We’ve been told that if we just “find our why” everything else will fall into place. But clarity isn’t the same as truth, and a slogan can’t carry the weight of a human life.
In my work with leaders and professionals, I see how seductive this formula can be, and how quickly it unravels. Purpose and meaning are not the same thing. Purpose points forward, giving us projects and direction. Meaning looks backward, stitching together what has happened into a story. When we collapse Purpose and Meaning into a single why, we make ourselves more fragile, not less.
This essay looks at how the cult of why took hold, why it thrives in a culture that prizes slogans over substance, and how it fails us when life inevitably shifts. It also sketches a different path: cultivating the practices that allow us to choose projects in the present, shape meaning as it develops, and keep revising our story without demanding a final, once-and-for-all answer.
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Purpose, Meaning and the Cult of "Why"
Hope you enjoy the read.
Federico Malatesta
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