Giving Purpose a Real Place in Our Lives (Not Just Our Brands)

Jan 25

We Talk About Purpose More Than We Live It

We talk a lot about purpose.

It shows up in decks and campaigns.
Purpose as a tagline.
Purpose as a color palette.
Purpose as something aspirational.
Something we’ll get to one day when the timing is better or the calendar clears or the business feels more stable.

Purpose becomes a word we use more than a way we live.

And I don’t think most of us do that intentionally.

I think we do it because life is loud. Work is demanding. Families need us. Businesses need us. Teams need answers. Somewhere along the way, purpose gets pushed into the category of “important, but later.”

When Purpose Becomes a Concept Instead of a Practice

This week’s Coffey Talk conversation with Erica Hakonson pulled that thread for me in a way that felt grounding, not heavy.

Not because she talked about purpose beautifully.
But because she lives it consistently.

Purpose, for Erica, is not something she turns on for work and turns off at home. It shows up everywhere. In how she built her company. In how she structured giving. In how she thinks about responsibility. In how she talks about opportunity.

That impacted me.

Purpose Cannot Live in Just One Area of Your Life

She didn’t wake up one day and decide to add purpose to her brand. She built her life and her work around it, piece by piece, long before there was a badge or a framework or a formal name for it.

And that matters.

Because purpose does not hold if it only lives in one area of your life.

If we believe in community but never show up for one.
If we value generosity but never make room for it.
If we talk about impact but never change our patterns.

Purpose is not a performance. It’s alignment.

What Living in Your Purpose Actually Looks Like

What I keep coming back to in my mind is how practical that alignment looked for her. Not dramatic. Not loud. Not symbolic.

Purpose showed up in decisions. In commitments. In choosing to use what she already had, right where she was, instead of waiting for some future version of herself or her business.

That idea keeps echoing for me.

Why We Keep Postponing Purpose

So many of us believe deeply in living with purpose. We just keep postponing it.

We tell ourselves it will come when the kids are older.
When the business is bigger.
When the schedule is lighter.
When the next season arrives.

But purpose does not need a perfect season. It needs a place.

Giving Purpose Room in the Life You’re Already Living

It needs space in our calendars.
It needs room in our decisions.
It needs to be reflected in how we treat people, how we spend time, and how we define success.

Listening to Erica reminded me that purpose doesn’t require reinvention. It requires intention.

You don’t have to change your lane to live it.
You don’t have to overhaul your life.
You don’t have to get it all right.

You just have to stop treating purpose like a someday concept and start letting it inform today’s choices.