How to Find Purpose in Life: A Practical Framework for Turning Your Values into Action
You know what you want to change.
Maybe you want to exercise more consistently. Be more present with your family. Advance your career. Build healthier habits. Or simply feel like you're living with more intention.
How to Find Purpose in Life: A Practical Framework for Turning Your Values into Action
You know what you want to change.
Maybe you want to exercise more consistently. Be more present with your family. Advance your career. Build healthier habits. Or simply feel like you're living with more intention.
The hard part isn't setting the goal.
It's sticking with it.
Many people start with motivation, only to watch it disappear a few weeks later. The reason may surprise you: lasting change doesn't begin with willpower. It begins with purpose.
In the University of Michigan's online course Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life: Living for What Matters Most, behavioral scientist Vic Strecher shares a practical framework for connecting your deepest values to the small, everyday actions that shape your life. Strecher is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and School of Medicine whose research focuses on behavior change, well-being, and the science of purpose. His work has helped thousands of learners understand how living with purpose can improve health, resilience, and happiness.
Rather than asking, "What do I want to accomplish?" the framework starts with a more powerful question:
Who do I want to become?
Why purpose matters more than motivation
Motivation comes and goes. Purpose lasts.
When your goals are tied to something bigger than checking off a task, you're more likely to stay committed—even when life gets busy.
Instead of focusing only on outcomes like losing weight, getting promoted, or reading more books, purpose asks you to identify the kind of person you want to become.
That shift changes everything.
Step 1: Define your Be Goal
A Be Goal describes the person you want to become.
Examples include:
- Be a supportive parent.
- Be a thoughtful leader.
- Be a lifelong learner.
- Be a dependable friend.
- Be someone who approaches life with curiosity.
Unlike traditional goals, Be Goals don't have an end date. They're a guide for everyday decisions. Whenever you're unsure what to do next, your Be Goal points you back toward the person you're becoming.
Step 2: Identify your Do Goals
Next, ask yourself:
What qualities would that person develop?
These are your Do Goals.
For example, if your Be Goal is to become a trusted leader, your Do Goals might include becoming:
- A better listener
- More resilient
- More decisive
- More empathetic
- More consistent
This step helps translate purpose into skills you can practice. But there's still one missing piece.
Step 3: Create Action Goals you can actually repeat
Most habits fail because they're too ambitious.
Action Goals work because they're intentionally small.
Instead of trying to "be healthier," commit to taking a 10-minute walk after lunch. Instead of deciding to "be more present," put your phone away during dinner. Instead of promising yourself you'll "learn more," read five pages before bed.
Small actions may not seem life-changing. Repeated every day, they become the habits that shape who you are.
Ask "Why?" until you reach what really matters
Suppose your goal is to lose 20 pounds.
Ask yourself why.
Maybe you want more energy.
Why?
Because you want to keep up with your children.
Why?
Because being an engaged parent matters more to you than a number on a scale.
That's your purpose.
Once you understand the deeper reason behind a goal, your daily habits become much easier to sustain because they reflect your values—not just your ambitions.
How to live a more purposeful life
Purpose isn't something you discover once. It's something you practice.
Every conversation. Every workout. Every decision to be patient. Every choice to learn something new.
Each small action is an opportunity to become more like the person you want to be. You don't need a five-year plan to begin.
Start with one question: Who do I want to become?
Then choose one small action you can take today that reflects that answer.
Over time, those small actions become habits. Habits become character. And character shapes the life you build.
Go Beyond the Framework: Build a More Purposeful Life
Identifying your Be, Do, and Action Goals can help you connect what matters to you with what you do each day. But living with purpose involves more than setting goals. It also means understanding what gives your life meaning and learning how to stay connected to it as your life changes.
In Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life: Living for What Matters Most, you’ll examine purpose through science, philosophy, real-world examples, and guided exercises designed to help you reflect on what matters most to you.
What You’ll Learn
- Understand that having a strong purpose in life is an essential element of human well-being
- Know how self-transcending purpose positively affects well-being
- Create a purpose for your life
- Apply personal approaches and skills to self-change and become and stay connected to your purpose every day
This fully online non-credit course is accessible anytime, allowing you to fit learning into your busy schedule. You’ll consider your values and best self, examine how purpose can shape behavior and well-being, and see how people put purpose into practice at work, with family and community, and through different stages of life.
Enroll in Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life: Living for What Matters Most to take the next step from thinking about what matters to building a life around it.
