figure work multiple jobs day in and day out and be the pinnacle of kindness for my family, including myself as he took me in for over 10 years, essentially saving my life. Read More>>

Jingyi Li

It didn’t start on set. It started far from any studio—somewhere deep in the mountains of Yunnan.

I was visiting a small Mosuo village near Lugu Lake. The air was thin, the paths winding, and what I found there was unlike anything I had grown up with. I listened as elders explained the “walking marriage” tradition, where love leaves footprints instead of paperwork. I saw their “gates of life and death,” thresholds that marked beginnings and farewells, not with ceremony, but with rhythm passed down through generations. Read More>>

 Robert Kalil

I didn’t find my purpose—my purpose found me. I’ve always been a curious mind, someone who questioned everything and felt like there was more beneath the surface of this world. Growing up, I had experiences and intuitions that didn’t fit into the mainstream narrative. I didn’t ignore that—I leaned into it. Read More>>

Anne Johnstonbrown

At a young age, my parents discovered that I could sing, and before I knew it, we became an Osmond-style singing group. For years, we traveled the country performing gospel music, and although it would have been convenient for me to pursue a music career, I decided to prove to the world that my life’s purpose was in something other than music. So, I majored in a subject that no one could have predicted: physics. However, after earning my first degree, I realized that, although the sciences came easy to me, they really didn’t fulfill me. So, in my late 20s, I decided to pursue acting, and my purpose was realized! Read More>>

Fernanda Read

I was born and raised in Brazil, where helping others wasn’t just something I did — it was who I was. At 13, I started volunteering, and that lit a fire in me: a soul-deep desire to make a difference in the world.

After earning a business degree, I moved to the U.S. and dedicated the next eight years to serving at-risk youth. I became a court-appointed advocate for abused and neglected children and a foster parent at the age of 24. Service was my passion — until life demanded I shift into survival mode. Read More>>

Chantrel Luckie

I discovered my purpose over 20 years ago when I entered the healthcare field. Through my work, I’ve helped individuals with activities of daily living—supporting them in doing things they could no longer do independently. Over time, I began to reflect on how their health situations might have been different with different life choices. As I faced a health issue of my own, I started researching ways to improve my own well-being. While I’ve always loved helping others, my purpose became clearer and more meaningful as I continued to support others while working to heal myself. Read More>>

Ashley Baldridge

Answering this question come easy for me. I absolutely love Purpose! I have been dubbed as the #purposeJunky! What is this exactly? Well for me purpose is the passion that fuels my assignment, and gives me a sense of belonging. The road to purpose was not easy, and can I be honest you never reach the end of that journey in this lifetime because purpose evolves and with every twist and turn you will need to adjust. For me I found my purpose in what I considered to be my low place. Read More>>

Dyann Chiang

This might sound like a cliche, but I find my purpose in “sense of achievement”. This goes way beyond my career — it also includes personal relationships, self-care and more.

As a lead screenwriter, I gain sense of achievement from my work being recognized. Whenever the audience responds positively to the stories my writers and I create, whenever we bring new ideas and fresh plots to the market — it motivates me to keep moving forward. However, as a lead writer, I also learned that our purpose is more than just producing contents and counting the profit, it’s also about growing together as creators, providing each other with new angles as we strive to create more heart-felt stories for our audience. Read More>>

Latrice Knuckolls

I didn’t find my purpose in a perfectly planned-out moment—it found me in the middle of my mess. I was a young mother, trying to figure life out while navigating the weight of responsibility, unspoken expectations, and very limited support. I knew I wanted more, but I didn’t know what “more” looked like—I just knew settling wasn’t an option.

