This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
In all our lives, there are moments when the ground starts to shake beneath us, when our world becomes destabilized and everything changes.
Sometimes this untethered feeling comes after we lose a job or end a relationship.
Sometimes it comes on us more gradually, with a slow realization that the life we've built isn't fulfilling us in the way we thought it would.
These moments can feel disorienting, upsetting, but they can also allow us to see things in new ways.
Today, we continue our happiness 2.0 series with a look at something simple but essential that we all need in our lives.
Purpose is an ancient concept.
We as a species have been grappling with this concept forever.
How cultivating a sense of purpose can help us weather lifes biggest storms.
This week on hidden brain.
Cornell University psychologist Anthony Barrow has spent much of his career studying what it means to have a sense of purpose.
He has examined how we can cultivate purposes and how having a sense of purpose can transform our lives.
Tony Burrow, welcome to hidden brain.
Thank you for having me.
Tony, I want to play you a short clip from the 1967 movie the Graduate.
In this scene, a young Dustin Hoffman plays Benjamin Braddock.
He's fresh out of college, lounging in his parents pool when his dad confronts him.
Ben, what are you doing?
I would say that I'm just drifting here in the pool.