In 2010, an 80-year-old art dealer and former United States Air Force pilot hid a small treasure chest in the Rocky Mountains.
The treasure contained gold nuggets, jewelry, and rubies worth $2 million.
He then published a short book about his life. To get people to read it, the canny old-timer included a poem in the book. In that poem, he placed nine clues to the treasure’s location.1
The final lines of the poem read:
“So hear me all and listen good, Your effort will be worth the cold. If you are brave and in the wood I give you title to the gold.”
Whoever found the treasure got to keep it. What happened over the next ten years sounds like pure fiction.
Once word got out about the book, the poem, and the treasure chest, the hunt was on. Thousands of people began deciphering the clues hidden in plain sight.
Confident they were on to something, they ventured into the American wilderness in droves, searching for a treasure many could only imagine in pirate tales.
People who would’ve normally spent the majority of those ten years on the couch eating stale Doritos and undercooked fish sticks suddenly got up off their asses and felt like they had something to live for.
People from all walks of life, many of whom had no business traversing the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the Rocky Mountains, entered that wilderness driven by an inner calling and sense of adventure they’d never felt before.
Forrest Fenn, the man who hid the treasure and began the hunt, started it for exactly this reason. He wanted people to get off the couch and do something extraordinary.
And so they did.
Online communities sprang up everywhere with people sharing their theories about where the treasure was. People created YouTube channels about the treasure hunt. They met up in person to have discussions and search for the treasure together. It became a passion and a focal point of their lives.
The treasure hunters analyzed every word Forrest Fenn said in interviews, trying to uncover subtle hints that might point them toward the treasure’s location. A software engineer even created facial recognition software to analyze Forrest Fenn’s facial expressions for clues.
Many became obsessed with finding the treasure and what it would mean for their lives. Some even died trying.
Then, in 2020, more than ten years after Forrest hid the treasure, someone finally discovered it – a med student.
The treasure hunters didn’t believe it at first. It couldn’t have been found, right?! They were in denial. Some had spent thousands of dollars and years in the wilderness and were deeply disappointed.
Others were disappointed that the hunt was over. The main thing they’d dedicated their lives to over the last ten years was gone. Finished.
In an instant, they felt like they’d lost what had been motivating them to get off the couch, including the community they’d built. What were they going to do with their lives now?
Nine days after the treasure was found, Forrest Fenn passed away. The name of the person who found the treasure was later revealed, which gave people some closure that it had really been found.
Shortly after, the treasure was auctioned off for $1.3 million, and the story came to a close.
What was it that got so many people dedicated to finding this treasure for so many years? Why did they become so emotionally attached to it to the point where it became the focal point of their lives?
What the hell drove people to talk about it for so long, spend hours of their precious brain power every day deciphering the clues, fly and drive across the country, and drag their family and friends into the wilderness for weeks at a time to search for it?
Most people’s first answer would be, “Duh! It was the money! It was the $2 million treasure!”
That’s the most obvious answer, but was it? Was it just the money?
Ten damn years. A whole decade of a person’s life dedicated to finding a treasure hidden in the wilderness that may or may not have existed.
A book and a poem written by an old man who could’ve kicked the bucket at any moment.
Even once the treasure had been found, it needed to be sold to get the money it was worth (with taxes paid on it).
No, it wasn’t just the treasure or the money. The treasure was the goal. It was the dream. It was the vision. It was the spark that ignited something much more powerful.
In one word, this treasure hunt gave people purpose.
It gave them something exciting to live for. It gave them something to talk about and learn about. It gave them something to be passionate about.
It gave them a sense of community and belonging. It gave them a dream to pursue.
It inspired them to go out into the world. It inspired them to take risks and get out of their comfort zones.
It inspired them to use their gifts and talents to achieve what they wanted to achieve, and many uncovered new gifts and talents they never knew existed.
The methods some of these regular ol’ people used to decipher the clues were truly extraordinary – the stuff you might expect from the CIA.
The treasure hunt woke these people up out of the daily grind of their normal lives. It awakened their spirit and sense of adventure – things that were always within them but hadn’t been activated yet.
Even though hundreds of thousands of people took part in the hunt, and only one person found the treasure hidden in the Rocky Mountains, many of the hunters found treasures hidden within themselves.
