Purpose Is Rarely One Job Title

Matthew Gottesman (0:05)

Welcome to The Niche Is You, my name is Matt Gottesman at Matt Gottesman on Instagram, and this is my daily podcast where I create short, quick hitting episodes to help you uncomplicate life, creativity, and the pursuit of your highest self. There's only main character energy here. Now let's get into it.

Welcome to episode 876 Purpose is rarely one job title. Purpose is rarely one job title. The container can change throughout your life while the deeper thread remains. What do I mean by that? I think it's very easy to, and I see this often with people struggling with this idea of purpose because it's sort of like, it's sometimes meant to describe a profession or a role, like whether you're a writer, entrepreneur, or maybe like a coach, an artist, a parent, an engineer, a doctor.

And yes, those are, I think, part of a bigger picture that's happening. And so we end up seeing wrapping identity into a profession and saying, oh, that's my purpose, but I think it goes even beyond that because there are roles and containers and seasons, and seasons change, right? You can spend 10 years doing one kind of work and then another 10 building something completely different and become a parent or write a book, mentor people, whatever, right? Start a company, investing, you know? And I think that there may be actually a recognizable thread throughout all of it that's leaning towards a bigger meaning of purpose, not just like a role or a job title. And so I think that that's where sometimes people put unnecessary pressure on themselves because they're like, oh no, if I'm not this thing anymore, if I no longer do in this role, wait a minute, then what's my purpose? And so some notes I made here was that we're trying to identify the one thing we're supposed to do with our lives when maybe purpose was never meant to be reduced to just one thing, hence The Niche Is You, right? So I think we can move out of the question of what is my purpose more to what keeps expressing itself through me regardless of the form. So no matter what season of my life am I in, how does certain things continue to merge out of me in which I am contributing to the world or to community or to a bigger picture in some way, right? And this is a big deal, I think, because a lot of people are constantly like, what is my purpose? We have to live to really understand that, you know, because I think it can't just be answered in like one coffee conversation or one hour, you know, sit down. Purpose is ongoing, and it's from living a very present life and going through multiple seasons. And so in this episode, I want to talk about why we often confuse purpose with profession, and how do we kind of separate those two, how the same deeper thread can express itself through completely different seasons of life. And, you know, to give you kind of like some context around that, it's like, I look at a lot of the different skill sets and roles and consulting and some of the companies that I, you know, was working with or some of the own things that I was building. And over time, you can kind of start to see certain subject matter, certain problems I want to solve in different ways. And I'm also kept growing with God as well. And so you start to kind of see this thread, this through line throughout all of it. And I think that's why removing pressure of saying, it's got to be from just this one job title, just this one thing. And then if I didn't do that, if I wanted to no longer do that, then really do I even have purpose? Yes, of course, I think we all have purpose in some way that is meant for us to figure out. So I also want to talk about why previous careers and experiences may not have been detours just because you eventually outgrew them. What does it mean when you've outgrown a role? What does it mean when you've outgrown a profession? We see this with people all the time. Like they might go 20 years deep, and all of a sudden, you know, be in their 40s or 50s and be like, you know, I think I want to do something completely different. Does it mean that you delayed purpose? No. Actually, I think very much what you learned in those 20 years is part of it. That's the part I'm challenging and saying like, that's probably what may be going on. I also want to talk about how to recognize the recurring themes underneath the different things you've done. I think that's probably the big thing right there. It's like, let's look at some pattern recognition going on, and then why purpose can become more expansive as your life changes rather than requiring you to choose one identity forever with your work or the season that you're in? Because if you think about it, let's say you're a parent, you're an entrepreneur, you once worked corporate, you also maybe play a sport, maybe you also run an organization. I'm just giving you this idea, let's say you do multiple things. Well, think about how much you're learning in leadership, how much you're learning in communication, how much you're learning in helping others and being of service. There's all this stuff baked into that you don't even realize. So let's jump into the first one. We were taught to describe purpose like a profession. A job title answers what you do. Purpose asks something deeper of us, right? So from a young age, you guys know, I always love bringing that up, from a young age we're asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? And you know, society I think did a very good job of, as I always say, like, oh, you know, typically these are the things you'll probably want to say. And so somehow you'll hear kids say something like, an acceptable answer would be like, oh, lawyer, doctor, teacher, entrepreneur, engineer, you know, whatever it might be. And I think it's because we get taught to organize identity around occupation. And so naturally when we start thinking about purpose, I think what has happened is we start to use the same framework. There must be one thing I'm supposed to become. There must be one thing I'm supposed to be here to do. Well, what if the existence of your life and the way you grow and your personal development and your character development and the things that you'll create and the ways that you'll behave and the ways that you'll lead yourself, community, family, the ways you'll lead maybe teams, like in, whether in sports or in work. All of that can culminate into, in totality, your purpose. You get what I'm saying?