Find Your Life's Purpose By Doing What You Love

You'll spend 90,000 hours of your life working. Shouldn't at least some of them feel meaningful?

You might think that with artificial intelligence taking over more and more tasks, we'd all be working less by now. The opposite turns out to be true. AI has made us faster — but also busier, more stretched, and according to recent research, less satisfied at work than ever. So the question of finding meaningful work has never been more urgent.

We spend a lot of time working in this country. Ninety thousand hours over the course of a lifetime, to be exact. And yet, study after study tells us that the majority of people are doing it unhappily. Over half of Americans report being unhappy at work. Millions feel no connection to their jobs — and millions more are actively resentful of them.

That's a lot of unlived potential sitting in a lot of office chairs.

Here's why I think this matters beyond just job satisfaction: when we feel like we're living up to our potential, we like ourselves more. And when we like ourselves more, we have more confidence. More confidence leads to more self-compassion. More self-compassion leads to more kindness toward others.

In other words — finding your purpose isn't just good for you. It's good for everyone around you.

No pressure.

My question is this: aren't we supposed to be making the most of the lives we've been given? Life is a gift — but it doesn't always feel that way when a third of it is spent doing something that drains you.

Here are three steps to help you figure out what your purpose actually is:

1. Accept that you have one. We all have a reason we're here and something valuable to contribute. Purpose doesn't always look like falling in love, getting married, and having children. Some people find deep fulfillment in that path. Others don't want it. And still others pursued it expecting fulfillment — and found themselves quietly wanting more. All of that is okay. Your purpose is yours alone.

2. Think of one thing you're good at and love to do. What would you do even if no one paid you? If you're drawing a blank, travel back in time to when you were between 7 and 14 — that window when you were discovering who you were and what lit you up.

Here's my own example: as a kid, when someone asked me whether I'd rather have the superpower of flying or invisibility, my answer was neither. I wanted to read minds. I wanted to understand why people did what they did. That curiosity led me to acting — breaking down characters, turning psychology into behavior, as my first acting teacher in New York put it. And eventually, it led me here: as a hypnotherapist getting to the root of my clients' inner lives and helping them create real change.

What fascinated you back then? And why?

3. Find a way to make money doing it — even if it requires some imagination. This step asks for flexibility. Let's say you always secretly wanted to be a doctor, but going back to school for a decade isn't realistic right now. Ask yourself: what is it about being a doctor that calls to me?

If the answer is that you love the idea of helping people heal — there are many paths to that. Nursing, energy work, somatic therapy, acupuncture, hypnotherapy. You don't have to abandon the essence of what you wanted. You just have to find the version of it that fits your life right now.

And if a full pivot feels too big, start with a side hustle. Some of the most fulfilling careers began that way. It may feel like a risk — but if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got.

You spend a third of your life working. It's worth making at least some of it count.

Maybe it's time to shake things up.