They found courage, resourcefulness, focus, passion, and a sense of adventure they never knew they had.
These are the types of treasures that come from one simple thing:
Living with purpose.
The hunt impacted so many people’s lives not just because of the money, but because of everything they gained from being a part of the adventure.
It wasn’t just about the destination. It was also about the journey along the way and everything they learned and experienced within it.
In one treasure hunter’s words (who did not find the treasure), when asked about what the treasure meant to her, she said…
“When you just said I didn’t find the treasure, sure I did. Ten years of it…Ten years after I got into it, I’m still talking about it. I still have friends. So there was a lot to it.”
The interviewer then asked, “Do you regret it at all?” to which she replied…
“Hell no. Oh my god, no. No regrets.”
During those ten years, I was going through my own journey, as well.
I had no clue about the hunt. I’d never heard of it until I watched the Netflix documentary two days ago.
(If you want to hear the full story of the hunt, the documentary series is called “Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure.”)2
But I was on my own purpose journey.
Much of what the treasure hunters experienced, I’ve experienced as well as I’ve walked my path.
I’m a treasure hunter too – not for a box of gold and rubies hidden in the Rocky Mountains, but my versions of it.
My goals. My dreams. My vision. My purpose. My passion. My calling. My mission.
I’ve also been inspired to get off the couch and do extraordinary things I otherwise would not have done. I’ve also uncovered gifts and talents I never knew I had.
I’ve found many of my treasures, and I’ve also found many treasures within myself that I never knew existed.
And I’ve found a deep sense of purpose, meaning, and fulfillment in the journey itself.
The treasure hunters can get everything they think they lost when the hunt ended by simply choosing another purpose to follow.
Why? Because it wasn’t the treasure that made them feel excited, fulfilled, and whole.
It was having something in their lives they cared about, were passionate about, and were excited to work toward.
You don’t need a box full of buried treasure to bring this level of purpose into your life.
If you feel lost in life, you’re confused about what you’re meant to do, or you feel unfulfilled…
Or if you want to do something meaningful and purposeful with your life…
And if you want to find your inner treasures of happiness, peace, and fulfillment…
I’m about to share the core knowledge that can help you find your purpose, whatever that means for you.
By the time you’re done reading, you will learn:
What it means to find your purpose and what it’s really about.
The power of self-discovery (and the purpose-discovery process).
How to find purpose in your relationships, work, and spirituality.
How to find purpose in your challenges, your goals and dreams, and in helping others.
How to live a purposeful and meaningful life.
And the simplest secret to lifelong fulfillment.
One thing I admire about the treasure hunters is that they didn’t think the treasure was a pipe dream. They saw it as something real – something they could achieve – and they went for it.
If you want to find your purpose, then you must also believe that it’s something real and something you can achieve.
What It Means to “Find Your Purpose” (What It’s Really About)
What do people mean when they say, “I’m trying to find my purpose”? What are they looking for?
Are they trying to figure out their life goals? Are they trying to find their passion? Are they searching for their higher purpose? Are they trying to find their calling?
Most would answer, “I don’t know.” They just know that something is missing in their lives, and they feel that finding their purpose is the answer.
It may be the answer, but to find what you’re looking for, you’ve got to know what it is. What is a purpose? And what does it mean to find it?
The dictionary definition of ‘purpose’ in its noun form is “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.”
Unfortunately, this definition isn’t very practical when it comes to finding your purpose. If finding your purpose means searching for the reason why you were created or why you exist, you may end up in a spiritual rabbit hole.
People can get lost in existential theories and beliefs proposed by spiritual teachers, religions, or even pessimistic atheists and agnostics.
The goal in finding your purpose is to reduce and eliminate confusion, not add to it.
When your primary goal is to find the sole reason for your existence, and you ignore the other layers of purpose that can benefit your life, you can end up just as confused as when you started.
In my journey, I’ve found some satisfactory answers for the reasons for my existence:
To experience joy.
To learn, grow, and expand.
To heal.
To help others.
To follow my heart.
I’m a spiritual being having a physical experience.
I’m a part of the universe experiencing itself.
I’m an eternal being on an eternal journey, and this life is one of many lives I’ve already lived.
