Listening to a recent Modern Elder Academy Midlife Mastery recording, I was taken back a few years to my safari experience with purpose guru Richard Leider, walking across the Serengeti in East Africa. Richard talks about “fortuitous encounters.” I was introduced to Richard by my good friend Craig Neal. I certainly consider my introductions to both Craig and Richard to be fortuitous encounters.

The men’s wilderness journey with Craig was a six-day canoeing expedition in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area within the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota, close to the Canadian border. My 15-day inventure in Africa with Richard combined the adventure of a walking safari with an inner journey of discovery. My expedition stories can be found in my books on conscious leadership and conscious living.

At the Midlife Mastery Summit, Richard Leider was explaining his philosophy about purpose with a big P and purpose with a little p. Purpose with a big P is about having a big cause or a calling, while purpose with a little p refers to the everyday, asking why you are here and how you can make a difference in somebody’s life today.

Integrating Richard’s wisdom about purpose and Chip Conley’s Modern Elder Academy teaching about midlife transitions, I help my coaching clients explore their purpose portfolio. In my coaching, I use the metaphor of a tree with roots, trunk, branches, blossoms, and fruit to uncover their little p purpose relating to families, friends, communities, professions and other important aspects of their lives. The Big P purpose is often revealed during the little p discovery process.

As Richard says, “Purpose isn’t just a lofty ideal – it’s the practical engine that gets you out of bed every morning. Living with purpose simply means matching your daily actions to your deepest values.” His recent book written with David Shapiro has the title, Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? and offers The Path of Purposeful Aging. Richard’s little p purpose as stated in the book is to grow and to give, to make a difference in one person’s life every day. My own focus on conscious aging embraces the spiritual practices of purposeful aging, and helps to answer that question, who do you want to be when you grow old?

I took the photograph of Mount Kilimanjaro accompanying this post during my inventure in Tanzania in 2009. For a while I held an intention to climb Kilimanjaro, but Covid delayed my initial plan and ultimately the climb became less important to me. Exploring the inner world has become more of a priority.