Purpose Isn’t Just Another Buzzword, It’s the Key to Systemic Change

Within personal development and online marketing spaces, it’s common for words to become too trendy, leading to a general dislike and avoidance of the term. Unfortunately for many, purpose has become one of those “industry buzzwords” that rubs people the wrong way.

That’s because purpose has been deeply diluted.

It’s often used as a selling point for gated content, offerings, and services that lack an accurate understanding of what purpose is and how to uncover it, oversimplifying it down to finding personal passions and cultivating individual fulfillment. So, not only do those who use it as marketing positioning not help people uncover their purpose, they also further fuel disengagement with the concept altogether.

At Choose Your Calling, we believe strongly that purpose isn’t just another buzzword, but the key to the intersectional systemic changes our world desperately needs.

Reclaiming the True Meaning of Life Purpose

If the industry gets it wrong, then what is purpose?

In our work, we define purpose as:
Show up, be you, and do what you feel called to do.

Due to systemic and social conditioning (the process of training or accustoming a person to behave in a certain way or to accept certain circumstances), most people hear this through an individual-centric lens, but true purpose isn’t self-serving. It’s not about prioritizing our passions and personal fulfillment at the expense of other people, animals, and the land. It’s not about hoarding wealth or resources and calling it success. And while our purpose work may bring recognition and validation, it’s certainly not about fame or an ego boost.

Let’s break down our definition of purpose:

Showing up is about contribution and community care. Showing up to hold up our corner in the web of life. A web that weaves everyone and everything together, sustaining all life.

Being you is about living our fullest expression. It’s not about finding or creating ourselves as inspirational quotes would have us believe; it’s about remembering who we’ve always been—the person we were born to be in this life, with all our idiosyncratic gifts.

Doing what you feel called to do is about choosing to become who we were born to be, not who the systems and social structures have conditioned (or forced) us to become.

That said, and despite common interpretations of our name, we don’t believe you get to choose who you want to be in this life. We believe your purpose has been hard-coded into you since before you were born. That’s the seed of purpose: who we are and who we’re here to be. However, how our purpose expresses itself (the work we’re here to do) changes based on the times we live in and how our life experiences shape us. Ultimately, we must choose to give ourselves over to our callings and actualize our fullest expression so that we can contribute to the world in the ways we’re meant to.

Unfortunately, not enough people are engaging with true purpose work.

Many of those who are trying to do this work are failing to get anywhere because the industry and coaching containers are so far off-base. It’s important to understand where the industry gets it wrong so we can reclaim purpose and begin using it as a tool for systemic change.

The Real Problem: Purpose Was Never Meant to Be Individualized or Monetized

“Find your purpose” has become a cliché (a phrase that has become overused to the point of being unoriginal and uninteresting), but purpose, when understood as a driving force that connects individual expression to collective contribution and community care, is anything but.

The concept of uncovering our purpose in life has been uprooted and exploited by online marketers, personal brands, social media influencers, and anyone attempting to sell inspiration or motivation. And many who can’t profit from it (or are jaded from failed attempts to uncover their own) take a stance against it, saying there’s no such thing as life purpose to begin with.

Life purpose is real, but it’s become inaccessible because self-help and online marketing industries have commodified it, making it about productivity, profit, or personal happiness rather than shared evolution. So, people waste time and money chasing personal passions and individual fulfillment that never come, burning out in the process, while systems of harm remain intact.

Let’s break down two places where the industry goes wrong…

1. Life purpose is framed solely as an inside job.

And, to some degree, it is.

After all, purpose is about uncovering who we are and who we’re here to be (the seed of our purpose) and the work we’re here to do (how our purpose wants to express itself based on the times we live in and how life has shaped us).

The problem is that conversations about life purpose and personal development often overlook the systemic limitations and barriers at play, particularly the significant influence of capitalism (which we’ll get into next). As a result, purpose begins to feel ever-elusive and impossible to pin down. Worse yet, it feels like something reserved for the privileged because the way it’s taught makes that true in most instances, even if it’s inherently untrue.

Most teachings tell people to “think positively” and mindset their way toward their passions. Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, say some fluffy mantras every morning, and stop making excuses as to why you have no time for your joy, then poof! You’ll find your one true purpose in life and live happily ever after.

This is an oversimplification rooted in:

Classism: The prejudice or discrimination against people based on their socioeconomic status, favoring those with more financial wealth, and treating them as morally better or superior for having it (money that is exponentially more accessible to white, able-bodied men). Most purpose-driven teachings that center on personal passions and individual fulfilment do so in a way that only works for those who have resources at their disposal, such as time and money.

Ableism: The prejudice, discrimination, or social bias against people with disabilities based on the belief that they’re inferior or less valuable than non-disabled people (completely neglecting the reality that anyone can become disabled at any time). Using toxic teachings like “mind over matter” and “just hustle harder” is rooted in ableism, shaming and failing to support those who need more time for rest, move more slowly out of necessity, or struggle with mental health issues and traumas that present more challenges.

White supremacy: A racist ideology and systemic structure based on the belief that white people are superior to people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds and therefore should dominate over non-white people. This is often reinforced within purpose work by centering white (or white presenting) people and their privileged life experiences, neglecting to consider or support those who are hindered by racism, biases, and discrimination.

