Purpose Isn’t What We Produce

.Letting Go of the Well-Planned Outcome

I’ve had a complicated relationship with the idea of a five-year plan.

I find it difficult to plan for a year, sometimes even for next week’s dinner.

Being that planful feels limiting to how I want to experience life.

Not everything can be planned.

When I try, I deny myself the experience of living.

I feel the same way about how society encourages us to define purpose.

In many modern frameworks, leadership, career, even spirituality—

purpose is often seen as something you deliver:

the output, the impact, the measurable effect.

But purpose isn’t what we produce.

It’s how we participate.

It’s not a destination;

it’s the relationship between self and life as it unfolds.

In earlier cosmologies, purpose wasn’t assigned.

It was discovered through living.

A person didn’t find their purpose.

They listened for it.

They became it.

Our culture ties worth to results.

The proof of purpose becomes what can be shown, scaled, or sold.

That’s how we end up overvaluing strategy

and undervaluing sensing.

We plan instead of perceive.

We measure instead of mean.

We reach for outcomes instead of orientation.

Living purposefully might mean stepping into uncertainty with integrity—

following what feels alive

instead of what merely seems efficient.

Maybe purpose isn’t something we find or define,

but something we allow to find us.

What if purpose isn’t the work we complete,

but the consciousness we cultivate?

What if the journey itself—

with all the sensing, becoming, and remembering—

is actually the point?

It’s not an easy ask — to give up the certainty of a well-planned outcome.

But when I do, I find myself more alive in the moment,

and open to

all of what comes next.

Let’s talk. If you’re navigating change and want to lead with more clarity, confidence, and connection, I’d love to support your next step.