, indicating a moderate level of purpose.

Purpose is an abiding intention to achieve a long-term goal that is both personally meaningful and makes a positive mark on the world. The goals that foster a sense of purpose are ones that can potentially change the lives of other people, like supporting your company's mission, creating art, or teaching kids to read.

Your score suggests that you have a sense of purpose, which is good news: Patrick Hill and his Washington University colleagues have found important advantages for more purposeful adults, including better cognitive functioning and even longer lives. They’re more likely to floss their teeth, exercise, and get to the doctor. Having a purpose also seems to be associated with lower stress levels, overall, which contributes to better health.

But your score also suggests there is room to grow and strengthen your purpose. According to research by Kendall Cotton Bronk, finding one’s purpose requires four key components: dedicated commitment, personal meaningfulness, goal-directedness, and a vision larger than one’s self.

It could be that one or more of those components is missing for you right now, perhaps because you’re still learning and growing. Purpose evolves over our lifetimes, and middle age, especially, can involve a crisis of purpose. You could be burned out. Maybe you’ve come to doubt your goals—or perhaps you’re not as connected as you could be with other people who are pursuing the same purpose.

That suggests it might be time to revisit and refresh your sense of purpose. Here are some exercises that might help you do that:

Discuss your purpose with others: Talk with a trusted friend, colleague, or mentor about your experiences finding your path to purpose. Discuss where you were in your life when you first formed your purpose, compared to where you are now. You can try to answer questions like these: What’s most important to me in my life right now? What do you think I’m particularly good at? What are my greatest strengths? When do you think I’m most engaged? How do you think I’ll leave my mark on the world? This exercise is based on a practice from Greater Good in Action, Talk with Teens About Purpose—but it applies to adults, as well! You can also take the VIA Character Strengths Survey to see what it reveals about your personal strengths.
Best Possible Self: Imagine yourself at some future age—like 10 or 20 years down the road—and think about what your life would be like if everything went as well as possible. Then ask yourself these questions about your future self: What are you doing? What is important to you? What do you really care about, and why? Focusing on an ideal self can increase your optimism for the future, which researchers believe is tied to purpose.
Clarify your values: If it’s hard to figure out what matters most to you, reflecting on your values can help. Three values surveys—the Valued Living Questionnaire, the Portrait Values Questionnaire, and the Personal Values Questionnaire—ask you to rank the importance of different values, something that can help you get clearer about your purpose.
Cultivate positive emotions: Positive emotions help us to broaden our outlook on the world and feel energized to take action for the greater good; so they can be useful for finding purpose. Gratitude and awe, in particular, help us care about others, build relationships, and feel connected to something greater than ourselves, which is why they’re tied to fostering purpose. You can visit our website, Greater Good in Action, to find exercises that will help bolster your sense of purpose—and make you happier, too.

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