17 Dec 2025 · 0 min
William Damon says finding what matters means trying things out and asking yourself why they matter to your identity and the world. Purpose isn't something you discover; it's a commitment you choose and stick with.
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Do you have any guidance on how might I actually learn about myself and learn what really matters to me and learn my ideals and identify when this is my highest self speaking to me versus potentially other inputs?
Well, you know, it's amazing because in your little talk just then, you kind of answered your own question because you put all the elements in there. The first thing is action. Be active and try things out. But the action needs to be then joined by some reflection as to what the actions mean. And so the why question is always absolutely essential. So to be specific, people try out all kinds of, let's say, vocational activities. You know, what do you want to actually do for your vocation? And nothing's going to happen if you just think about it, if you just have dreams about it, oh, I'd love to be a filmmaker or I'd love to be an artist or a great scientist. And you never actually go into a laboratory and start playing around with test tubes. So the action is absolutely critical. And that's really where it starts. You try doing things that you're interested in doing, but then, and you kind of said this in your little talk, then you ask yourself, why is this important? Why does this in some way lead me to the kind of person that I want to be? And those questions, those why questions about first of all, why is it important to me the kind of person I want to be? Those are identity questions. And secondly, why is it important to the world? Why does it matter to anybody that I'm going to do this? And it's those questions that follow from the actions that you take that lead you to decisions, to choices that are life choices, life choices about the direction that you're going to take. What are you going to follow and what are you going to stick with? Because purpose is a commitment and eventually it means sticking with something that in the long term you have some faith that it's going to make a difference to the world.
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