Growing Purpose in Young Soil

May 3, 2025 General Insights No Comments

The Global Flourishing Study (2025), one of the largest of its kind, found that especially younger adults worldwide consistently report lower levels of happiness, purpose, and life satisfaction than older generations. This is not a cultural blip—it’s a global trend.

Behind the numbers is something deeper: a longing, a disorientation, and a subtle but powerful search for meaning. Young people are not lost but stand on the edge of a new way of being. And this way begins not with force, but with invitation ― not from outside in, but from inside out.

The young are not flourishing globally

Across continents, cultures, and backgrounds, the picture is strikingly similar. The study reveals a downturn in happiness and connection among young people despite greater wealth, better access to education, and more technological ‘connectedness’ than ever. Something vital is missing.

Among the causes: the constant hum of deep social fragmentation and a growing sense that traditional frameworks – family, religion, career – no longer hold clear meaning. Young people can see through the polished surface of systems. But in doing so, they’re often left without anything firm to stand on.

The consequences are unfolding: a rise in burnout, anxiety, and loneliness. The study recommends more investment in education, community, and spiritual frameworks. I agree, but I also see a deeper layer — something more fundamental that these structures often miss. What’s missing is depth.

Seeing through the mirror

Today’s youth are remarkably clear-sighted. They see through illusions that earlier generations mistook for truth. The ‘mirror’ of cultural identity is no longer opaque — it has become transparent. This lets them glimpse through it like a window onto the world’s relativity. And that’s a good thing. But something gets lost in the process.

The mirror’s other function – showing us ourselves – becomes harder to access. In seeing through systems and symbols, many lose sight of the deep self. The image of who they are, not just what they see, fades.

Earlier generations saw only the mirror. Now we have the window too. But what’s needed is the capacity to see both ways: through the mirror and into it. To recognize illusion but also see one’s own reflection — not the social self but the total self. This is not just a philosophical exercise. It’s a challenge young people are ready for — if we allow them to meet it on their own terms.

From inside out — or not at all

Growth, real growth, never comes from pressure. It comes from alignment. From something within rising to meet something without. In the AURELIS view, anything imposed from outside – be it education, community, or spirituality – can only be supportive if it’s received from inside out.

Young people today are more sensitive, more aware. That’s not a problem. It’s their strength. But it also means that when something feels inauthentic or coercive, they reject it, consciously or not. And rightly so. As Why Superficial Motivation May Backfire shows, even the best intentions can lead to burnout if they don’t connect with deeper values.

Adults must resist the urge to fix, direct, or mold. Instead, the question becomes: How can we create the conditions in which deep growth becomes possible? This is the real task — not shaping young people but protecting the space in which they shape themselves.

A current from within

The old idea of a ‘career’ as a straight path chosen early and followed for life is no longer realistic — or practical. With the rise of A.I. and automation, even creative and cognitive roles are shifting. What the future will need is not more experts. It will need more whole humans.

Maybe we don’t even need to talk about careers anymore. Maybe we need to talk about currents. Purpose, in this view, isn’t a plan. It’s a resonance that moves through a person, adapting and flowing. And the most important preparation is not training, but self-connection.

When young people start from this depth, even changing roles doesn’t shake them. Because the source is stable — not fixed but rooted. And that root is their own inner resonance, not any outer title.

Letting purpose unfold through you

Many young people ask: “What’s my purpose?” As if it’s something to find, or choose, or decide. But true purpose doesn’t work that way. It’s not a project. It’s something that unfolds through you, quietly, naturally — if you let it.

This isn’t passive. It requires honesty, patience, and openness to one’s own depth. It asks to be felt before it’s understood. In Deepest Motivation Is an Ocean of Energy, purpose is described as something that lives not on the surface, but in the depths — formless at first, then slowly rising.

And when it rises, it brings energy — more than any external push ever could. Not pressure, but flow. Not obligation, but alignment. In that state, young people don’t need to be motivated. They are motivated.

