Finding Your Bigger Purpose: What Actions You Need to Take (#81)

If you’ve been climbing the corporate ladder but feel like something’s missing, you’re not alone. Many high-achieving women struggle to find a sense of purpose beyond their paycheck. In today’s episode, I’m sharing 5️⃣ actionable tips to help you explore and connect with your bigger purpose — without the pressure to monetize it or tie it solely to your career.

You’ll learn:

🌟 How to start building a fulfilling life outside of corporate
🌟 Why your paid work isn’t your only legacy
🌟 Practical ways to explore new opportunities, leverage your strengths, and chase true joy
🌟How volunteer work and community involvement can reveal your greater purpose
🌟 Why it’s okay (and freeing!) if your purpose isn’t tied to making money

Finding your purpose is a journey, not a race — and it often leads you to places more beautiful than you ever imagined. You’re not lost — your path is unfolding exactly as it should.

👀 Key Takeaway:
You don't have to leave corporate overnight, but you can start building a life of meaning and impact today by exploring your passions and strengths outside of work.

Ready to start your own reinvention journey?
📱 Book an Empowered Exit™ Call with me today and let’s create your personal roadmap to purpose, freedom, and fulfillment.

If you're looking for additional support through coaching, visit my website to learn more about working together and my signature program EDIT Your Life™: www.karinfreeland.com/life-coaching

Then book a call here!

Not ready for coaching? Get a copy of my self-help book: Grab Life by the Dreams!

