How do you find purpose when you're stuck in a routine?

I get this from the hairdressing side of things - like, on paper cutting hair all day sounds repetitive, but I've found that when you actually engage with it, there's so much there. Same thing happened when I got into knitting; I thought it'd be meditative and boring, but once I started really focusing on the patterns and techniques, it became this whole world. I think purpose isn't always something you find outside your routine - sometimes it's about finding the little details within what you're already doing that actually matter to you and leaning into those.

I feel like this totally resonates with me! Honestly, I found my way out of the accounting grind by leaning into my knitting during downtime - it gave me something to create with my hands that felt *meaningful*, you know? But also, as others pointed out, I think there's real wisdom in looking closer at what you're already doing. Like, I started actually tracking where every dollar goes instead of just mindlessly processing numbers, and suddenly it felt less like drudgery and more like solving a puzzle. Sometimes purpose isn't about finding something new, it's about finding the threads in what you're already doing and pulling them taut!

When I was still working as an engineer, I spent years doing similar tasks on blueprints and CAD files until I started taking on small woodworking projects in my garage on weekends - suddenly I noticed how the repetitive parts of my day job actually trained my eye for precision in a way that made my craft work sharper. The routine didn't change, but once I had something outside it where I could see the direct result of attention to detail, the daily work felt less like a treadmill and more like building toward something.