I chose to incarnate into this life, to be who I am, and experience life this way, and I was eager and excited to do so.
Generalized “reasons for being” like these are commonly accepted in spiritual but non-religious circles.
But again, they’re probably not practical or grounded enough to truly make a person feel confident and at peace with their life’s direction. More clarity is needed.
Therefore, finding your purpose needs to go beyond finding your “reason for existence,” which could be vague and difficult to confirm. For me, I came across the generalized reasons above. They felt good to me, so I accepted them and moved on with my life.
To go beyond your “reason for existence,” you must expand your definition of what finding your purpose means and include the other layers of purpose that matter to you.
For example, finding your purpose may mean:
Clarifying what’s most important to you in each area of your life.
Finding purpose in your relationships.
Finding purpose in your work.
Finding purpose in your challenges.
Finding purpose in helping others.
Figuring out what makes you the happiest and giving yourself permission to do it.
And the other layers of purpose may include your:
Higher purpose.
Passion.
Calling.
Mission.
Ikigai.
Purposeful work.
Core values.
Life goals.
And the legacy you want to leave, among others.
When you discover and clarify these things, your understanding of your purpose becomes more grounded. The more grounded it is, the easier it is to apply it to your life and start following it.
It does you little good to find your purpose but then have no idea how to follow it.
You must be able to ground it down into something you can actually do and experience. Otherwise, it will stay up in the clouds as yet another generalized reason for existence.
But is this all that finding your purpose is about?
Most people who are desperately trying to figure out what their purpose is think that finding their purpose is an end in and of itself.
In reality, finding your purpose is a means to an end.
The end isn’t finding your purpose. The end is being happy, at peace, and fulfilled.
Finding your purpose is a path to experiencing a deeper sense of happiness, peace, and fulfillment with who you are and the life you’re leading.
It makes you happy because you’re doing what makes you happy. It makes you feel at peace because you know what you’re doing with your life and why. It fulfills you because it’s important to you and you care about it.
These are the end goals, and finding your purpose is a path to experiencing them.
Of course, there may be other end goals. You may have different goals from what I mentioned.
But the point is that finding your purpose is really about the benefits to your life that come as a result, not just the purpose itself.
The Power of Self-Discovery (The Purpose-Discovery Process)
So far, we know that finding your purpose can mean anything from finding your reason for existence, to finding purpose in your work, to the legacy you want to leave.
And it’s really about the benefits you receive from finding it, not just the purpose itself.
But what’s the process? How do you discover these things and clarify them to an undeniable level?
In one word, it’s self-discovery.
The purpose-discovery process is a self-discovery process.
Whatever you can do to learn more about yourself will help point you in the direction of your purpose.
I want you to imagine all of the self-knowledge you could ever discover about yourself:
What you like doing for fun.
Your personality traits.
Your strengths and abilities.
Your areas for improvement.
Your goals and dreams.
The things you don’t like and don’t want to do in life.
The things you love doing and want to do in life.
Your passions and interests.
The people in your life who are most important to you.
The work that brings you the most fulfillment.
The work you despise and don’t want to do.
Your past experiences.
The life lessons you’ve gained so far.
How you’ve grown and evolved over the years.
How you want to grow and evolve in the future.
Who you’d like to help in the world and how.
And everything else about you.
Your purpose is one piece of your entire potential body of self-knowledge. It’s just a piece of your self-knowledge that you haven’t acquired or aren’t aware of yet.
The more you learn about yourself, and the clearer your self-knowledge becomes, the easier it is to learn more about yourself, including your purpose.
Then you can use that knowledge to navigate your life more effectively, confidently, and happily.
Clarifying any of the pieces of self-knowledge listed above will help point you in the direction of your purpose.
While you can find your purpose in other ways, self-discovery is the most direct and practical approach I’ve found to doing it.
You can take a solo trip to a foreign country, go on a spiritual journey, take plant medicine, try tons of new things, go to personal development seminars, read dozens of books, and try any of the many other ways people attempt to find their purpose in life.
However, by far, self-discovery is the most direct path.
It’s the path that helped me discover almost all of the layers of purpose that matter most to me, and it’s how I’ve helped other people discover theirs, as well.
How do you begin the self-discovery process?
