Do we all have just one purpose in life? Certainly, some people do, but many of us will have different purposes at various phases of our lives. If you feel adrift and are struggling to find out what your purpose should be, you can get guidance from some of the world's leading experts by reading books about how to find your purpose.
When you find your purpose in life, you can live with a sense of meaning, direction, and fulfillment. Your life's purpose can help you prioritize your goals and make decisions that align with your passion and values. Moreover, the journey to finding your purpose is as important and enjoyable as the destination.
How can the best books about finding your purpose help? The best books on finding your passion can offer new perspectives, along with providing inspiration and challenging your belief. While finding your life purpose is a personal journey, the books on this list can be valuable tools to help you clarify your vision.
The 15 Best Books on Finding Your Purpose
1. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose – Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual teacher who is a master of exploring challenging philosophical and spiritual topics such as presence, ego, and consciousness. This book is an uplighting and enlightening guide that shows the reader how to release the toxic grip of the ego to enter a state of full presence.
A key takeaway of the book is the disease of compulsive thinking, which refers to the sensations, emotions, and thoughts that flow incessantly in our minds, much of which is pointless and repetitive. This compulsive thinking keeps us from living in the moment and finding our true purpose in life.
2. Man's Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl was a Holocaust survivor, and his book is more than just a memoir. While Frankl details his life in a Nazi concentration camp, that is only the first part of the book. The second part of the book is about how to find meaning and purpose in any given circumstance.
The core of Viktor Frankl's philosophy is that every human being's deepest desire is to find meaning in life, and if a person can find their meaning (their “why”), they can endure anything. Frankl suggests that you can find meaning in three ways: through love, through work, or through suffering.
This book serves as a powerful exploration of the human experience, and his inspiring story can help anyone realize that regardless of the direction they're going, they have the power to decide their own future.
3. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
While this book is a parable, it also teaches a valuable life lesson, so it's one of the best books for how to find your passion. The story follows a young man named Santiago, who has set off on a quest to fulfill his personal legend. He had a dream, and through all of the adversities he encountered in his journey, he somehow found the will or inspiration to continue his quest.
The author intertwines deep life lessons within the story, including the extraordinary power of the little things that make up our lives, the magical nature of dreams, and the importance of following your dreams and your heart. In short, if you listen to your inner guide, you'll find the path and purpose you were meant to live.
4. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For – Rick Warren
Rick Warren is a Christian, and his book is faith-based. However, the principles in his book can be valuable to anyone, whether you practice another religion or you're a non-believer. Warren's guiding principle is that before you were even born, God (or the universe) had a plan in place for you.
In the book, Warren uses examples from his own life journey to help you discover what you're here for. His book asks these questions:
- The question of significance: Does my life matter?
- The question of existence: Why am I alive?
- The question of purpose: What on earth and I here for?
The book is designed to be read over 42 days so that you can see the big picture and gain a fresh perspective on how the pieces of your life come together.
5. The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
This book by Steven Pressfield was written for writers, but the lessons presented are valuable to anyone seeking to find their life purpose. In the book, readers are inspired to defeat “resistance” and to recognize and knock down the barriers that we all encounter when trying to fulfill our dreams. Also important is to silence the naysayers both around us and within us.
In this book, you will learn to identify the enemy everyone faces, which is resistance. Readers who read this book will learn to outline a battle plan that can be used to conquer this internal foe.
6. The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life – Chris Guillebeau
Chris Guillebeau famously set out to visit all of the countries in the world by the time he was 35 years old. On his journey, he realized that many people just like him exist in the world, and they are all pursuing their own challenging quests.
The quests Guillebeau discovered people living included exploration, artistic or athletic excellence, or battling against poverty and injustice. One thing Guillebeau noted is that all of these individuals are making “daily down payments” on their purpose and life dreams and goals.
The more the author got to know these individuals, the more he began to realize the direct link between long-term happiness and questing. In other words, the journey is part of what creates happiness, not just the destination.
7. The Artist's Way – Julia Cameron
One of the modern classics in finding your purpose in life, this book by Julia Cameron is full of inspirational quotes, gentle affirmations, helpful tasks, and fill-in-the-blank lists. The premise of the book is that everyone is creative, and the way to find your purpose and know yourself is by writing morning pages.
With morning pages, readers write free-hand three pages of whatever comes to mind, then set it aside. The purpose isn't to write something that will be published but to inspire your own creativity. With this practice, readers can uncover pressure points and problems that may be restricting the flow of creativity and thereby open up opportunities for self-discovery and growth.
Another key element of Cameron's book is guidance to start a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who can support each other in their endeavors to find their purpose.
8. Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team – Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek's book provides real-life examples that will help you find and understand your “why, how, and what.” The book explains that the first step on the journey to finding your purpose is to identify your “why.”
