Finding Your Purpose with Dr. Victor Strecher

Dr. Strecker, how do you define purpose?

All living things have a purpose, from amoebas to human beings.

But when I talk about purpose for humans, we're really talking about a self-organizing life that is social.

It's psychological.

It's related to our well-being.

It's related to goals that we have in our lives that help us flourish.

It's around living toward the things that matter most.

You've written and spoken extensively about the transformative power of purpose.

In your view, what makes purpose a core virtue for health and happiness?

Well, I think purpose is really at the core of many of the things that we're trying to do in public health.

If we're trying to help a person get a COVID shot, if we're trying to help a person quit smoking or manage their stress better or manage their diabetes or any of those things, we could start off by scaring the person.

If you don't quit smoking, you'll die or you'll get lung cancer or whatever.

And you can scare a person, but why do people smoke in the first place? They're usually smoking to control fear.

So sometimes people may end up actually smoking more, certainly are not less likely to quit if you just simply scare them because they smoke to reduce fear.

And that's what you've just induced.

So how do you help a person quit smoking or manage their diabetes or any of those things without inducing some type of fear? Well, maybe you start on the total opposite side of the coin and you ask them what matters most.

Maybe you even look at what's on their smartphone.

You ask, what's on the wallpaper of your smartphone? Oh, my granddaughter's on the wallpaper of my smartphone.

Oh, tell me more about her.

And say, well, she's the most important thing in my life.

Wow, okay, so you're a mentor to your daughter, your granddaughter probably.

And they go, yeah, that's who I am.

Suddenly, it dawns on them that they need to stay healthy to continue being a mentor to their granddaughter.

This podcast series, Virtues for Wellbeing, will explore various core virtues such as empathy, generosity, and kindness.

What is the relationship between these virtues and purpose? Can one cultivate purpose without cultivating other virtues, or are they interdependent?