FIND YOUR purpose

When we can make an impact - no matter how seemingly small - we begin to tap into the meaningful motivation that lives inside us all

- Anita Chaudhuri

During my father's funeral, a few years ago, a woman approached me and said: 'Do you know, your dad saved my life? I would not be here without him.' My doctor dad had worked as an infectious diseases consultant for more than 40 years, so her words shouldn't have come as a surprise. But, in the heightened emotions of the moment, brought tears to my eyes. It's one thing to know the encounter intellectually that a family member saves lives, quite another to come face to face with the living, breathing evidence.

In the ruminative, empty days of the first lockdown, the incident came back to haunt me. Everyone else in my family had always been employed in the caring professions or public service jobs. My work as a journalist had been exciting and introduced me to a wealth of fascinating people and stories, but I couldn't see that it was having any long-term benefit in the world. It's not like I was even exposing corruption and wrongdoing, let alone saving lives. What was the point of it all? It turns out that there is a name for what I was experiencing - purpose anxiety.

Robert Holden, author of Higher Purpose, says that when he hosted the radio show Shift Happens!, the question he got asked the most from callers who felt their lives had gone awry was, 'How do I find my life purpose?' So why is it that so many of us grapple with this dilemma?

'I think it's because we've all had those moments when we thought, maybe I'm the only person who doesn't have a meaningful motivation in my life; maybe I'm the only one who's never going to find that,' explains Holden. He knows a thing or two about the topic, having established The Happiness Project, sponsored by the NHS, 30 years ago, as well as being head coach for the team that launched the Real Beauty campaign for Dove.