During a conversation not long ago with my friend Sarah, she mentioned the view of author John Maxwell that you cannot be a success in life unless you know your purpose, as in the one and only reason you are here on this earth.
Wow, what a destructive idea it is to assume that you must have a single purpose in life, or else you'll never be a success! Who says you can't have multiple purposes? For example: bringing joy to your family, building excellent products or providing excellent service in your work, helping your teammates, strengthening your community, and understanding yourself and the world around you (to name just a few). Even further: perhaps being truly successful at living a deeply human life is a matter of balancing and being good at a wide range of passions and pursuits, not some having a single-minded focus on one thing to the exclusion of all others.
The misguided notions put forth by so-called gurus never cease to amaze me.