Transcript

Karin Freeland: 0:00

Welcome to Rock Your Reinvention, where I help high-achieving career women like you get unstuck, make your corporate exit strategy, and successfully transition to your next chapter. Hi, I'm your host, Karin Freeland, a certified life coach and corporate exit strategist. Whether you want to start a business, become a speaker, or something else, I'm here to give you the tools and strategies to shift your mindset, build your confidence, and take bold actions so you can rock your reinvention. Ready? Ready? Let's go. Welcome back to Rock Your Reinvention. One of the biggest challenges my clients face when leaving corporate is building a life outside of their day job. They need to figure out what else they can fill their time with and focus their energy on. They also struggle with discovering their bigger purpose, the legacy that they want to leave. One of the biggest misconceptions among the women I work with is that their paid work has to be their legacy. That their paid work has to be their sole purpose. That simply is not the truth. It can be, but for many women, it's not. Because for some of my clients who might, let's say, leave their big marketing job and start a marketing agency, It's not necessarily their purpose in life. It's just the work that they do to pay the bills and fund their dream. They can now do that marketing work that they enjoy on their terms and without all the pressure of working in corporate, but it's not necessarily the thing that they were born to do or that gives them all the fulfillment in their life. And I find that these two challenges seem to be interconnected. This idea of building a life outside of corporate and finding your purpose. They're very much connected and most often come to life through volunteer or unpaid work. Isn't that interesting? As I share in my book chapter nine of grab life by the dreams, The Essential Guide to Getting Unstuck and Living Your Purpose, we all derive our sense of purpose in different ways and from different outlets. For some of us, it's the seemingly little things, like being the positive person in your circle or donating clothing and toys to charity. Others may do seemingly big things, like stand on a stage and impact thousands of lives or invent a new life-saving technology. Society will tell us that some purposes are bigger or better than others, but I disagree. If we're living in alignment with our purpose and having a meaningful impact on those around us, then our purpose is just as good as anyone else's. And that's far better than squandering your potential impact out of fear or self sabotage. So today, I wanna share some tips and things for you to consider when exploring your bigger purpose so you can know what actions you need to take next. And this will look different for everyone because we all have a different purpose. So my first tip is to explore your options. And I'm gonna share some stories with you in this episode to help you paint this picture so you can kind of see how this unfolds. When we moved to Greenville, South Carolina from Jersey, I didn't know a soul, not a single person. We had no friends or family in the area or surrounding areas. So we were basically on our own. And I was talking to my realtor, like, how am I going to meet people? And I work from home. Like this is going to be really challenging. And she recommended that I join a women's training organization called Junior League so that I could meet people. And thankfully I took her up on that offer. What I didn't realize is that I was going to discover a new purpose for my life over the next three years. Okay, did you hear what I just said? Three years. This is not an overnight fix, and it's a really important thing to remember when you're seeking your purpose. Now, through my work at the Junior League, I was exposed to many things. Local nonprofits. We had the Julie Valentine Center, which you may recall, I ran a 5K last year and donated over $1,000 to support sexually abused women and children. I have connected with and supported the United Ministries, which cares for our homeless population in the upstate. And Switch, an organization aimed at ending sex trafficking. Now I was very fortunate that I got to explore all of these different options through the junior league, but you may need to approach different outlets or have different experiences separately. And that's okay. So what can you do to start exploring your options? Well, commit to having one new experience a month. That's totally doable. And it's a great way for you to kind of see what fits and what doesn't. The next thing you can do is start a purpose journal so that you can track how you feel during and after each one of these new experiences. Do you feel energized when you do that? Do you feel curious or bored, right? This is really valuable data for you, really valuable insights. That's going to give you clues into whether this is a path you should keep pursuing for your purpose or, um, Maybe I thought that was going to be a good fit. And then I got into it and like, didn't really enjoy it. The other thing you can do. So tip number two is to leverage your strengths. We all have things that we excel at natural gifts and talents that come easy to us or skills that we have perfected over the years. And it really doesn't matter how we acquired the gifts. The point is you have personal strengths. One of my personal strengths is speaking, teaching, facilitating. So when I was thinking about my purpose, I knew it would have to involve one of these gifts, right? Your creator, God, gave you those skills that you have for a reason so that you could fulfill the divine call for your life. Make no mistake, we don't get gifts that we're not supposed to use. So this past September, I'm attending the Switch fundraising gala. I snagged a last minute ticket when my camping trip was canceled due to rain. I now know that this was no coincidence. And they had what they call a speed painter come to the gala. And I don't know if you've ever seen one of these. They play really uplifting music. I mean, it was a Christian event, so they played Christian music, but They can play any kind of music. And the person just paints an entire painting, like a huge canvas in like 10 minutes. It's crazy. So while we're sitting there eating our dinner, having my chicken salad, I'm dead center to this in relation to the stage. And I just kind of peek up and I'm like, huh, I wonder what he's painting. Kind of looks like a bird. I don't really know. So I just keep talking to my table mates, eating my salad. And all of a sudden I look up. And I realize it is Jesus wearing a crown of