You’ve probably heard it a thousand times: “Find your purpose.” As if your reason for being is hidden somewhere. Like in the right career, the perfect relationship, or maybe at the bottom of your third ayahuasca ceremony.
But here’s what I’ve found: you’re not missing your purpose. In fact, you’re already living it, just in distorted, dimmed-down ways.
What If Your Purpose Isn’t Lost?
Most of us treat purpose like a treasure hunt. We search, we seek, we attend workshops, and we read books (guilty), hoping to finally discover that one thing we’re meant to do.
But what if your purpose isn’t something you find? What if it’s something you already are?
Your Authentic Purpose is the unique pattern of your aliveness. It’s the specific way your soul wants to express itself through this one unrepeatable life you’re living. Not a job title. Not a mission statement carved in stone. More like a compass direction than a destination.
The ancient Greeks called it your daimon or your guiding spirit. Jung called it the Self. I call it the coherent pattern that emerges when you strip away all the stuff that isn’t really you:
- Stories you inherited from family and culture
- Protective identities you built around old wounds
- The endless “shoulds” from internalized authorities
- Personas you constructed just to belong or succeed
Purpose vs. Goals: Know the Difference
Here’s where most people get confused.
Goals are destinations. They live in the future. You can achieve them or fail at them. They’re often set by your ego’s agenda for security, significance, or approval.
Authentic Purpose is a quality of engagement. It lives right now, in this moment. You access it through alignment, not achievement. You can’t fail at it. You can only be more or less faithful to it.
Let me show you what I mean:
- Goal: “I want to write a bestselling book.”
- Authentic Purpose: “I’m called to give form to hidden truths and make the complex accessible.”
The goal may or may not happen. But the purspose, you can live that today, in a conversation, a journal entry, or a moment of teaching. The goal creates anxiety and striving. Purpose creates direction and energy.
Three Signs You’ve Touched Your Authentic Purpose
1. It Energizes Rather Than Depletes
When you’re acting from Authentic Purpose, you feel more alive after the work than before, even when it’s difficult. Compare this to “should-based” living, which drains you even when the task is easy.
Notice what leaves you buzzing with energy versus what leaves you reaching for Netflix and wine.
2. It’s Transpersonal But Has Your Fingerprints All Over It
Your Authentic Purpose serves something beyond your ego’s agenda, but it’s not generic altruism. It’s deeply, specifically you.
The world doesn’t need another generic “helping people.” It needs what only you can do, in only the way you can do it.
3. It Stays Constant Even When the Forms Change
Your expression will evolve into different projects, roles, and relationships. But the underlying pattern stays recognisable.
The teacher who becomes a parent who becomes a writer might still be “illuminating hidden patterns and enabling growth.” Same essence, different forms.
Beware of Counterfeit Purposes
Not all purposes are created equal. Some are imposters:
Compensatory Purpose: Built to heal an old wound. “I’ll prove I’m worthy by achieving X.”
Borrowed Purpose: Inherited from parents, culture, and your peer group. “A good person does X.”
Ego Purpose: Designed to secure status, control, or approval. “I need to be seen as important.”
These aren’t inherently bad. In fact, they’re often developmental stepping stones. But eventually, they feel hollow because they’re built on fear or deficit rather than aliveness.
Authentic Purpose emerges from surplus, not lack. From “this wants to be expressed through me” rather than “this will finally make me okay.”
The Paradox: Your Purpose Lives Near Your Wounds
Your Authentic Purpose often lives right next to your deepest wounds and greatest fears. Why? Because we’re most defended around what matters most.
The very gifts you’re here to offer are often the ones you learned weren’t safe, weren’t welcome, or weren’t enough.
Common patterns I see:
- The natural leader who was punished for “being too much” → retreats into invisibility
- The visionary who was mocked for “having their head in the clouds” → becomes rigidly practical
- The healer who was exploited for their empathy → builds walls against connection
Reclaiming your Authentic Purpose requires shadow work and recognising how you’ve exiled or distorted your gifts just to survive.
How to Work With Your Purpose (Not “Find” It)
Since it’s already operating in you (however obscured), the work isn’t discovery; it’s recognition and refinement.
Pattern Recognition
Look for the thread across your life:
- What activities make you lose track of time?
- What injustices absolutely enrage you? (Often these are inverted gifts.)
- What do people consistently thank you for?
- What were you doing the last time you felt, “This is who I really am”?
Shadow Reclamation
Ask yourself: “What gift did I bury? What’s been waiting in exile?”
Those disowned parts aren’t enemies. They’re the keys to your power.
Narrative Editing
Identify the stories keeping you small:
- “I’m not the kind of person who…”
- “People like me don’t get to…”
- “It’s selfish/dangerous/impossible to…”
Then consciously author new stories that create space for your Authentic Purpose to breathe.
Alchemical Testing
Take small aligned actions and notice:
- Does this energise or deplete me?
- Does this feel like expressing myself or proving myself?
- Am I moving toward something or running from something?
Your body and energy field tell the truth when your mind is confused. Trust that.
What Changes When You Live From Purpose
When you’re aligned with Authentic Purpose, several shifts occur:
Decision-making becomes simpler. “Does this serve my purpose?” becomes a reliable filter.
Resistance becomes informative. Where you feel blocked often shows where the real work is.
Ambition transforms. From “achieving to become worthy” to “building to serve the work.”
Comparison quiets. You’re not competing. You’re contributing your unique note to the symphony.
This doesn’t mean life becomes easy or doubt-free. It means you have a sovereignty-generating compass that gives you a way to orient when you’re lost or to use as a touchstone when you’re confused.
A Final Warning: Don’t Lock It Down
The ego loves to colonise this concept. It will try to lock down “My Purpose Is X” as a new rigid identity.
Real Authentic Purpose remains somewhat mysterious and evolving. You live into it through practice, not pronounce it and lock it down.
Trust the practitioners who say, “I’m exploring my relationship with…” over those who declare, “I am here to…”
The moment you think you’ve got it all figured out, you’ve probably just created another elegant cage.
Your purpose isn’t hiding. It’s humming beneath the surface of your life right now, waiting for you to clear away the noise and listen.
What will you hear when you finally stop searching and start paying attention?
Want to explore your Authentic Purpose more deeply? Join the Narrative Alchemy Codex community, where we’re all doing this messy, beautiful work together.
