Can ‘glimmers’ of joy offer a gateway into deeper passion and purpose?

And what does it mean to really ‘spark joy’ in a young person’s life?

By Andrea Cooper, CEO of The Ferdinando & Luigi Innocenti Foundation

At our Board meeting last week, we found ourselves asking a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to really ‘spark joy’ in a young person’s life? Our strapline is ‘Sparking Joy’ after all. But what does that ask of us in practice, and why does it matter?

I remember being in my early twenties, sitting on the shore of Lake Geneva reading Stephen Covey’s ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. Not exactly the wild 90s, but I was, perhaps, an earnest type…

The seven habits are structured in a progression. The first habit made sense, so I kept reading. The second habit was ‘Begin with the End in Mind’: Be clear about your goals, values, and what success looks like. Make decisions aligned with your long-term vision and purpose.

As I recall, the message was that once you know your purpose, life becomes smoother, more productive, more effective. But as I sat there in the Swiss sunshine, I was completely stuck. What is my purpose? Should I just make one up? Why can’t I answer this? What’s wrong with me?

Now, looking back, I wonder if it is realistic to expect someone in their early 20s to have found their purpose in life? I have since noticed how much more accessible the phrase becomes when we make a subtle change from find your purpose in life, to find a purpose in life. To have something that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning, a reason to look after yourself, to keep going…

It is a sadness to me that over 1 million young people in the UK are currently not in employment, education, or training. Around half of that group aren’t claiming benefit payments which suggests they are not actively seeking work. For some, the world does not feel inviting. They feel in many cases that it is safer to retreat and disengage. Even amongst those who are engaged, there can be a quiet despondency. What does it mean to tell young people to ‘find their purpose’? Where do they begin, when we know what a daunting task that is for even the most motivated and advantaged person?

Instead of asking young people to find their purpose, maybe we could begin with something smaller – moments that make them feel alive.

So at our Board meeting, we talked about these smaller moments. “Glimmers.” These are fleeting, often unnoticed moments of happiness.

We recently shared a series of interviews filmed in the Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project, where Lily Mott asked a simple question: what brings you joy? People spoke about noticing a bird that stays close for a precious moment, feeling sunshine on your face, sharing funny stories with old friends, people watching and imagining strangers’ stories, trying something new like climbing a waterfall. Small things. But vivid.

Over the past couple of weeks my tennis serve has taken a very frustrating step backwards, and yesterday at our early morning session, my 21-year-old coach and I were working through the mechanics again. Then, for a moment, the sun streamed through the windows. The courts fell silent. And I became aware of how lucky I was—to be there, learning, being guided so precisely: how I tossed the ball, how I held the racquet, the position of my left foot. The night before, I had felt like giving up entirely. In that moment, something shifted. Things felt possible again. Light returned.

Now each night, I write down three “glimmers” that I experienced that day. Within minutes, I usually can usually think of ten or more moments. And increasingly, I can notice them as they happen, knowing that, like a child’s bubble catching the light, they are brief and fragile and beautiful precisely because they are so fleeting.

At the Board, this led us to two different kinds of happiness.

Hedonia - the small, immediate feelings of pleasure.
Eudaimonia - the deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Our work has largely been designed with eudaimonia in mind.

We want young people to explore and discover passions, to have agency in what they pursue, and to experience the satisfaction that comes from sustained effort. The feeling of improving at something. Of mastering a skill. Of committing and seeing progress. A piano piece perfected. A goal scored. A play performed. A story written.

We expect and welcome that young people will outgrow interests along the way. That, too, is part of the process. It builds discernment: this is for me… this is not… (In my case, I love tennis now. Though I have a quiet suspicion that one day I might love bridge…)

The long-term impact of our work is ‘for young people to be clearer about their purpose, motivated to engage in the world, and excited about continuing their personal growth’. So what we discussed is the interplay between ‘glimmers’ and the kind of satisfaction that comes through dedication and achievement. We have a firm belief that all young people – particularly young people with experience of disadvantage - deserve to have fun and experience joy. Moments of friendship, fun, laughter, and learning are what attract us to an activity, and keep us going when it gets hard. Why would you keep going with an activity if the frustrations were not outweighed by moments of joy..?

In other words, ‘glimmers’ can offer an accessible gateway into deeper passion and purpose, and play a crucial role in providing ongoing motivation and progress.

And it goes further than that. By becoming observant of ‘glimmers’ we get to know ourselves. We know what lights us up, what feels like a good fit, what we want more of.

As a yoga teacher, we talk about ‘interoception’, which refers to the sensations we feel in our bodies. These are very powerful signals that something important is happening. All too often, we live our lives in a way that is disconnected from these feelings. By turning inwards and tuning into our sensations we can start to notice what matters, and can gradually build a life that aligns with what we find.

Emma Bridgewater spoke on a panel we hosted at Anthropy. She spoke about how she did not know what she wanted to do when she was younger, but that when she visited Stoke on Trent, she had a felt sense that she should start a business there. That business went on to become a hugely successful homeware business. She said,

“I really, really didn’t know what I was going to do, and I was very aware as a teenager that I had no idea what my path was to be. And when I went to Stoke, I found something compulsive, and I felt a hugely strong conviction that I had to do something there. An idea that had popped into my head recently, it was going to become real there…”

From that moment, she built something extraordinary. It didn’t begin with a fully formed purpose. It began with a feeling.

On a society level, imagine if everyone was able to become aware of their strengths, motivations, and values and had found a way to contribute the best of themselves to the world around them. This prospect is so much more inspiring that any political nation building strategy I have ever come across.

So to the 23-year-old me sitting by Lake Geneva, I would say this: Don’t worry about finding your purpose. Just start living today. Have fun. Notice what brings you alive, and build on that. Purpose isn’t something you find all at once. It’s something you grow into, one small moment at a time.

By Andrea Cooper, CEO of The Ferdinando & Luigi Innocenti Foundation