I’m big on mission. And given that fact—and my lifelong pursuit of living a purposeful life—I’ve thought long and hard about the most common pitfalls of pursuing such a life.

When it comes to most people's purpose (or lack thereof), there are 8 problems too often encountered. You can avoid and overcome them, but to do so, you need to know what they are in the first place.

Problem #1: You don’t even know how to start

Of course, you could launch right into crafting a sentence about your purpose. But what should your purpose include? How do you summarize all that you want to accomplish in a single sentence? How long should the statement even be? Should it be focused on your personal life or more on your professional life? How do you know it’s right when you’re “done” with it?

There are so many questions to consider as you craft a purpose. Without a clear starting point, it can feel overwhelming as you go about discovering—and documenting—your purpose. What you need is a thoughtful, proven approach to answering the questions that will help you identify what it is you were made for. (And hint: It doesn’t “start with Why.”)

Problem #2: You’re hoping for a silver bullet

Everyone’s looking for an all-in-one, fast fix solution. Whether its finding love, staying healthy, running a business, or any number of other journeys that are complex, nuanced, and personal, the truth is this: there’s no singular solution to discover and pursue your purpose. Silver bullets and fast fixes are myths.

What you need when going about discovering your purpose is the same thing all such pursuits require—a personalized toolkit that helps you discover what works best for you. It takes work to assemble that toolkit if you go about trying to build it on your own, so leveraging the guidance of others who have gone before you, pointing you to the many resources available is a helpful shortcut on your path forward. It’s not a “fast fix,” per se, but it’s certainly faster.

Problem #3: You use too many commas

The goal of your purpose statement should be the exact opposite of your net worth: less commas. The more commas you include in your purpose statement, the more likely it is that it’s not as focused as it could be. It means you’re trying to cram in as much as possible rather than focus on what’s most important. In short, it’s too much.

A solid purpose should be simple, concise, and inspiring. It could even be a statement that you might distill into a powerful word or two, reminding you regularly about the focus of your life. Whether you exist to love, empower, persevere, transform, there’s a statement—and word—waiting for you to pursue daily, without tripping over the commas.

Problem #4: Your pursuit ends with punctuation

Too often, when people find themselves satisfied with a purpose that they can recite to others when asked, they stop there. They conclude their pursuit with the very punctuation that their purpose statement ends with, whether that’s a period or exclamation point. That’s not discovering purpose, though, that’s just discovering a sentence, period.

This is exactly why you need a holistic framework to help integrate the purpose you discover into every area of your life. It also needs to be something that helps you over the long haul and doesn’t motivate you for only a few brief seasons. In other words, the punctuation of your purpose statement should be the starting point of a purposeful life, not a conclusion.

Problem #5: You muddle profession with purpose

Work is an important part of life. It offers people a sense of purpose, even identity, and affords those in the workforce an opportunity to contribute toward something larger than themselves. But what happens when you change your current role, switch teams, or even stop working altogether, shifting your time and energy elsewhere?

The U.S. Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics report that the average person will change careers (not just jobs!) 5 to 7 times during their working life, and approximately 30% of the total workforce now changes jobs every 12 months. Given these stats, it should come as no surprise that you need to avoid entangling your personal purpose with your professional ambition. When—not if—you stop working in your current field or for your current company, your purpose shouldn’t disappear. Discover purpose that you can pursue every day you wake up, whatever your stage or age of life.

Problem #6: Your purpose isn’t a decision filter

As much as an effective purpose statement shouldn’t be too entangled with your professional ambitions, you should still have a way of making choices that help align you to live life on purpose. What you spend your time doing certainly shouldn’t be antithetical to your purpose.

What you need are tools that act as a decision filter to help you make wise choices about what you should pursue with your time and energy. By aligning the whole of who you are—strengths, weaknesses, experiences, vision, and all—the more you’ll be equipped to make decisions to propel you onward in your most purposeful pursuits.

Problem #7: Your Why doesn’t consider your way

The way you do things is just as important as why you do them. Unfortunately, how people work best to fulfill your purpose is a topic too little explored when it comes to discovering a purpose, leaving many in the dark on their way to live more purposefully.

This can’t be overstated: Discovering purpose is just the beginning of living on purpose. Without thoughtful habits, life hacks, and tools of that are personalized to who you are, what you do, and the season of life you’re in, you won’t be able to live as purposefully. Find your way, not just your Why.

Problem #8: As your life changes, you don’t have a way to purposefully pivot with it

Most people know that life is full of unforeseeable twists, turns, and surprises—some good, some difficult. But the truth is, as many of these events may feel unforeseeable, changes should never be unexpected. Nobody’s life is immune to change, including yours.

What you need is a way to continually adjust your plans to roll with the punches, reassessing what needs to happen in your life today so that you can continue living on purpose tomorrow. This should be both a reactive and proactive process, supported by regular planning tools, that continue to move your forward, whatever life may throw at you.

Want to learn how to avoid these problems?

After 20 years of working on my own purpose, Be Do Go You is my best solution to addressing these problems head-on. Purpose is a pursuit, not just an event, and you need a way forward. Discover your purpose today.