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How to Know Your Life Purpose in 5 Minutes by Adam Leipzig

Leipzig was inspired to create this framework after attending his 25th college reunion, where he found that 80% of his privileged, well-educated classmates were unhappy and felt they had wasted their lives, while the happy 20% knew their life purpose.

The Five Core Questions​

Leipzig argues that you can determine your life purpose by answering five questions. Crucially, only two questions are about yourself, while the other three focus on outward-facing service.

The life purpose is formulated as a single statement by combining the answers to these five questions:

  1. Who are you? (Your name or identity)
  2. What do you do? (What you love to do or feel supremely qualified to teach)
  3. Who do you do it for? (Picture the people you serve)
  4. What do those people want or need? (The thing they seek from you)
  5. How do they change or transform as a result? (The end result of your service)

The Power of Outward Focus​

  • The structure of the five questions forces you to be outward-facing.
  • Leipzig notes that the happiest people he met were those who clearly knew whom they served, what those people needed, and how those people changed as a result.
  • The most successful people in any field focus most on the people they serve and how they are served.

Extra Credit: The Elevator Pitch​

For "extra credit," Leipzig recommends turning the final part of your life purpose statement (Question 5: How they change as a result) into a personal elevator pitch:

  • When someone asks, "So what do you do?" you should simply respond with the transformation you provide to others.
    • Example 1: Instead of saying "I write books for children," say: "I give kids awesome dreams." (Life purpose: I write books for children so they can fall asleep at night so they can have awesome dreams.)
    • Example 2: Instead of saying "I design apparel," say: "I help people look and feel their best." (Life purpose: I design apparel for men and women who need affordable choices so they can look and feel their best.)

This transformed response always starts a conversation, as the person will inevitably ask, "How do you do that?" which gives you the opening to share your full purpose.