The author uses examples such as Apple, a company that used the “why” to stand out from the crowd of competitors. After sharing examples, Sinek dives into helping the reader discover their purpose, along with how to get behind the purposes of other individuals who are aligned with you.
This book is excellent for individuals, teams, and companies who are trying to identify purpose and meaning. Whether you're leading a team, starting your first job, or are already a leader in your company, the exercises found in this book are excellent guides to finding fulfillment.
9. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
When Randy Pausche received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, he didn't waste any time in cementing his legacy. His goal was to encourage people to use their time wisely because time is all we have. His book is based on a “last lecture” he gave in the university course he was teaching. The YouTube video of the lecture went viral, and the book came later before Pausche died in 2008 at the age of 47.
In his book, Pausche encourages people to:
- Have specific dreams, not general dreams
- Understand that brick walls are in place for a reason. They show us how badly we want the things behind the walls.
- Find what you're good at and focus on that.
- Understand that when you don't get what you want in life, what you get is experience.
- We learn most things indirectly.
10. Your Purpose Is Calling – Dr. Dharius Daniels
According to Dr. Dharius Daniels, the secret to embracing, understanding, and unleashing your uniqueness is to gain an accurate picture of your true self or identity. If you don't know who you are, it's impossible to know what you were born to do.
In this book, Dr. Daniels takes the reader on a journey of identity discovery through a threefold solution of finding fit, fulfillment, and fruitfulness. In this process, the reader learns to:
- Step out of the sea of normal living and into the abnormal.
- Overcome obstacles such as approval seeking, comparison, and emotional injuries because these obstacles keep you from embracing yourself fully.
- Uncover your unique desires, design, destiny, and dreams.
- Thrive through effective self-leadership.
11. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation – Parker J. Palmer
Finding your vocation doesn't have to be a Herculean effort of perseverance and will. In this book, Parker Palmer frames his ideas by outlining his own journey, which he discovered by listening and discernment. Palmer believes that vocation is a gift to be received, not a goal to be achieved.
By following Palmer's journey, the reader can reflect and find their own vocation. This book is a short read that can be read in just a few hours, so it's a great book to start with as you work to find your purpose. Equally important, this book has a depth and wisdom not always found in self-help books.
The author goes into detail about burnout, the deep calling of selfhood that's authentic, the power of true presence, and the art of embracing mystery. If you're asking yourself serious questions about your vocation, this book is a must-read.
12. The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose – Oprah Winfrey
Media mogul Opray Winfrey believes that everyone has a purpose, and our job in life is to figure out what that purpose is as soon as possible so that we can begin to live on purpose. In this book, Winfrey shares a framework for how to create a life of success and significance by activating your deepest vision of who you are as a person.
Every chapter of this book opens with key lessons and personal stories that helped Winfrey set the best course for her life. She also brings together the insights and wisdom of other luminaries in the world, including Brene Brown, Eckhart Tolle, Elizabeth Gilbert, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ellen DeGeneres, and Jay-Z. The book is loaded with quotes, rich excerpts, and interview snippets that bring value to the reader.
13. The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do – Jeff Goins
If you need a manual for finding your personal passion and building a lasting legacy that's bigger than yourself, this book by Jeff Goins can get you there. Goins suggests that the foundation for discovering your purpose and passion in life begins with self-awareness. The implication is that if you don't know fully know yourself, you may never discover your passion, and it could pass you by without you even realizing it.
To discover your passion and purpose, Goins says to follow this process:
- Make a list of all of the major life events you've experienced.
- Then, go through the list, and note the moments when you felt most accomplished and fulfilled. Exploring these events will get you started on the journey to understanding your larger purpose.
- Note where your interests begin to connect with the needs of others in the world, so you can start to live for a larger purpose.
14. The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion – Elle Luna
The premise of Elle Luna's book is that every person arrives at a crossroads every day, and every day we get to choose the path we take. Life offers two choices: Should and Must. These two choices are what we're inspired to do, and the author believes that the universe is nudging us toward “the must,” which is what we need to be doing. Too often, people go with the “should,” which is what other people want us to do.
Whether you're starting fresh or starting over in a career or life change, the most important thing you can do is to listen to the voice inside you that reminds you constantly that you have something of value to give. This book is a short read, and it is full of uplifting quotes that can inspire you. Read this book if you need a quick pick-me-up.
15. The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose – Dan Millman
Dan Millman offers a modern method of insight that can be found in ancient wisdom. What makes this book unique is the detail the author provides about the lives of well-known people. In the book, Millman goes over the life paths of famous people to demonstrate that everyone has a trajectory that they're destined to live if they can discover it.
While this book delves into neurology, it can serve as a great reference book to help you find your purpose. Note that this book is available in older versions, but for the most up-to-date information, be sure to buy the latest edition.