thorns on his head and the food I'm like mid swallow. And my whole body just clenches up and I feel the food kind of like getting stuck in my throat. And so I'm trying to like absorb this beautiful, but painful image in front of me and swallow my food at the same time. And all of a sudden I hear a voice, Karin. What are you doing to stop sex trafficking? And I'm not going to lie. At first, I was like, I think I'm going crazy. And so I start rationalizing all my actions. And I'm like, I just donated hundreds of dollars. I shopped the silent auction. That's what I'm doing. You know, I post about this stuff on social media. I just donated a copy of my book to the silent auction. Like, what do you mean? And I just hear again this voice in my head. No, Karin. What are you doing to stop sex trafficking? And at this point, I'm bawling, right? I'm like trying not to let everyone at the table see me cry. And I just surrendered and was like, okay, God, I hear you. I will sign up to volunteer tomorrow. And I did. So let me give you the Cliff Notes version here. The tip that I want to share is is then I had to choose what I wanted to do for Switch. I had to leverage my strengths. And I knew emotionally that I couldn't handle the whole strip club intervention that they do, which is really cool. They go out, they meet the dancers, they make relationships with them, they try to get them to agree to come out of the life. And I was like, I think I'll throw bows with people in the strip club. Like I can't do this. And then even thinking about restoration, I was like, I don't know if supporting them through the healing would be really that feasible for me either. And as soon as I heard that Switch had a prevention team that went into high schools to train students on how to stay safe from traffickers, I knew that was it. It perfectly aligned with all of my natural gifts of presenting and speaking and teaching. Total no brainer. So for you, what skills or gifts do you have? Those are a clue for you. And if you're not sure, it's okay to ask some trusted friends or family members, colleagues. I'd recommend getting input from about five people. You know, we don't need 20 people's input. Right. Because then that becomes a whole way to self-sabotage and delay the process. You're like, I just need a little more data. No, you don't. Five people's enough. The other thing you can do is use one of these journal prompts or both of them. One is to start with one of the easiest things for me to do is and then fill in that blank. Or another way to think about it is most people ask me for help with this. fill in all the types of things that people typically ask you for help. And there are several more journal prompts and tips in my book, Grab Life by the Dream. So if you don't have a copy yet, head over to karenfreeland.com forward slash dreams and pick that up. Okay, my third tip for you is to chase the joy. You're going to explore some options and some of them are going to be winners and some aren't. I have a client right now that is going through the exploration phase and she recently volunteered for something at her church. It very much leveraged the skills that she had and the talents that she used in her corporate job, which could have been a good fit, but actually for her, she didn't enjoy it because it was actually too similar to what she'd done in the past. So It turns out she has a really big passion for animals, and this project had nothing to do with animals. So she came to this crossroads where it's like, okay, keep doing these things that I'm good at, but that don't actually bring me that much joy, or make a big pivot and start moving more in the direction of the things that I do want to do, that I know would light me up. And so she came to that realization that it was actually best for her to wrap up her work at the church and transition her time and energy towards something with animals, something that would light her up more. And I love this exploration because now she knows what a good fit is for her. And we don't know until we experience it and then we can chase the joy. We can chase the things that we are like, I want to do more of this. So chances are you're gonna have these experiences as well. Remember to chase the joy of the things that you try out. What did you get the most fulfillment or satisfaction from? What was the most fun? It's okay as an adult to have fun, it really is. I just taught my first switch prevention class in April. And I have to tell you, that was the most magical, experience. I loved every minute of being with these students. It was so energizing. And at times, I was like, oh, what did you just say in my class? Mm-mm. Right? And we had to correct some things. But you know what? I was like, this is such a teachable moment. These are coachable opportunities. Again, right up my alley. And although the topic is very tough, and talking about sex trafficking and abuse is very uncomfortable at times, I feel like I'm doing my part to empower our youth, to keep them safe. And for me, that brings me so much joy and it brings me so much more joy than staying in my corporate job and getting another attagirl from a boss or someone in the C-suite who probably wouldn't even attended my funeral if I died. Like seriously, this is kind of a side note, but do you know how many people that I've worked with in my career still keep in touch with me? It's laughable. I could count them on two hands, y'all. Could count them on two hands. And I wasted so much time worrying about what they would think of me. But my new mindset is that, well, someday I'm gonna have to stand in front of God and I'm gonna have to give an account for my life. And I'm gonna be able to say to him, I protected these kids from traffickers. I put the talents from you to good use. And that never felt like I can't even, sometimes I have to pinch myself, right? I never thought in a million years, if you had asked me when I was 39, having my midlife crisis, just bought my Benz to trap myself in my corporate job. And you said, Karin, what do you think you're going to be doing in five years? Never in a million years would I have said, oh, I'm going to be going into high schools and trying to prevent sex traffickers from preying on kids and giving them the tools and strategies they need to be successful. Never. Never. in a million years would have thought of that, but it was all about leaning into the joy, chasing the joy, exploring the options, giving myself permission to try new things. And so can you, if you start to chase the joy in your life, I mean, is this stressful corporate grind bringing you joy? If it is, then maybe that