A bottom-up approach to discovering purpose. When we were born, we didn’t have a given purpose (there is no destiny). If there is one, we were not aware of it. It was tiny decisions we made along the way from childhood to adulthood that determined what we are interested about at the current moment. We tried different things out and took note of what resonated and what didn’t (convergence–divergence model of creativity).
Trying different things out produced too much information and magnets of attention that could produce overwhelm. We need a certain tool—a purpose or a question—to make sense of all these information. This means that a purpose is simply a narrowing tool that gives us a sense of control and direction.
Realizing that purpose is simply a convergence tool implies that you canfind your purpose through divergence–convergence. This method applies to thinking about the purpose of your life as well as the purpose of your smaller projects.