You Don’t Need a Purpose Yet: But You Do Need Direction

Somewhere along the way, “purpose” became the new flex.

You used to be able to just... exist. Maybe decent at your job, maybe just showing up. Had a few hobbies. Hit the gym. Sent the occasional “u up?” text with half-formed regret. Now? If you’re not building a brand, monetizing your passion, waking up at 5AM to journal in Sanskrit and drink mushroom tea, apparently you’re wasting your life.

Purpose became pressure, and pressure became paralysis.

Now there’s a whole generation of people sitting in parked cars, scrolling through podcast clips they don’t even finish, hoping someone will say exactly the right thing to make their life finally make sense.

Hear me out: They won’t.

Because the truth is, you don’t need a five-year plan or a calling from God.

But you do need direction.

You need to pick a street and walk it. Even if it’s ugly. Even if it’s wrong.

We romanticize purpose like it’s a neon sign waiting to light up at the right moment.

But most people don’t find purpose. They build it. One honest step at a time.

Most of those steps look boring as hell. Or pointless. Or like failure.

You think your purpose is going to come in some romantic lightning bolt. Nah. It’s going to come while you're doing something small, quiet, and kind of inconvenient.

Maybe you stay late for a job you don’t love, just because it helps someone else breathe easier.

Maybe you keep showing up to that open mic. Or coaching your nephew’s team.

Maybe it’s 6am, and you’re dragging your body into the cold just to prove to yourself you still can.

Not glamorous. Not Instagrammable. But real.

Movement is underrated. Not everything has to be divine. Sometimes it just has to be done.

I know what it feels like to be stuck.

I know what it feels like to want to sleep through your entire twenties just so you can wake up successful at 32.

I know what it feels like to perform being okay because being seen as lost feels worse than being lost itself.

But trust me on this: Direction changes everything.

When you have direction, even a fragile, half-made version, you stop needing external validation as much. You stop outsourcing your confidence to others, or money, or approval. You start building something internal. Something you can come back to when shit gets loud.

It doesn’t have to be deep. But it does have to be forward.

Before you spiral, no, this doesn’t mean you can’t rest, or change your mind, or burn the whole map and start over.

But sitting in existential limbo, waiting to be “ready”? That’s not self-care. That’s self-abandonment in a cute outfit.

You don’t need a personal brand. You don’t need a title.

You just need to move.

Start where your hands are.

Tidy your space. Show up on time. Return that call. Stretch. Pick the book back up.

Do one small thing with intention today.

Even if the direction’s wrong, at least you’re not standing still pretending to be okay.

Fall is here.

Everyone’s rebranding. Retreating. Reinventing.

Make this the season you stop curating clarity, and start walking toward it.

You don’t need a calling. You just need a compass.

You’ll figure it out along the way.