Start with what you love
Look back at activities you’ve loved across work, family and interests, and name what made them matter.
Retirement and the next chapter
What to do after retirement? Start with what matters to you.
What to do after retirement depends on what you want this chapter to be about. Ideas like part-time work, volunteering, travel or classes are easier to choose from once you know what motivates you. PurposeLife’s eight-step purpose discovery program helps you find that out from your own experience, then choose a long-term goal and plan for it.
After years of a schedule set by work, the days are yours to shape. You bring a lifetime of experience to the question.
How do you decide what to do after retirement?
Look back before you look ahead. Decades of work, family and interests show what you enjoy and what you’re good at. Name the activities you’ve loved and what made them matter, recognize your strengths, then try one or two possibilities before you commit. A long-term goal chosen this way gives your days a direction you’ve set yourself.
“I’ve stopped working. What do I want my days to be about?”
“I’d like to use what I know in a new way.”
“I want to give something back, and I’m deciding where.”
Illustrative questions for reflection.
What is an encore career?
An encore career is work later in life, paid or unpaid, that draws on your experience and puts it toward something you care about. It might be part-time work in a new field, consulting, mentoring, starting something of your own or a substantial volunteer role. PurposeLife helps you work out what that something is, so you can look for work that fits.
Should you plan before you retire?
If you can, yes. Starting before you stop work gives you time to try possibilities while your routine is still in place, and to talk to people already doing what interests you. You can work through the program alongside your job and pick up where you left off, because your work is saved between visits.
The eight-step purpose discovery program
How do the eight steps apply after retirement?
The same eight steps, from reflection to action, in four stages.
Understand yourself
Recognize your strengths in examples from your own life, including ones your job never asked you to use.
Explore and try
Find possibilities that fit, from an encore career to volunteering or learning, then try one before you commit.
Give your purpose a plan
Choose a long-term goal for this chapter and build a road map with dates and people who can help.
89
adults aged 50 to 85 in a randomized controlled study
The research behind the method
What does the research show?
In a randomized controlled study of 89 adults aged 50 to 85 (Brackman, 2017, Australian Catholic University), adults who received the program developed a stronger sense of purpose than those who did not receive it during the study. The benefits were still present three months after the program ended.
Participants were assigned by chance: 46 received the program and 43 were offered it after the study. Gains showed on all five questionnaires about purpose, and on three of them, people who started with the least sense of purpose gained the most.
Those are the years in which many people approach or begin retirement.
Not ready to start? Get the short guide.
Get a short guide: the 8-step method, the research in plain English, and a first exercise you can do today.
How it differs from a general AI assistant
A purpose discovery program, with a coach to guide you.
ChatGPT and Claude can help you explore ideas. PurposeLife guides you through a complete, research-tested method for discovering your purpose.
Its coach draws on guidance developed from the research and experience with people who used earlier versions of the program. It helps you explore what motivates you, work through the exercises and turn what you discover into a long-term purposeful goal.
What will you have at the end?
A long-term purposeful goal you chose yourself and a plan to work toward it. Everything you write is saved, so you can return to it. Along the way you’ll build:
- A record of the activities you love and what you enjoy about them
- Your top five character strengths, with examples from your own life
- A shortlist of possibilities, and what you learned from trying one
- A road map with next steps, dates and people who can help
- Your purpose statement, in your own words, if you choose to write one
Who created PurposeLife
Who is behind the method?
Dr. Levi Brackman created PurposeLife. He started his working life as a rabbi and later became an entrepreneur in finance and technology, thinking carefully about his next purposeful step at each transition. He developed the method through a program to help young people discover their purpose. It became the subject of his doctoral research at Australian Catholic University, which also studied purpose in adults.
About Dr. Levi BrackmanWhere can you read more?
Articles
Common questions
Do I need to be good with technology?
If you can use email and a web browser, you can use PurposeLife. It runs in your browser, and your work is saved between visits, so you can take a break and pick up where you left off.
How much time does the program take?
You work at your own pace. Some steps are reflection in the app; others ask you to talk to people or try something in everyday life. Your work is saved between visits, and you have 12 months of access.
What does it cost?
$149, paid once. That includes all eight steps, the AI coach and 12 months of access. There is no subscription, and you can cancel for a full refund within 14 days of purchase.
Is it only for people who have retired?
No. PurposeLife is for adults at any stage who want to discover their purpose and decide how to live it out. This page is for people approaching or in retirement.
Will it find me a volunteer role or a job?
PurposeLife helps you decide what kind of contribution you want to make and plan how to make it. Step 6, Trying things out, helps you find people to talk to and questions to ask, so you can learn what a role is really like. Choosing the role is up to you.
See pricing and refund details or email levi@purposelife.ai.
Want the short guide first?
Get a short guide: the 8-step method, the research in plain English, and a first exercise you can do today.
Your purpose starts with you
Discover what you want your life to be about.
Eight guided steps, based on a method tested in a randomized controlled study, with coaching from the start. Explore your motivations and turn what you discover into a purposeful goal.
From discovery to action
Complete program
$149 paid once
12 months of access, including your AI coach. No subscription.
Your saved work stays readable after access ends.
$149 USD total, including applicable tax.
- All eight steps, from reflection to a purposeful goal
- An AI coach built for purpose discovery, in every step
- Explore what drives the activities you love
- Your strengths, and a library of directions to explore
- Real-world exploration, your road map and purpose statement
- 12 months of access, with coaching included
14-day money-back guarantee. Cancel and refund from your account. How refunds work.
Your own experiences are the starting point
Give your purpose the attention it deserves.
Work through the program in your own time, with a specialist AI coach to help you explore what matters to you.
Look across the activities you love, recognize what motivates you, and choose a long-term purposeful goal. Then build a road map toward it.
Your work is saved between visits. You can start today and take the time you need to reflect.
Curious about where you are now? Our free six-question purpose check gives you a snapshot of your current sense of purpose.
Take the free purpose check