is your purpose. Congratulations. That's awesome. If not, which I'm guessing since you're listening to my show is probably the case, it's time to start chasing the joy again. And you won't know what that is until you explore your options. So I've got two things for you that you can do at this phase. Ask yourself, what would I do if no one paid me for it or if no one clapped? What are those things that I would still do? Because this is a clue if you find it joyful or not, right? And if you're like, I would still, and I always use marketing and operations as examples because those are fields that I worked in. But if I was like, I would still train people whether I was getting paid or not. Right? That's me. Like, I would still train people for free. Clearly, that's what I'm doing with Switch. But that's the clue for me. Like, yeah, I would still do it. B2B marketing? No, I would not spend one single moment doing B2B marketing without getting paid. There would, no, it doesn't bring me zero joy, zero joy. So you got to figure that out for yourself, right? And then you have to give yourself permission to quit if it doesn't bring you joy. Just like my client did, right? She gave it a go. She tried it out. She didn't leave them in the lurch, right? She tied everything up in a nice bow at the end and said, okay, this wasn't for me. Thank you. Here's what I've left you with. Now you take it from here. And that's okay. If something drains you, you're not failing. You're refining. Celebrate the clarity, sister. It's all good. Okay. The fourth thing you can do is speak with others. If you don't know what options to explore, that's okay too. You're not alone. This is a great time to speak with others just to understand what they feel their purpose is and how they went about discovering it. We're not reaching out to people and saying, what do you think my purpose is, right? This isn't the same thing as asking for advice. We're not doing that. You're not like, oh, what do you think I'd be good at? They can't answer that. However, they can share their own story that might spark some ideas for you. They can tell you the process they used to discover their purpose. So make a list of five people right now that you want to have a coffee chat with to discuss purpose and set those up over the next two weeks. Don't spread this out too far. I know it's really tempting to be like, I'm so busy. I'm just going to have one conversation a month. You're not even going to remember what the first person said by the time you get to the third. So do this in a short stint, pack it in. It's the five 30 minute calls. It will suffice. You can fit this in. It's that important. And make sure that you prep two or three questions to have that conversation, right? So you might ask them something like, what helped you get clarity on your purpose? What role has volunteering played in your journey? How has your faith shaped your path? Right? It's up to you. Just come up with some questions so that, you know, you can kind of guide this conversation and pull out what you need from them. And the fifth tip that I want to share with you today is that you don't need to monetize your purpose. Let me say that again for the people in the back. No, I'm just kidding. You don't need to monetize your purpose. This is the last thing that I want you to consider because I know we're in these big corporate jobs and we're making all this money. And so when you're making a pivot, you're thinking about how do I replace this corporate income? So you automatically assume that everything you do when you leave corporate has to bring you income. And it doesn't. You don't need to make money from your purpose. Just like I volunteer at Switch for No Pay, you may find that your true purpose comes from something outside of your day job. So resist the pressure and the temptation. to make money from this. Now, I'm not saying that you can't make money from your purpose. You absolutely could. I'm just saying you might or you might not. And it doesn't have to be that way. I think the affirmations are a great tool here to help us with the mindset when we're doing free work. And so one of the things I love to say, you know, something might along these lines would be like, I honor the impact of my unpaid work. It's meaningful, valuable, and deeply aligned with my purpose. And of course you can make that your own, right? Whatever speaks to your heart. And then you can just say it over and over so that you can get really comfortable with doing volunteer work. And it's funny because a lot of my clients are doing volunteer work on the side and like, that's what they love the most. And I'm like, okay, this is telling you something. Let's chase the joy. And maybe it is taking a role at a nonprofit for a cause that you really believe in. And that's awesome. But if it's not and you decide to start your own business, like I said, and you just maybe become a learning and development agency and you go out and you help with sales enablement or something like that. And then on the side, you have this other passion that really speaks to your purpose. That's okay too. This isn't one size fits all. Doesn't have to look the same for all of us. So there you have it. Five actionable tips for finding your purpose. And I'm so excited for you because this can be one of the most invigorating journeys if you let it be. But you have to give yourself permission to let go of your ego, to show up as your authentic self, to surrender whatever doesn't fit, and to keep exploring until you find your joy. So as a quick reminder, you're going to explore your options, And again, this is gonna take a little while. It takes a while to fully explore an option. So this doesn't have to happen overnight. We're gonna leverage our strengths to the extent possible. And just because we have a strength doesn't always mean that we have to leverage it, right? Like I shared the one example of my client and she kind of said, you know what? This feels too similar to my day job. That's okay too. We're gonna chase the joy. Go after what lights you up. and use that journal to capture how you feel after each one of these experiences. Number four, speak with others. If you need some ideas, you just wanna hear how others went about this process, I also think it will give you a lot of freedom as you start to hear other people's stories because you'll realize they didn't have it all figured out. And lastly, number five, You don't need to monetize your purpose. It's okay to do something that lights you up for the pure enjoyment of it. You're not lost. Your path is unfolding exactly as it should. Now go rock your reinvention.