How I found my Purpose in Life.
Finding your Purpose may seem daunting, but you’d be surprised at how easy it is.
I’m guessing you’re reading this because you feel lost in life; that you have no sense of direction, no aim, no path to follow. Basically ‘dead' in the water’ sort-of-speak. Fear not fellow traveler, I’m here to help you out, and guide you as best you can.
PASSION Vs. PURPOSE
Let’s distinguish a few things first: PASSION(s) is NOT the same as PURPOSE.
Let’s say you love playing the piano. It’s something enjoy, that brings you peace after a long day’s work. You love to learn new music pieces and play them whenever you can. You even get excited when you see a piano in a hotel lobby or at an airport and you just want to hop on and show everyone your skills. That’s good but does your passion for playing the piano do anyone else good? Does your playing the piano, help anyone in particular, in any sort of way? This is where you can turn your passion, into a purpose - your purpose to DO GOOD for others and be of service.
Ryan Holiday states,
“Purpose is to and for….Purpose is about pursuing something outside yourself as opposed to pleasuring yourself.”
So basically a passion is your hobby whereas your purpose is something you were meant to do, and do for others.
Now, you might have already heard a lot of successful people turning their passions into purpose that can be profitable but also provide a value of good for others. There is a caveat to turning your passions into a business however.
ARE YOU SURE?
You have to ask yourself, “can I do this hobby, every minute of every day, for years?”
Can you turn your piano playing into a business? Market it, promote it then teach it everyday? Can you play video games everyday and create content about it, like all the Twitch streamers do? If you said “hell yeah”, you might want to think it over.
There have been streamers who turned their love for playing video games into business but then later renounce their decision, saying how miserable they feel that they have to play a video game everyday to earn a living. There have been musicians, like Ed Sheeran, who had an immense passion for music and obviously became a well-known artist, only to describe how awful it was to go into the studio and turn what his passion was into monotonous, daily drudgery. Ed Sheeran, apparently, had turned to painting as his new passion. So, think it through and ask if you can do your hobby/passion day-in and day-out, and market it for profitability.
H. Jackson Brown Jr. once said,
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
NARROW IT DOWN
So, with that out of the way, let’s find your true passion first. According to author Robert Greene in his book “Mastery”, we each had an inkling or an inclination to something when we were children, and then at some point in our upbringing, we lost that spark within us.
Think of something that you were so curious about, so immersed as a child that you couldn’t stop thinking about it. Was it staring at ants by the road with a magnifying glass and then buying your own little ant farm? Was it staring at stars every night, camped out in your backyard which then led you to buying your first telescope? Was it drawing and doodling, which you later begged your parents for that paint set. Was it collecting stamps? Playing a particular sport?
Think it through, get out a piece of paper and write down what made you excited as a child. Then, ask yourself:
Which of those activities you miss doing. Listen to your gut.
Think of what got you so immersed. What got you so excited that you couldn’t sleep?
What experiences you had that got you awe-inspired?
For me, it was everything about the arts. I loved artwork be it paintings, drawings, sketches and other mediums like film, theater, music. But the arts is too broad to be a passion, right? Well, this is where you narrow it down. I knew I had an affinity for the arts, like cinema and artwork but was never a good cinematographer or an artist.
I have tried things like making videos and posting them on YouTube channel (which flunked), and I even tried graphic design (Photoshop) and maybe make way as an artist but that didn’t get too far as well. With each failed attempt, I tried something else (which is another key point I’ll point out later).
So, start off broad; if you had an affinity for playing the piano, ask yourself if it were music you were tuned to. If it were collecting ants or other critters, was it entomology (study of insects) or animals in general that you caught your eye. Then work your way down like a funnel. For me, it was starting with what I was attracted to broadly (the arts) then looking at parts of arts I tried (artwork and video editing) and then narrowing it further to ask what about those parts I liked, which is storytelling.
If you decided that playing an instrument or collecting certain things were your passions you wanted to reignite, then perfect! Let’s talk about how to turn that into purpose.
TURN PASSION INTO PURPOSE AND ACHIEVE SUCCESS
Now that we’ve established what got you excited and what you loved to do, let’s turn that into your purpose or what I like to call it a “Meaningful Mission”. According to Lewis Howes in his book, “The Greatness Mindset”, a ‘meaningful mission’ (or purpose) is something that is significant and personal to you; it is a task in life to provide value for people, to do good for others and help solve a problem.
So for example, say your passion is playing an instrument. Then your purpose will be to spread that passion to others. Help/teach others to play that instrument, draw up lessons and courses, do community classes at your local school. You can create social media content with your own spin on it - YouTube videos, TikToks, Instagrams posts etc…
However, I do suggest you ask yourself this: if money weren’t an issue, would I still do this?
We are too quick to try and monetize our passion and I don’t oppose to that all, but that shouldn’t be your focus when you’re pursuing your ‘meaningful mission’. When going after your purpose, you should think about what value am I giving to the world and how can I create a positive change. The process/actions you need to take is what you should focus on; money will come later. And I’m a firm believer that the more value you put into your passion (work), the more money you’ll get later on.
DON’T BE AFRAID OF FAILING!
You heard it many times from a lot of successful people. And it’s true. Don’t be afraid of failing! Failing doesn’t mean you’re inadequate or you’ve made the wrong decision; it means that the path you took wasn’t meant for you, and now you can take what you learned and apply it to another path! Failure is useful! Lewis Howes wrote:
“Without failure, we’d never try anything new. Without failure, we’d never discover a better way. Without failure, we’d never get any better, stronger, or tougher.” (P.61)
According to Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO”, failure can be seen as data; information we can use to learn and improve on our next path!
And it gives you power to take action head strong!
So, I do hope this article was useful to you. Remember, just keep moving forward, taking action day-by-day, step-by-step. It will take time, effort and there will be obstacles along the way. You will suffer setbacks and failures, but that does not mean you weren’t meant for that purpose. It means that there is a different way/path to achieve your ‘meaningful mission’ and you’ll just have to apply what you learned.
I highly suggest to read Lewis Howes’ “The Greatness Mindset” and Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO” to get you started on your journey!
Thank you for reading and good luck adventurers!