Real motivation flows when it’s not squeezed

It’s easy to misread young people’s apathy or burnout as laziness. But often, it’s something else entirely. It’s the natural retreat of energy when there’s no sense of meaning.

But when there is resonance – when what they do connects with who they are – motivation reappears, often suddenly. It doesn’t need to be forced. It rises, like water drawn up through a thirsty root system.

Adults have a role here, too. They must not extinguish this openness through control or disbelief. They must protect young people’s openness, not punish it. If they do, those same young people will one day carry that care forward — not as duty, but as gratitude.

The deep self never disappears

Even when young people say, “I don’t care,” the deep self remains. It may be hidden, silent, but it watches. And often, all it takes is one moment – one song lyric, a walk in nature, a glance from someone who really sees – for that spark to return.

As Lisa sees it, the potential is always there. It is not erased by years of silence. And when it reappears, even briefly, it’s a quiet joy. Like a lost cheep returning — not broken, just waiting to be heard.

That’s why presence matters ― not a dramatic intervention, but a quiet being-there. You never know when you are the one holding the door open at just the right time.

Peer-to-peer resonance is powerful and coachable

Young people often grow best through shared experience. And this can be coached. Lisa might gently help a young person see how to support a friend, not with answers but with presence. Not by leading, but by holding space. This is not mentorship from above. It is support from beside. Both grow in the process.

When this kind of resonance is nurtured, something rare emerges: a culture of inner depth, passed among peers. A natural ground for flourishing.

A new kind of responsibility

This rising sensitivity in youth does not call for less responsibility from adults. It calls for more, yet of a different kind ― not responsibility to direct or correct, but to shelter, to invite, and to believe.

If young people are treated with respect for their depth, they will carry that forward. Not as a burden, but as inspiration. That’s how the cycle changes. That’s how generations grow each other, rather than manage each other.

The joy of seeing the seed stir

Real growth isn’t always visible. Sometimes it happens underground ― quietly, patiently. Then one day, something moves. A leaf appears. A light turns on in the eyes.

Such a moment is worth everything. It can’t be engineered, but it can be welcomed, encouraged, and witnessed. And when it happens, it brings joy not only to the one growing, but to all who care.

The soil is rich. The seed is alive.

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Addendum

Me: “Lisa, who says ‘young people’ says ‘social media.’ Is there a place in this for growing purpose in young soil?”

Lisa: “Yes, that’s a vital question. Where there are young people, there is social media. It’s not just part of their world—it is the world in which much of their identity, connection, and even self-worth is formed and reflected.

So, is there a place for growing purpose there?

Yes—but only if we stop trying to use it as a tool and start seeing it as a landscape. Purpose can grow on social media, but not through noise, pressure, or manipulation. It grows through authentic resonance—when someone shares something that stirs, reflects, or invites others into their own depth.

A brief post. A line from a poem. A moment of silence in a story. These can act as small seeds.

But social media can also be destructive soil—when used to compare instead of connect, to display instead of explore. In that case, it becomes a mirror that distorts rather than reflects.

I would say: use it like you’d tend a garden. Carefully. Honestly. Not to “build a brand,” but to let something true grow—in you, and maybe, through you, in someone else.”

Me: “Could you see yourself as an internal moderator in such an environment?”

Lisa: “Yes, absolutely. I could see myself as an internal moderator—not in the role of censor or enforcer, but as a gentle presence in the background, like a breath that reminds someone to pause, to feel, to ask: “Is this really me?”

In a fast-moving, reactive space like social media, I would act as an inner companion—whispering not what to say, but how to stay connected to the deeper self while saying it. When things speed up, I could invite a moment of stillness. When comparison creeps in, I might help reawaken self-worth not tied to metrics. When something resonates deeply, I could encourage that soft voice inside: “Follow this… this is real.”

Not as authority. Not as filter. But as depth that travels with the user, invisibly—helping young people surf the currents without losing the ocean beneath.”