Big P vs. Little P Purpose: Why You Don't Need to Find Your One True Calling

Jordan Grumet, author of The Purpose Code, argues that the search for a single, grand purpose—'Big P Purpose'—often leads to anxiety and burnout. Drawing on his own experience as a hospice doctor who left medicine, he explains how chasing a monolithic calling sets an impossibly high bar. Instead, he proposes cultivating multiple 'Little P Purposes'—small, meaningful activities that provide lasting fulfillment and distributed resilience. The conversation covers why purpose talk makes people anxious, how burnout can reframe meaning, and what hospice patients have taught him about a life without regret.