Patriarchal values: The beliefs and norms that reinforce social systems where men hold primary power and authority. It emphasizes male dominance in political, economic, and social spheres, often leading to the marginalization of women, non-binary, and trans people (treating them as insignificant or peripheral). The personal development industry is rooted in patriarchal values, not because white men inherently knew best, but because they were the only people with any rights, respect, access to wealth, education, and resources, and who the systems were designed to celebrate and support.

Not being able to uncover your purpose in life isn’t a personal failing; it’s a systemic one. It also doesn’t mean that you don’t have a purpose in life! The reason purpose continues to be framed as an inside job that many “fail” at is that most teachers, coaches, and personal development spaces failed to include a systemic lens and a complete understanding of purpose.

2. Life purpose has become deeply intertwined with capitalism.

Most life purpose coaches use skill- and interest-based assessments, not to uncover your true purpose in life, but to help you identify potential work roles and career paths. But how we might best make money to pay our bills inside a harmful, capitalistic system isn’t an indicator of our purpose: who we‘re here to be and how our purpose wants to express itself now. These methods of uncovering our purpose are inherently flawed.

One big reason this happens is the societal pressure to monetize purpose, which stems directly from our culture’s deep entrenchment in capitalism. Hustle culture, the side-gig economy, and the fact that most jobs don’t pay a living wage have created a deep desperation to monetize anything and everything we can.

So, rather than focusing on uncovering our true purpose, free from systemic and social influences, we waste time trying to uncover our passions and find the role or income channel to support ourselves through a skewed lens. In reality, some purpose expressions translate well into making money, while others don’t. Don’t let anyone fool you into believing that the ones who make money and garner “fame” and “influence” have a “better” purpose in life. They don’t. Their purpose expression just aligns with making money at this time.

The bigger issue is that capitalism is fundamentally linked to individualism. It’s based on individual rights, private property and ownership, and competition.

It leads to hyper-individualism, consumerism, and social inequality despite its theoretical basis in individual liberty, all of which are rooted in another major system of harm:

Colonialism: The father of white supremacy and capitalism, colonialism is fueled by a self-interested, individualistic worldview that justifies the exploitation of resources and people for personal or national gain. It separated us from our communities and kinship systems, as well as the lands that sustain us. And in our context, it’s the root of why life purpose coaching and personal development spaces fail to connect individual purpose with collective contribution.

Purpose and callings inherently center on contribution to the collective. We’re meant to be connected in community and living in harmony with the ecosystems that surround us. Trying to uncover our purpose in life without deconditioning ourselves from the influence of capitalism and colonialism is like trying to grow a garden in concrete. It doesn’t make sense, and it certainly doesn’t work. You have to remove the manufactured “foundation” to uncover the fresh soil from which to plant and nurture your seeds.

Purpose as a Lever for Systemic Change

The fact of the matter is, true purpose work reorganizes us personally, relationally, and societally. When we as individuals decondition from social and systemic influences, we become catalysts for equitable businesses, ethical leadership, and systems that center on collective care.

Current power systems thrive when individuals and industries conform to their expectations, suppressing autonomy, creativity, and collective well-being while exploiting the land and life-sustaining resources. Choosing to reclaim our true purpose and live a contribution-based expression of that purpose is a direct act of resistance against conditioning that tells us who we should be, what we should value, and how to measure impact.

Let’s look at the role of purpose in systemic disruption:

When we center true purpose over productivity (doing the work we’re here to do, not what the systems need us to do to uphold them), we shift the focus from extraction and burnout to regenerative, sustainable ways of work, commerce, and contribution. In doing so, we effectively challenge industries to reimagine how work is structured, measured, and valued.

When we focus on contribution over competition, we stop measuring ourselves against arbitrary standards that force us into roles of dominance or submission, winner or loser, insider or outsider. True purpose dismantles the illusion of false hierarchies that dictate who is more valuable or deserving of security, joy, and opportunity, revealing that we’re not here to compete. We’re here to contribute, be in community, and live harmoniously with the land.

When individuals and organizations operate from true purpose rather than complying with harmful systems, we remove power from outdated, biased, violent gatekeepers and uplift diverse, historically excluded perspectives. This fundamentally reshapes leadership, hiring, and decision-making structures, allowing diverse narratives and perspectives to be centered in every industry.

When we stop chasing fame and notoriety for self-serving motives and instead focus on holding up our corner in the web of life, we shift toward more equitable cultures and industries, and we focus on the work they’re here to do, not what our ego may lead us to chase.

When we reorient our industries and economies toward contribution and sustainability rather than accumulation, we dismantle cycles of oppression and create new possibilities for equity and care.

Systemic change happens when purpose-driven individuals and businesses move beyond self-interest and into collective service. This is because true purpose shifts us away from individual gain and toward contribution, ultimately freeing us all from oppressive systems.

Join Us in Building a World Where Purpose and Systemic Change Are Inseparable

By shifting industry conversations and standards, we’re creating a world where purpose-driven work is clean, ethical, and aligned with the greater good, not just another tool for maintaining the status quo.