A Life of Purpose
Sitting in the kitchen as a high school senior, I was tearing up again. Wet cheeks in my hand, I poured out my heart to my mom as she reheated dinner from the night before. I had started the semester hoping to be a social worker, impassioned about the vast injustices I saw in the world, and hoping to be a part of the change I had seen her be in the lives of so many children.
“I am just not sure I am strong enough for this,” I said, disappointed in myself.
“It’s OK honey, there are so many ways to help the world. You just need to find yours. And you will,” she told me calmly.
Through her example I saw a single mother who had transformed her career multiple times, creating opportunities that never existed before through some type of magic I hoped was in my DNA somewhere.
When I heard of the ikigai - the Japanese concept of a reason for living, and saw how it had been applied to work with the overlapping Venn diagram of purpose in work (image below) - I recognized it as something familiar, something that my mother lived by, and something I was living into without words. Yet, putting it to words only made it that much stronger, because instead of doing it subconsciously, I could make it fully intentional – and share with others, like you, dear reader.
Answering the following four questions for yourself can help you find an overlap that gives your career (and life) a sense of meaning:
- What do you LOVE?
- What does the world NEED?
- What can you be PAID FOR?
- What are you GOOD AT?
Throughout my education and my career, I’ve asked myself these questions regurally – because let’s face it, we change, the world changes, and as we grow more becomes possible.
The path I am on allows me to blend my passion for social and mental health with my love of architecture and sensitivities to spaces all around us. I am deeply grateful for the career that I have today, and I fully expect for it to continue to grow and change, and by using this lens I can continue to nudge intentionally along a path which I create every day.
This time of year, we celebrate these passions just days apart. Today is World Mental Health Day focusing on greater understanding, prevention, and recovery from mental and emotional disorders. And just this past week marked World Architecture Day, which is celebrated to remember architects' collective responsibility to design a better future.
This year’s focus is on architecture for resilient communities, and one of the critical and often overlooked ways to create viable community life is through a recognition of the power of our social infrastructure – or the physical places which help foster and support our connections and relationships, thereby strengthening our mental and emotional health. This fosters resilience not just in times of upheaval, like the cascade of climate events we’ve seen, but also in every day needs for support.
As I get ready to head to the Foundation for Social Connection’s annual forum on Harvard University’s campus with friends and colleagues from across the globe invested in building connected communities, I think back of my mom’s words on finding my way to help the world. Although she is not here to see the work we are doing, I fully know she would be proud.
As you seek to live out your purpose in meaningful work and life, I cheer you on, and leave with you one of my mother’s favorite quotes that feels fitting for this moment.
“… as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
”
Shine on. Let your light shine and warm the world with the gifts you’ve been given!
NOT TO MISS
Watch Erin’s TEDx: Can Design Heal Loneliness
Learn more about Ikigai and the debate on the origin of the Purpose Diagram.