This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Transcend" by Scott Barry Kaufman. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Why is it important to find your purpose in life, according to psychology? Why is having a purpose a basic human need?
According to psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman, it’s important to find your purpose in life because it brings you closer to self-actualization—the highest point of human potential. However, Kaufman claims that you must meet your needs for security and growth before striving towards a higher purpose in life.
Read on to learn more about Kaufman’s views on why it’s important to find your purpose in life.
Basic Human Needs, According to Kaufman
You may have heard of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, usually presented as a pyramid, in which he lays out the basic needs people must meet in order to reach their full potential. In Transcend, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman argues that Maslow’s ideas about this “pyramid” of needs are largely misunderstood, and he provides an updated view that’s more in line with modern science and Maslow’s full body of work. The final need of Kaufman’s new hierarchy of needs is the need for purpose, which he defines as the need for an all-encompassing goal or series of goals that gives meaning to your life. So, why is it important to find your purpose in life? In this article, we’ll explain Kaufman’s answer to this question and his advice for realistically finding your purpose.
Why Is It Important to Find Your Purpose in Life?
When all other needs of security and growth are met, a person needs to feel they’re striving towards a purpose they feel is important in life in order to reach self-actualization, says Kaufman. He notes that, while it’s important, finding and maintaining a purpose in life is hard—however, he does offer advice on how to strive for meaning in a realistic and healthy way.
(Shortform note: In the field of psychology, the study of finding purpose in your life and why it’s important was popularized by Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl, a holocaust survivor, saw that the people most likely to survive concentration camps had goals for their future and could find some sort of meaning in their suffering. He thus theorized that meaning, or purpose, is the driving force of a person’s life.)
Kaufman cautions that if your purpose or goals conflict with your values, they can actually impede your growth. For instance, if you don’t feel like your purpose or goals are particularly important or valuable, you’ll have a less fulfilling life than someone who feels they’re contributing to society, and you’ll eventually lose motivation and growth will stagnate.
(Shortform note: The idea that your purpose should be about contributing value to society is a common theme regarding theories of human motivation. In Grit, for example, Angela Duckworth defines purpose as the desire to increase the well-being of others. She states that the desire to help others is crucial because it helps you remain passionate in pursuit of your goals. If your purpose revolves around helping others, you’re likely to work harder and stick with it longer.)
Other research shows, however, that there’s often a disconnect between your purported values and your actual values, so it’s important to find a purpose in your life that aligns with your values and your deeper interests and motives. For example, you may believe that education is extremely important and that teachers are a vital part of society. But when you start your teaching career, you find that you just don’t get a lot out of it and that deep down you aren’t that interested in teaching. When this kind of disconnect happens, it’s important to accept it without guilt or shame. Kaufman recommends evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, determining which of your strengths you long to use more, and choosing a purpose based on those strengths.
| Develop Purpose by Following Your Passion Duckworth also gives some important advice on how to find your purpose in life. Like Kaufman, Duckworth argues that purpose can’t just be about helping others, it has to align with your interests as well. She claims that successful people with a strong sense of purpose usually follow a predictable pattern: First, they become interested in something for selfish reasons. Then, through practice, they become more and more skilled at the thing they’re interested in. Eventually, they’ll see how these skills can benefit others, and they’ll seek to help others as much as possible. So while Kaufman argues that you should base your purpose around your strengths and interests, Duckworth maintains that all that really matters is what you’re interested in because with practice that interest will eventually turn into a strength anyway. |
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Here's what you'll find in our full Transcend summary:
- An updated, modern take on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
- An in-depth look into Abraham Maslow’s full body of work
- How to simultaneously fulfill your needs while transcending beyond them