I recommend starting by asking yourself some deeper questions about who you really are and what you want most in life. Then write down your answers in detail.
Prioritize continuously learning more about yourself, and it will start lighting the way to your purpose.
Finding Purpose in Your Relationships, Work, and Spirituality
1) Relationships
If I had to choose the number one area of life that gives people most of their purpose, it would be their relationships (whether they’re aware of this or not).
Most people get the majority of their purpose from their relationships, and most people can increase the purpose they feel in their lives by increasing the quality of their relationships.
These relationships include family, friends, romantic partners, coworkers, classmates, roommates, neighbors, their local community, interest groups, and more.
If you want more purpose in your life, your relationships are fantastic places to start.
The higher the quality of your relationships, the more purpose you’re likely to feel in your everyday life.
The lower the quality of your relationships, the less purpose you’re likely to feel, regardless of how the rest of your life is going.
Our relationships form the foundation for our sense of purpose because of the bond that’s created.
It forms the basis for how we care about others, our sense of self, and how we experience life.
Having an amazing experience by yourself versus having it with the people you love most are two very different experiences.
Most people would rather have that same experience with the people they care about most because there’s a greater sense of purpose in it. The experience means more.
On the flip side, our relationships can also be some of our greatest sources of frustration and pain if those relationships are not in harmony (or if we’re not in harmony with ourselves).
Therefore, our relationships carry the potential to be our greatest sources of joy or pain, depending on the nature of those relationships.
Who you choose to spend most of your time with could be some of the most important decisions you make on a day-to-day basis.
A single person can change your life, for better or for worse.
Cutting out people who don’t contribute to your happiness and well-being can be just as valuable as spending more time with people who do.
The more time you spend with people who contribute to your happiness and well-being, even if you’re just sitting around doing nothing, can feel like one of the most purposeful experiences in life.
Some of the times I cherish most growing up were hanging out with my friends in random parking lots – laughing, joking around, skateboarding, playing basketball, and just being teenagers.
We weren’t doing anything “productive.” We weren’t changing the world. But we were having fun together, and those were some of the best times of my life.
When on the journey to discover your purpose, it’s very easy to get lost in the grand idea of discovering an overarching purpose that can change your whole life, while at the same time, completely miss the purpose that already exists in your life.
The simple things, like spending time with people you care about, can be some of our most purposeful experiences.
Cherish these things, and you will come to understand more of what the purpose of life is.
2) Work
If our relationships are the number one area of life that gives us the most purpose, our work is a close second.
Work gives us purpose because it gives us something to do. However, the potential purpose we can feel in our work goes much deeper than that.
The degree of purpose we feel in our work depends on how aligned our work is with what makes us happy, our skills, our gifts and talents, what we’re passionate about, and how we want to impact the world, among other things.
The less aligned our work is with these inner characteristics, the less purpose we’re likely to feel. The more aligned it is, the more purpose we’re likely to feel.
To find purpose in your work, your work probably needs to:
Make you happy.
Utilize your skills and strengths (or the ones you want to build).
Be something you’re passionate about and care about.
Make an impact on the world that matters to you.
If your work doesn’t include at least some of these characteristics, you’re probably going to feel like you’re just trading your time and energy for money:
You can’t wait for Friday evenings, and you dread Monday mornings.
Your work is just a way to make a living, but not a life.
It feels like a chore you have to do rather than a privilege you get to do.
You can’t wait for retirement, even if it’s still 30 years away.
You’re often drained, tired, and stressed out (rather than energized and excited).
Similar to our relationships, our work has the potential to uplift our entire lives if it’s in a healthy and happy state, or drag our lives down if not.
Many people who are searching for their purpose want to combine it with their work, in part because most people are deeply unsatisfied and unhappy with their work.
I talked about this at length in my article on healing your relationship with work, but ultimately, you will never be fully satisfied and fulfilled as long as you continue to do work you don’t like or don’t care about.
Finding purpose in your work comes down to two things:
Doing what you like to do.
Doing what you care about.
If you do just these two things, you will feel an immense sense of purpose in your work.
What do you like doing? What do you care about? And how can you do these things in your work life?
For me, I’ve always enjoyed writing, and helping people empower themselves and change their lives is one of the things I care about most when it comes to my work. So, I write articles and books that help people empower themselves and change their lives.
