Week 1: Introduction — It's Not About You (Days 1–3)

1.Warren's first sentence is: "It's not about you." How did you react when you first read that? Did it feel liberating, offensive, or somewhere in between — and why?

2.Warren argues that self-help books, introspection, and even philosophy cannot tell you the purpose of your life because the creation cannot discover its purpose by examining itself — only the Creator can reveal it. Do you find that argument convincing?

3.In Day 1, Warren uses the analogy of a product and its manufacturer: you discover a product's purpose from the owner's manual, not by asking the product. How does this image shape the way you think about reading Scripture as a source of life's meaning?

4.Warren distinguishes between "what am I here for" and "what do I want" — treating them as fundamentally different questions. Where in your own life have you conflated personal desire with genuine purpose?

5.Day 2 emphasizes that you are not an accident — that God planned your birth, your genetics, and your circumstances before you existed (Psalm 139). Does this truth feel personal to you, or does it feel abstract? What would it change if you fully believed it?

6.Warren identifies five purposes that will structure the entire 40-day journey: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission. Which of these five words feels most familiar to you, and which feels most foreign or challenging? Why?

7.Warren says, "The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity." How does connecting your individual life to something eternal change the weight you assign to ordinary daily choices?

8.How does the gospel — the good news that Christ came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom (Mark 10:45) — reinforce Warren's claim that life is fundamentally not about us?