Blog 8 – Meaning and Purpose
Photo by @GettyImages
When we look at successful businesses and people, they have a clear strategy and a planning roadmap.
Strategy is the “why” and “what.” Planning is the “how” and “when.”
That same thinking can also help us reflect on ourselves and how we feel about who we are, our self-esteem.
If we switch strategy to meaning, we see how meaning is fundamentally to making intentional choices under uncertainty in the direction life is taking us. It defines a direction based on an understanding of life’s advantages, the ongoing process of defining self, revealing self, clarifying boundaries, and managing the anxiety that comes from risking either greater vulnerability or potential isolation. It’s about asking the biggest question anyone can ask themselves: why am I here? Meaning involves aligning strengths and weaknesses, priorities, and the support around you to help answer that question.
If we change purpose to planning, by contrast, it’s about how. It is the process of turning that meaning and direction into actionable steps, understanding and accepting responsibilities, seeing clear timelines, tracking progress, and setting goals that help turn their ambitions into reality.
When we look at a child in school and understand what their meaning and purpose are, we can help them discover their “why” and be there to support them when things go wrong.
Often, children try to use purpose as a way to create meaning for themselves. They may believe that doing things that bring attention, very often negative, becomes their purpose in life. These actions usually come with consequences that slowly erode their self-esteem. Constant distractions and pressures can make this feel like their only option. But without the right support to help them understand the reasons, benefits, and values of engaging with the opportunities around them, such as education, they risk being taken down alternative paths that lead to dead ends. These include missed education, removal from mainstream schooling, and entering chaotic, reactive situations far from a positive life outcome.
When people have clear and positive meaning, they can make better decisions, knowing what not to do. They then use purpose to fulfil those positive decisions with discipline.
In short: meaning without purpose is vision without traction. Purpose without meaning is activity without direction. Both are essential, but they are not interchangeable
This challenge applies to anyone.
If we look at military personnel or professional sportspeople, their careers, often built entirely around doing, rarely last throughout their whole adult working life. What becomes their meaning and purpose after they step away from the careers they’ve dedicated much of their life to?
I’ve experienced this personally. At the age of 29, I was medically discharged from the Royal Navy in October 2002 after serving since October 1989, when I was 16 years and 2 months old. In 1993, I decided to train and prepare to attempt the Royal Navy Physical Training Aptitude Test, which was a 3-day assessment. I spent 2 years preparing, often sacrificing my annual leave to attend HMS Raleigh, the Royal Navy training school, to hone my skills. I continually supported my ship’s PTI onboard HMS Battleaxe outside of my day job.
In March 1995, on the aptitude test, there were 15 candidates. Only two passed, and I was fortunate to be one of them. In January 1996, I attended the 26-week PTI course to qualify as a Royal Navy PTI. If measured in hours worked, often starting at 6am and finishing after midnight, it would equate to a standard 3-year degree. However, it was the meaning and purpose driving me that got me across the finish line.
Sadly, a recurring injury from October 1995, while serving in Bosnia onboard HMS Battleaxe, forced me to be medically discharged in 2002. After only 6 years as a PTI, with a career originally expected to last until at least 2013, I faced the devastating question: where was my meaning and purpose going to come from?
That’s when I started working in a North London school, supporting young people who needed help. The rest, as they say, is history.
This is why, within our work at CHEXS, we place meaning and purpose at the heart of everything we do. It forms the first pillar of our GROWTH Programme, supporting children, young people, families, and the wider community to explore who they are, understand their strengths, and define their direction. Without a clear sense of meaning, many young people risk falling into patterns of behaviour that bring attention but pull them away from their true potential. Our role is to help them recognise the value in themselves, build resilience, set positive expectations, and create aspirations they can work towards with confidence.
Photo by @gettysignature
This is also why CHEXS exists.
Not because it is efficient. Not because it scales. But because someone has to show up. There’s no profit in leaving a young person sit silently through a lesson without the confidence to ask a question to help them learn. No profit in standing alongside families struggling to stay afloat. No profit in knocking on a door to make sure someone is okay. The market doesn’t go where money can’t be made. The state, stretched and under pressure, too often can’t or won’t. That is where charities like CHEXS show up. The charity isn’t the story. The people are. Nonprofits like CHEXS don’t need to prove they are like businesses. They need to be trusted and resourced to do what business won’t: show up and stick around.
Every child, every family, and every community member deserves the opportunity to discover and develop their own meaning and purpose. Without it, vision has no traction and activity has no direction.
This is why the hard-hitting School to Prison Pipeline illustration resonates so powerfully.
Click on link to view the school to prison pipeline illustration.
This analogy is not just for young people who end up in prison. It applies to every person who doesn’t reach their full potential. Each bend in the river represents a missed opportunity to give someone meaning and purpose. When these opportunities are missed, it becomes much easier to understand why so many people struggle to fulfil their true calling in life.
Photo by @GettyImages
CHEXS GROWTH Programme
The 4 Pillars:
1. Meaning and Purpose
Helping young people understand themselves, their identity, and their direction in life.
2. Resilience
Building the inner strength to overcome challenges.
3. Expectation
Creating safe, structured environments with high but achievable expectations.
4. Aspiration
Encouraging long-term ambitions, providing the skills and confidence to pursue them.
Photo by @gettysignature
Final thought:
When meaning and purpose are connected, they become a powerful foundation for lifelong growth. Our role is to help young people, families, and communities find both and then walk alongside them as they put it into action.
