If your life has an important purpose, does that make you a more valuable human being?

Over the years, the conversation about purpose has expanded from personal inquiry to a full-out industry, with various self-help solutions, and still many people continue to search for fulfillment and worth.

Purpose or contribution beyond self, often for the good of a community of others, provides a not-so-subtle boost to our self-image or self-worth. It’s an internal boost because we are not relying on others to validate our purpose. So, the challenge becomes to not make the mistake of confusing purpose with worth, as many do who are continually looking outside themselves to feel worthy.

When you determine your personal worth by your job, career, family, social position, income or appearance, you create a dilemma for yourself. The dilemma is that you must constantly work for approval, love, acceptance, and control, to feel worthy.

If you lose your job, or your children grow up and leave home, or you retire and begin to look and feel older, you may find yourself feeling worthless or even depressed. You can spend a lifetime looking outside yourself to feel worthy. The truth is, all we really need to do is look within.

Every human being is worthy, simply because she or he exists. And because we exist, we have an opportunity in every second of every day to find and fulfill the promise of purpose. You see, we want to look within to find our purpose and then look outside for ways to express it.

A sense of purpose will help you live a more satisfying life, but always remember that you give meaning to what you do – what you do does not give meaning to you.