My purpose revealed itself over time. It was in every late night I spent googling how to write a business plan. It was in every job I worked where I gave 110%, learned everything I could, and still felt called to build something of my own. It was in the quiet moments where I realized that every challenge I overcame wasn’t just for me—it was preparing me to help others rise too. Read More>>

Rachel Upshaw

My purpose is to tell stories. The thought in the back of my mind, “This’ll make a good story one day,” has gotten me through the roughest spots in my life. I’ve always been good at shaping the retelling events, adding in humor and heart to keep people invested in the outcome. When I was younger, I remember staying up late at sleepovers entertaining my friends with my tales. When I was in high school I joined the yearbook staff and crafted the stories that would be immortalized on the page for posterity.  Read More>>

Amber Ruston

Growing up, my purpose was just as unclear to me as it was clear. Clear, because I’ve known since the first time that I was asked the question, “what do you want to do when you grow up” that I wanted to create. The reason it was unclear, however, was that “Artist” was the only form of creation I really knew at such a young age. I thought “art” was only painting and drawing, and when I couldn’t quite grasp these skills, I abandoned the idea entirely. My desire to create after that came slowly to me in many forms, mainly in photography and writing.  Read More>>

Ellen Raim

I didn’t set out to start a business. It found me. My daughter had asked for advice on navigating the workplace since her very first internship—because of my HR background, I was the go-to sounding board. But as she and her Gen Z friends started entering the workforce and facing all the real-world stuff that no one prepares you for, the calls and texts started rolling in. Her friends would say, “Call your mom,” and soon enough, I was fielding questions from a growing circle of 20-somethings who were overwhelmed and confused. Read More>>

Stephanie Hooper

How did I find my purpose?
Since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be an artist. Art has always been a part of me. But when the time came to decide about college, my parents didn’t support the idea of me pursuing art as a career. So, I chose a different path and studied to become an ESL teacher. I was good with languages, I enjoyed working with children, and I saw that I could make a difference that way. At the same time, I never stopped making art — it remained part of who I am. Read More>>

Viviana Ramos Di Tommaso

As a visual artist working with organic materials and elements related to anatomy and dystopia, purpose does not arrive in a linear fashion—it reveals itself in layers, like the strata of skin or the sediments of a decomposing body.

My purpose emerged from the body: from its fragility, its transformation, its impermanence. In handling organic materials—wilted flower petals, animal bones, soil, dried fluids—I discovered I was building a bridge between the intimate and the collective, between biological memory and cultural history. Read More>>

Dr. Jessica Reed-Thomas

I believe purpose has an evolutionary quality within it, because it should evolve as the individual grows, experiences life and completes various chapters in their life. Although one’s purpose may change based on the chapter they are living at the moment, or their circumstance or current calling, the theme however I believe can still be the same. Therefore, my thematic purpose has been service. I have watched people in my life show acts of selflessness, unconditional service and dedication to causes dear to their heart and community. Read More>>

Yihan”Lynn” Yu

I found my purpose when I realized that storytelling through film—could be a form of resistance, of healing, and of truth-telling.
I’ve always loved literature, film, and music since I was young. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I truly understood the kind of stories I needed to tell. I came across a news report about a high school in China, where a body was discovered buried beneath the school’s track—sixteen years after the murder. Read More>>

Charlotte Zhang

It wasn’t a single moment. It was a journey through music, healing, and my deep desire to help others.

From an early age, I’ve had two deep passions: creating music and helping people with genuine compassion. I grew up in a fourth-generation Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) family, where I was taught that a great doctor must embody sincerity, compassion, and excellence. Read More>>

Rhett Martinez

I fell into it, really. When I was in high school, a friend of mine got me to audition for a play and, for whatever reason, I wasn’t too bad. So I kept doing it. And then we discovered Samuel Beckett and Theatre of the Absurd and various avant garde movements and we got very serious about it all. Maybe we were a little full of ourselves, but we were also sincere.  Read More>>

Coral Edwards

My purpose didn’t arrive in a single “aha” moment—it unfolded in layers, like a story written in chapters I didn’t realize were connected until much later.

I’ve always been a highly sensitive empath—tuned into the unspoken, the undercurrents. As a kid, that felt like too much. But over time, I learned that sensitivity is a strength—it’s the foundation of how I hold space for others. Read More>>

Fetima Castillo

My purpose was found while I was a Math teacher. I always knew that I wanted to help and provide service to others. I knew I wanted to take a step further by creating a small business that I could call my own. F.C. Best Products LLC is now another way to fulfill my purpose. Read More>>

 Margaret Rowe

Finding your purpose is a deeply personal journey, but here are some steps that can guide you:
1. Reflect on what energizes you: Think about moments when you felt most alive, engaged, or fulfilled. What were you doing? Who were you with? These clues can point to what matters to you.
2. Identify your values: What principles are most important to you—freedom, creativity, connection, service, growth? Your purpose often aligns with your core values. Read More>>

Neha Shah

My purpose found me the moment my own health started slipping after moving to the U.S.

