Finding your purpose might sound like a graduation speech cliche. But it is a lifelong pursuit, and there are some practical ways to figure out your skills, aptitudes, and how those might overlap with economically viable activities.
In today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, I interview Suzy Welch, author of Becoming You (and host of a podcast of the same name). She’s also a professor at NYU who’s built a course around helping people find their purpose (it is not always banking, consulting, or tech!). Suzy shares her career advice, and we talk about how to figure out what you’re meant to do and get started doing it.
In the Q&A we address a listener who really doesn’t want to travel over Thanksgiving to see family. With young kids, dealing with crowds and delays can be tough. We talk about how to set boundaries and shift family expectations and dynamics.
Please give the episode a listen, and as always we welcome ratings and reviews!
When I first saw the name of this episode, I was thinking, “There were episodes of the podcast in the past that also instructed how one can find one’s life’s purpose”. But, I don’t think that means that you cannot make new episodes about how one can find one’s life’s purpose, Ms. Laura Vanderkam. Indeed, I’m also familiar with other authors who discussed the same topic, such as Ms. Julie Lythcott-Haims, who wrote “Your Turn: How to Be An Adult”, and Prof. Bill Burnett and Prof. Dave Evans, who wrote a new book that will come out next year. In case you’re wondering, though, Ms. Laura Vanderkam: No, I’m not recommending them as guests for this podcast, even though they’ve mentored me in so many ways in the past. Recommending guests for this podcast is not something I want to treat haphazardly. Like, recommending guests is not just about my preferences—it is also about the podcast’s other listeners and their receptions to the guests.
If you’d like to know the values I gave for my values, my aptitudes, and my economically viable interests in the becoming oneself methodology that you and Ms. Suzy Welch brought up, Ms. Laura Vanderkam, I can tell you more.
From what I understand, Ms. Suzy Welch was telling me that I’ve never gone away from my parents, and in my twenties and thirties, I became very dear friends of my parents and therefore my problems became bigger, my friends became characters in my parents’ life. Apparently, Ms. Suzy Welch thinks that I’m someone who needs my parents to listen to my problems every once in a while, that I always make sure I introduce some of the people I know to my parents, and am only comfortable if my parents talk to me every day. And you know, I used to think that Ms. Suzy Welch is someone who values objective truths. I can discuss that in detail with her if I am able to reach out to her. Furthermore, I can also extrapolate that Ms. Suzy Welch has never gone away from her parents, either, and that her parents are also always working parents who need to care for her right until the moment that her father passes away this year. I can clarify all of that with her if she answers me when I reach out to her.
Great guest – enjoyed hearing about the concepts she conveyed and appreciated her brutal honesty about motherhood. Also interesting to hear her experience being a working mother in the 80s.
@LVL – She is a fascinating person! I really enjoyed the conversation.