How to Navigate Life: Psychological Tools to Find Your Purpose with Dr. Belle Liang
How to Navigate Life: Psychological Tools to Find Your Purpose with Dr. Belle Liang  
Podcast: With and For hosted by Dr. Pam King
Published On: Mon Jan 29 2024
Description: Do you know your purpose? How do you understand your own life story? The science of purpose demonstrates powerful benefits across mental health, physical health, longevity, career fulfillment, and relationships. However, this vital sense of meaning can often feel elusive. Purpose is defined as an actionable and enduring goal that is meaningful to oneself and contributes to the world beyond oneself. This kind of purpose is crucial to spiritual health because it integrates our beliefs, values, and sense of ultimacy into action. In this episode, Dr. Belle Liang (Boston College, author of How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, and Beyond) provides research-backed, practical guidance on how to identify and pursue purpose. Dr. Liang identifies four essential elements of purpose that must be aligned: Character Strengths: Your inherent positive qualities. Skills and Expertise: The abilities you have cultivated. Deeply Held Values: The principles that guide your life. A Sense of Contribution to the World: How your efforts benefit others. Dr. Liang guides listeners through a real-time, practical exercise to help align these elements, ensuring that purpose becomes less an "ephemeral object" and more a concrete tool for navigating the journey of life and cultivating thriving. In this conversation with Belle Liang, we discuss: How family history shapes us as individuals The importance of differentiation and emerging from early family dependency into a healthy sense of oneself as an individual The role of faith, spirituality, and community in our understanding of purpose A psychological definition of purpose as using strengths and skills and values to make a positive impact on the world And the practical elements of finding and living your purpose as an individual, with Belle guiding us through a practice of reflecting on our past and finding our purpose About Belle LiangDr. Belle Liang is a professor of Counseling, Developmental, & Educational Psychology at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. As the founder and Principal Investigator of Purpose Lab, she is committed to advancing understanding of positive youth development, including mentoring and relational health, through her research. Her expertise in purpose interventions, including those that are technologically mediated, is reflected in her current work leading the development of True North, a curriculum and web-based application aimed at helping individuals and organizations cultivate purpose with data analytics. With over 100 publications, Dr. Liang is recognized as a knowledgeable speaker and collaborator in the field of positive youth development. She is grateful for the opportunities she has had to contribute to the field and to translate research into practical application, as demonstrated by her recent co-authorship of the bestselling How to Navigate Life: The New Science of Finding Your Way in School, Career, & Beyond, published by St. Martin’s Press. About the Thrive Center Learn more at thethrivecenter.org. Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter Follow us on X @thrivecenter Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter   About Dr. Pam King Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.   About With & For Host: Pam King Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook Operations Manager: Lauren Kim Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.