Here I was — creating the American dream, still eating my good old Indian staples like rice, lentils, flatbread, yogurt, ghee… and yet, I was bloated, inflamed, and confused.

Everywhere I turned, the advice was the same:
“Stop rice.”
“Ditch dairy.”
“Quit gluten:
“Switch to quinoa, overnight oats and almond milk.” Read More>>

Faith Hamick

In 2022, I became a mother for the first time, and in 2024, I welcomed my second child. In between, I worked at a daycare, balancing the demands of motherhood and work, but often feeling like I had no time left for myself or my dreams. At that point in my life, I had fully embraced the role of “mom”—and while that role brought immense joy, it left little room for personal fulfillment. Read More>>

Roseann White

After over 30 years of alcoholism and drug addiction, I had a moment of clarity that changed me forever.
I admitted my powerlessness, sought help for my physical, mental, and emotional challenges, and knew I had to help others that were struggling with self-destructive patterns through movement and nutrition. Read More>>

Mia Dentoni

In retrospect, my purpose was always there—I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t making art, chasing the thrill of creating, that next-level zing in my veins. So for me, the challenge wasn’t discovering my purpose; it was choosing to pursue it in a world where being an artist doesn’t always align with traditional ideas of income, stability, or career success. Even though I studied art in college, I never truly considered it a viable career path. Still, I never stopped creating. Read More>>

Zafri Yussoff

I believe I found my purpose when I was in elementary school. At the time, I found myself immersed in the world of digital entertainment. My childhood consisted of playing video games, and watching movies and TV. I’m proud to share that I still do all of these today!

With these forms of media, I was instantly fascinated with the visual effects, art styles, character design, and graphic design. The key franchises that stood out were Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dragon Ball Z, and Kingdom Hearts. Read More>>

Alexandria Johnson

My entire life I have been showered with love, appreciation and reassurance. As I got older and had different life experiences through school, camps, church and sports, I realized that not everyone has been given that gift. From that moment and through following my parents footsteps I knew that it was my purpose to give love to all around me, no matter what. Initially this started with becoming a camp counselor, resident advisor in college and eventually a teacher. Read More>>

Robyn Marsh

This is a topic that’s a little deep but has been huge part of my journey, I honestly started in fitness with a deep desire to be skinny, I had a really unhealthy relationship with my body after being sexually assaulted in 2011 and suffered from what I now know to be a condition called orthorexia (an obsessive and unhealthy relationship with exercise and what food I was consuming) . I was selling people the message that we should love our bodies but wasn’t committed to the message I was selling and everything felt off. Read More>>

Matthew Matson

Growing up, the search for a purpose weighed heavy on my mind as I believe it does for so many people. Some seem to be born with an innate knowing of their purpose, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth for me. I felt lost for many years. My journey into healing and spirituality began at a young age, but it was always more of a thing that happened to me rather than something I thought I’d use for other people.  Read More>>

Shaquenia Monique

I learned early on that my God-given purpose was attached to my passion. As a survivor of physical, sexual, mental/emotional, and even spiritual abuse, I’ve always been pulled toward women like me. Women who were broken, bruised and battered. Women who, like myself, had suffered so much trauma in their lives from childhood to adulthood, that they needed a mask to face each day. Women who birthed their babies through bruised birth canals because we’ve always been taught to press on, push through, and ignore the pain. For years, I sang, spoke, and performed poetry in churches, schools, shelters, wherever I could, to be in the same spaces as these women.  Read More>>

Monica Benton

I genuinely believe I found my purpose the moment I allowed myself to align my God-given gifts with the areas I had been professionally skillfully shaped to navigate. This didn’t happen overnight; it came together by me growing over several years to embrace all of who I am.

From a young age, I have known certain things about myself, including the fact that I was caring, empathetic, and direct. Read More>>