Mel Robbins suggests starting with what fascinated you as a kid, then identifying which core virtues resonate with you: knowledge, courage, kindness, justice, spirituality, or creativity. Prioritize activities aligned with those strengths, especially on weekends, rather than chasing career or money.
Chapters
If you're feeling a lack of purpose and meaning right now, what's the first step you can take? It begins with asking yourself questions like, what really inspired me as a child? You know, and for me, it was like encountering dinosaurs when I was 5. I was like, I love evolution and dinosaurs. What inspired you as a child? Who inspired you in your life? You know, and you think about those people and, you know, Mel, what those questions get to is what's inside of you What are your core strengths, right? And we know from this really interesting, inspiring science and practice of virtue that's age-old is, you know, there's 6 or 7 core strengths that we can be thinking about. Each of us is different and they speak to us in different ways. So, you know, it might be knowledge, right? You might love crossword puzzles and, you know, studying things and learning about music or birding or the like. It might be courage. You know, you might just find great inspiration and sort of a sense of purpose in doing courageous things, getting out and taking chances. Kindness is just a universal, like, you know, tending to people, volunteering who need help. There are a lot of people today, you know, who could use— you're 90 years old and you could use that drive to the supermarket. There are the justice people. And they're around us, you know, and man, they will find their purpose if they get a chance to, you know, to fight for what they think is fair. There's a kind of strength that's more transcendent, like meditation and spirituality and just finding the questions about divinity or whatever form it takes. And one of my favorites is the creativity types, you know, and They love humor and stand-up comedy, and they're gonna do spoken word or write their short story or join the book club or whatever. And there it's just like creating. And what I love about these ideas is this isn't about your career or how you make money. This is just what you're gonna enjoy on the weekend and what you should prioritize in your life to find a little bit more purpose during these times.
