“Find your purpose.”

It has become such common advice that few question it. But rather than inspirational, it can feel like a burden. How do I go about finding this and what if I never do?

This is “purpose anxiety” — the gnawing sense that one’s life should have an overarching purpose, but it’s unclear how to discover it.

“There’s a lot of commands to find purpose, but not a lot of support to find purpose,” says Michael Steger, a professor at Colorado State University and director of its Center for Meaning and Purpose.

Defining ‘purpose’

The definition of purpose can be elastic. Can you have only one purpose or can you have many? Does it have to involve service to others or can it be something that consistently gives only you great pleasure and meaning?

Think of purpose not as someth

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