On Purpose

| The search for meaning and purpose in life is an important aspect of life. According to this psychologist, people are always striving to meet their needs.

of achieving our purpose in life can be a daunting but awarding task. Christopher McCandless

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

However, finding the personal identity is not a temporary task for just some moments in one’s life. Identity deserves people’s whole life to find on their

One of the most important things in most people’s lives is figuring out their purpose in the world. Many people spend much of their life trying to figure out their purpose in the world. People start thinking about the meaning of their existence from a young age, and often much throughout their adulthood. Realizing our purpose in life is often fueled by personal events, our connections with people, and our upbringing. The things we accomplish in the world were young they would start thinking about what ways their existence would benefit society and earth.

In the movie “looking for alibrandi the director presents the viewer with the idea that people can attain an enduring sense of both identity and belonging. The director believes that many life experiences compel us to alter our sense of self. Both text, movie and the story of my friend suggest that our identity changes depending on

Another opportunity to discover ones purpose comes from the life experiences they have encountered that shaped who they have become and what pleasure they find in sharing their unique gifts (DiVincenzo, (Ed.),

One’s identity is who or what a person is and how they are perceived by themselves and others. Your identity defines who you are and where you fit in. It is a self-representation of your interests, relationship, social activity and much more. Some believe our sense of identity and belonging is shaped by various factors, including our experiences, relationships, and our environments. Conversely, others believe that personality is shaped by nature, and that one is defined by their biological characteristics and hereditary traits passed down from previous generations. Nevertheless a combination of both nature and nurture shapes us throughout life. For a majority of the population their journey to find their identity and belonging can often

Our perception of our identity is constantly changing, the groups we belong to, the people we talk to and the way we connect with others help to form our identity. There is one thing we all have in common despite our individual identities, is the need to belong. There’s no obligation to belong to only one group, you can belong to many. An individual can belong to many groups, which will then create multiple identities; hence our understanding of identity is never constant. Belonging to a loving family, group of caring friends that help us to develop our own sense of self. However, belonging can have a negative side. For example our families might have an expectation of us to do something that might alter our ambitions and interfere with

Finding one’s purpose in life essentially gives meaning to the existence of each individual. Some existential philosophers argue that each person has a predetermined purpose or reason for existence which they must discover on their own as they live their own lives. However, such reason is not an absolute certainty; instead, it is significantly

The world has become modern and global. Identification of the self is a complicated, though, an important problem of every individual. Self- identity is based on inner values and reflections on culture, politics and social interactions. The main point is that people label themselves to any particular group in the society (Worchel etc., 1998). According to Ferguson: “Identity commonly refers to which it makes, or is thought to make

According to Erikson, the development of the lifespan is a lifelong process from birth to death and includes the formation of identity (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). I will cover in the paper six life events that influence my identity development from childhood to middle adulthood. Each life event will be explained based on the significance of the event as well as the impact the event had on my development. Also, theories will be discussed as they relate to my development.

Who are you? Who am I? These are questions that we all ponder at some point or another in our lives. As human beings we are seemingly inundated with the desire to classify and categorise. We are constantly defining and analysing the differences that we observe in the world, it seems only natural that we would apply this method of classification to our position within our society. More specifically, we want to understand our social identities and this can be achieved by acknowledging which groups we identify most with.

All throughout our lives, we wrestle with the question of who am I and what do I want in life? However, it is usually during the adolescent years that this issue really comes to a head and we begin a more earnest search into finding ourselves and deciding the direction we want to take with our lives. One of the theorists who studied this idea of identity formation was James Marcia. Marcia proposed that there were four different stages or statuses in the development of identity which he labeled Identity Diffusion, Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, and Identity Achievement. In this essay, we will briefly summarize his four different stages and then apply his theory to my own identity development during the adolescent years.

Similarly, humans often have to cope with doubt, and the students come to realize they are “different from the normal people outside; we perhaps even knew that a long way down the line there were donations waiting for us. But we didn’t really know what that meant” (pg. 69) In this quote, Ishiguro suggests that a purpose does not solidify one’s meaning in life. Despite knowing their purpose in life is to make donations, the students remain unfulfilled and continue to search for something that feels meaningful to them.