You Don't Find Purpose. You Live It.
I've worked with a lot of leaders who feel quietly guilty about purpose.
Not because they lack it. But because they're not sure they've found it — at least not in the way they were told they would. No lightning-bolt moment. No singular calling that reorganized everything. Just a persistent, underlying sense that what they're doing matters, interrupted regularly by doubt, fatigue, and the ordinary friction of a complex life.
I want to suggest that this is not a failure of purpose. This is what purpose actually looks like.
We've inherited a romantic story about purpose — that it's a hidden treasure, and the work of a meaningful life is the search. Find your why. Discover your calling. Unlock your purpose. The language is always one of retrieval, as though what you're looking for exists in a fixed form somewhere, and you simply haven't arrived at it yet.
This story can be genuinely helpful. But it can also leave people feeling perpetually behind, perpetually not-quite-there, perpetually in search of something they fear they may be too distracted — or too ordinary — to find.
Here's what I've witnessed in two decades of coaching leaders across sectors: purpose is not primarily something you find. It is something you live. And most leaders are already living it, in ways they don't always stop to recognize.
Being on Purpose — the third dimension of A Fuller Cup™ — is defined by three things: a clear vision of what you're working toward, a deep commitment to your values, and a genuine desire to make a meaningful impact in the world.
Notice what that definition does not require: certainty. A perfect plan. A dramatic origin story. A title or a platform.
It requires clarity — which can be cultivated. Commitment — which is a practice. And desire — which, in my experience, is almost never absent. What's often absent is the spaciousness to acknowledge it.
One of the most consistent things I witness in caring, high-functioning leaders is how rarely they pause to name what actually drives them. They are so immersed in the doing — the meetings, the decisions, the people, the pressure — that they've lost contact with the why beneath it all. Not because the why disappeared, but because they stopped listening for it.
Reconnecting with purpose doesn't always require a retreat. Sometimes it begins with a single question, asked honestly: What am I actually working toward? Not the deliverable. Not the KPI. The larger thing — the contribution, the vision, the change, the community you're trying to build or protect or strengthen.
That question, held with patience, begins to reorient you. It doesn't resolve every ambiguity, but it gives you something to navigate by. And in the long seasons of leadership — the plateaus, the pivots, the periods where results are slow and the work is hard — having something to navigate by is everything.
The A Fuller Cup™ assessment includes a dedicated reflection on your sense of purpose — how clearly you feel guided, how connected you feel to your values, where you find meaning in your life and work, and where renewed clarity might be waiting. If you'd like to explore it, my complimentary anniversary offer is still open through August 30th, limited to 30 leaders.
Take the complimentary assessment and reserve your discovery call with me here: https://www.sagelead.com/anniversary-gift
Purpose isn't found in a moment. It's built in a practice. And the practice begins whenever you're ready.
Suze Shaner-Brodax integrates corporate leadership, executive coaching, and contemplative practice to help senior leaders move beyond barriers, act with clarity, and lead with purpose and impact. www.sagelead.com.