Discovering Your Life Purpose and Beyond: A Wellness Take on Human Design, Dimensional Living, and the Science of Personality Change

Let’s be real: the phrase “find your life purpose” has been tossed around so much it might as well have its own Etsy shop selling artisanal candles and cosmic affirmation decks. It sounds great, but when you sit down to actually figure it out? Cue the existential dread, emotional snacking, and Googling “What if my purpose is just naps?”

But before you abandon the search and settle for being a sentient blanket burrito, let me introduce a few lenses that might make this journey feel less like a crisis and more like a curious experiment.

☀️ Start With Your Profile: Human Design for the Wellness-Curious

If astrology and the Myers-Briggs had a slightly eccentric but oddly insightful child, it would be Human Design. At the heart of this system is your profile — the unique energetic imprint based on your birth time, date, and place. Think of it as your metaphysical user manual.

Now, whether you fully believe in energy types or just enjoy a good self-discovery rabbit hole, finding your profile offers a lovely starting point: You were wired for something.

Projectors, Reflectors, Manifestors, Generators — each “type” comes with its own flow. Rather than forcing ourselves into someone else’s grind (hello, hustle culture), Human Design suggests we might find more purpose (and less burnout) by aligning with how we’re naturally built.

It’s like realizing you’ve been using a spoon to cut steak your whole life… and then someone hands you a knife and says, “Hey, try this.”

Get your free chart

📏 Three Dimensions of a Good Life (Spoiler: It’s Not Just Being Happy)

Enter Life in Three Dimensions by psychologist Shigehiro Oishi. He argues that a fulfilling life isn't just about joy (though we love that too). Instead, it's made up of:

1. Experiential well-being – the day-to-day stuff: feeling good, laughing at memes, enjoying your oat milk latte.

2. Evaluative well-being – your overall life satisfaction: the “How am I doing?” vibe.

3. Eudaimonic well-being – that elusive sense of purpose: meaning, growth, and feeling like your life fits into a bigger picture.

Purpose, it turns out, is just one dimension of well-being. You don’t need to have it all figured out before you can feel content or happy. In fact, trying to reverse-engineer life from purpose alone can be overwhelming (and kind of misses the point).

Instead, Oishi’s framework invites us to zoom out. Maybe your purpose isn’t a single epic mission, but a mix of meaningful choices across time. Maybe your life doesn’t need a thesis statement, but a satisfying plot.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer

🧠 Personality Isn’t Destiny: Enter Neural Plasticity and the Big Five

Now, if you’ve ever taken the Big Five Personality Test and thought, “Great, I’m doomed to be an anxious introvert forever,” — let me lovingly interrupt that thought spiral.

Olga Khazan’s book Me, But Better dives into what happens when you try to change your personality… and it turns out, change is absolutely possible.

Thanks to neuroplasticity, our brains can rewire over time. Traits like conscientiousness or emotional stability aren’t fixed — they can evolve through intentional habits, therapy, even just trying new behaviors and sticking with them long enough for your neurons to get the memo.

Khazan’s big takeaway? You're not locked in by your current settings. You can become more outgoing, more resilient, even more organized (yes, even you with the laundry chair).

So, what does this mean for your purpose?

It means purpose isn’t just something you discover — it’s something you build, tweak, and grow into. Just because you aren’t “naturally” a visionary leader or zen monk doesn’t mean you can’t develop the traits that support a purposeful life.

Take the Big 5 - free, no sign-in

🌀 So... What’s the Wellness Takeaway Here?

1. You’re uniquely wired — your Human Design might help you tap into how you best move through the world.

2. Purpose is just one part of a good life — not the whole enchilada. Thanks, Oishi.

3. You can change — personality isn’t a prison. Ask your brain. It’s super adaptable.

Your purpose might not be one giant “aha!” moment. It might look more like a series of small nudges, aligned choices, and brave experiments.

So if you’re wondering whether you’re on the “right path,” maybe the better question is: Am I living in alignment with who I am — and who I want to become?

Because that? That’s purpose in motion.

Now You Tell Me:

Have you tried Human Design? Or attempted a personality pivot à la Khazan? What’s been your biggest “life purpose” a-ha (or oops) moment? Share in the comments — I promise not to psychoanalyze you... much. xx