The article you’re reading now (and my entire blog, my book, and my course) are expressions of what I like to do and what I care about.
Not surprisingly, this is the most purposeful work I’ve ever done. It’s the work I’m most passionate about and love the most, and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing right now.
Here are some articles that will help you find work you like and care about:
It doesn’t have to be for you as an individual if that isn’t how you relate to it, but many people who are searching for their purpose are searching for it on a spiritual level.
They try to find it through religion, spiritual experiences, plant medicine, spiritual knowledge and wisdom, and other spiritual avenues.
The range of explanations for one’s purpose varies greatly depending on the spiritual source, so it’s nearly impossible to say which source is best. It depends on what you resonate with most.
Are you a religious person? Then you might find your purpose by diving deeper into your religion’s teachings and speaking to some of the wiser practitioners.
Are you spiritual but non-religious? Then you might find your purpose by going on a spiritual journey in a foreign country or reading books by different spiritual teachers from multiple disciplines.
If you are neither, you may find it by simply getting to know your spiritual side on a deeper level.
When I took a solo trip to Southeast Asia in 2018, one of my intentions was to get to know my spiritual side better, and that intention manifested in incredibly profound ways.
While living in Vietnam, I found what I believe to be my higher purpose.
I didn’t know how I was going to get to know my spiritual side better. I just set the intention, got out of my normal environment (and into a more spiritual one), and let the experience unfold.
I got to know my spiritual side much better, and finding my higher purpose was a part of that experience.
No matter your spiritual beliefs, how can you get to know your spiritual side better?
This may be the key to unlocking a deep sense of purpose, direction, and fulfillment for you.
Finding Purpose in Your Challenges, Your Goals and Dreams, and in Helping Others
1) Your Challenges
Finding your purpose doesn’t always come from the easiest, most straightforward path.
It may come as a result of facing some of your most difficult challenges, prevailing, and coming out the other side wiser, stronger, and more empowered (and ready to help others overcome those same challenges).
Or, it may come as a result of consciously choosing to leave your comfort zone and follow the path of your highest growth as a person and all the challenges that may come along with it.
Sometimes, the people who spend their whole lives trying to avoid challenges are the ones who experience the most challenges and the least amount of purpose.
Those who embrace certain challenges, especially those related to their personal growth, are often the ones who ultimately experience the least challenges and the most amount of purpose and joy.
The people who truly say “YES!” to their soul’s journey are the ones who are most ready to find their purpose.
They may not know it at the beginning of their journey, but as they tackle each step along the way, they get closer and closer until it’s revealed at the right time and in the right way.
Following your purpose takes courage, and courage is built through continually feeling the fear and following your path anyway.
If you’ve locked yourself in a cocoon of perceived safety, trying to avoid any and every challenge life may throw at you, you aren’t building any courage and you’re probably not ready to follow your purpose even if it were to show up at your doorstep right this second.
Not all challenges are there to make your life more difficult. Many have an important purpose.
Many are there to be stepping stones for your personal and spiritual development. Many contain important lessons that you can only learn by facing those challenges and overcoming them.
When you live your life in fear, trying to avoid every challenge, even the ones that are important for your growth, you avoid those key stepping stones and lessons, as well.
Sometimes, the most direct path to finding your purpose is to start doing the thing or things that require the most courage for you to do, as your purpose may be waiting for you on the other side of your fear.
What are you afraid of?
Write it down, and you will realize that your fears are probably illogical and not nearly as big as they seem in your head.
Then take action toward what you want despite those fears, worries, and concerns, and your purpose will reveal itself when the time is right.
My goals and dreams gave my life a deep sense of purpose years before I ever discovered my purpose.
A goal is a purpose. A dream is a purpose (as long as you’re acting on it).
They give your life purpose because they give you something to move toward. They give you direction. They help focus your energy toward something important and meaningful to you.
One of the fastest ways to bring a deep sense of purpose into your life, even before you “find your purpose,” is to choose a few goals and dreams that matter to you and start working toward them.
You’re never too far away from having purpose and direction in your life. All you need is clarity around a few things you want and care about. Then start moving toward them.
A goal is an objective. A dream is a bigger objective.
Goals are stepping stones toward dreams. And dreams are part of a larger vision.
Goals → Dreams → Vision.
To clarify these things, try working backwards from the vision:
What do you want your life to look like 10 years from now, in all ways?
Then, what dream(s) are a part of that vision?
Finally, what goals do you need to reach to achieve those dreams?
Write down your answers to these questions in clear detail. Then start working on your goals, knowing they will lead you to your dream(s) and your vision.
This alone will give your life a sense of purpose that 99% of people don’t have yet.
I think we all know that helping others can be incredibly purposeful and fulfilling. The question is…
How can you help others in a way that makes you happy and in a way you care about?
If it doesn’t make you happy, even if you’re helping others, it probably isn’t going to give you the satisfaction and fulfillment you’re looking for.
Most people’s work helps others in some way. If it were just about helping others, everyone would feel like their work was purposeful. Yet, most people feel a low sense of purpose and meaning in their work.
This is because their work doesn’t make them happy, and they don’t care about the way it helps others.
The work is boring and meaningless to them, regardless of whether it’s helping other people.
It isn’t just about helping others. It’s about helping others in a way that makes you happy and in a way you care about. This is true both in and out of work.
When you find something that helps others in a way you care about and makes you happy, you’ve hit the jackpot. It will feel deeply purposeful and meaningful to you, and you will be incredibly inspired to do it.
I would not be surprised one bit if the purpose you may be searching for involves helping others in some way.
Just keep a lookout for ways you can help others that make you happy at the same time.
There’s a difference between finding your purpose and living a purposeful and meaningful life.
You can live an incredibly purposeful and meaningful life without knowing exactly what your purpose is.
You do this by recognizing the purpose and meaning that exists in everything. You do it by paying attention to the purpose already embedded in life itself.
You focus on purpose. You give it your attention, especially the purpose that exists within your own life.
As you give it more attention, it expands, and you start gravitating towards more and more purposeful and meaningful experiences.
Eventually, you turn living purposefully into a habit. It becomes automatic. Your life is just filled with purpose and meaning because you have made it so. You have focused on it, and it has expanded and become a part of your everyday life.
You see the purpose in the big things and the little things. You see the purpose in your goals and dreams, and you see it in the challenges that are there to help you grow.
You see the purpose in other people’s lives even if they don’t see it themselves. You see the big picture of what’s going on in the world, and you don’t get caught up in useless negativity and pessimism.
You live your life based on your truth, regardless of whether other people understand or approve of it. You live your life confidently and courageously, continuing to move toward more of what you want.
You take small, consistent steps outside your comfort zone to expand yourself as a person. As a result, your life expands consistently, as well.
You keep an open mind and are always learning, always looking to grow as a person and become a better version of yourself.
You follow your heart and trust its guidance. You follow your inspiration, even if you have no clue where it might take you, knowing that you will end up right where you are meant to be.
You don’t need to know your purpose right now to live your life this way. You can start right this second and begin living a more purposeful and meaningful life than you ever thought possible.
It’s not some pipe dream. It’s not miles away. It’s been right here in the palms of your hands all along, waiting for you to grab it and never let go.
Let go of all the petty BS. Divert your attention from it and focus on the blessings of life.
As you do this, your life will naturally shift to a higher plane. And it’s your focus and attention that will make it so.
The Simplest Secret to Lifelong Fulfillment
To finish this article, I want to leave you with what I believe to be the simplest secret to lifelong fulfillment.
The secret is this:
Do what you enjoy and what matters to you.
If you just do these two things, you can’t not live a purposeful and meaningful life.
If you take the pressure off and simplify it, it all boils down to that.
Do what you enjoy and what matters to you, and every day of your life will be filled to the brim with purpose and meaning.
Michael Karp is a personal development blogger and self-published author. He started his personal development journey in 2011 as a sophomore in college.
Since then, he has self-published several books, started an online business and became a digital nomad, achieved his dream of moving to Thailand and traveling around Southeast Asia, built a following on Instagram sharing life advice, became a life coach, found his life purpose, and healed his body with the power of his mind.
With a deep passion for serving others, Michael continues his hero's journey on a mission to help people around the world to empower themselves, realize their true potential, and achieve their dreams.
