Discovering Your Purpose in 5

(This was something I discovered just this morning and I was so excited about it I felt the urge to write about it. I tried to outline exactly what I did in the easiest possible so you could benefit from it too!) 

For the past few months, I had made it my goal to find my purpose. I wanted to know what my passions were so I could decide early on in my life to pursue them to the fullest of my abilities. While on my journey to find a purpose I read much material on the subject. Majority of what I read were good reads, but I still found myself stuck. I tried Steve Pavlina's method and tried to sit down and type whatever came out. I tried Deepak Chopra's method which was to ask a question a listen to your body's response. Both of these methods may be good for some, but I am obviously not sensitive enough to them, so I decided to approach this a little differently.

I started to read biographies about people who were absolutely passionate about what they did. They found their purposes through their passions and they all shared some underlying characteristics:

• They would continue to follow their passions no matter what meaning,
• They would follow their passions even if it meant they would be working  for free

Realizing this I decided to take money out of the whole equation. This led me to the following question: If I was given unlimited monetary resources, what would I do with me life? This is what I came up with and mind you these are direct from my journal.

• I would write
• I would study Kung Fu
• I would grow through meditation

These are my passions, but I decided not to stop there. I rewrite them in more detail. This helped me really clarify what made me passionate about these passions. = )

• By writing, I would firstly be organizing my thoughts and cementing my beliefs. If I put this on showcase for others, it would give them the opportunity to find value in it if they wish to.
• I can raise my abilities to new heights and teach others the benefits of Kung Fu by becoming a master.
• I can get in touch with my deeper self and develop more a sense of unconditional love and increase my passion to help others.

Detailing the specifics really helps internalize and clarify what exactly you're passionate about. It helps you figure out why you love doing those things. What exactly do you do that makes you feel a sense of worth and purpose? There are some passions that are really broad, for example business. This may be one of your passions but what specifically about it are you passionate about? Are you passionate about the law aspect? Small businesses? Loans? Marketing? Public Relations? By defining the action that makes your passion pleasurable, you add clarity to the general things that make you happy which will help you in this next part; outlining your purpose.

Once you have done the step above, try to find the common themes that are prevelant. It helps to find similar words in your statements and/or words that hold generally similar meanings. These are the themes that seem to be prevelant in  my specific passions:

• Learning all I can about life and sharing that knowledge to help others grow and add value to their lives for themselves.

If you look more closely at my specific passions you will find that the first things I mention are growing and adding value to myself. In my first passion it is, writing to bring clarity and cement my thoughts. In my second passion it is, raising my abilities to new heights and in my third passion it is, growing. The second component to my passions is teaching and sharing my knowledge with others in the hopes that they can better themselves. In my first passion it is, showcasing my ideas so others can put into whatever usage they want, my second, teaching the benefits of good health and my third, helping others find their deeper selves.

Essentially, the common themes statement becomes your general purpose. It sums everything up together bringing your passions and common themes together in one or two statements. The reason I began with basically finding your passion(s) first is because why would you center your purpose around doing something you don't like to do. If you do this, your purpose will always have an underlining negative connotation. You are not going to bring value in the world if you don't enjoy what you do and rather than force yourself to enjoy something you don't, why not start out with something you are absolutely beaming with passion about? Why not start with doing what you love to do? What better place to start than here?

If you start with your passions everything will sort of avalanche into place. You won't feel it's a chore to work according to your purpose because you deeply enjoy it. Since it is your great joy you will naturally grow your skills and talents associated with it. This may not necessarily be a goal that you hold, it's something that you will unconsciously do because of the fact you love whatever it is you're doing. You love the subject matter so much you take in as much as you can. You're like a sponge just soaking up as much water as you can possibly hold. You become so enthralled you are loving every second of educating yourself and bringing yourself deeper into the subject matter.

I have read a dozen articles about living your passion rather than living for money. Now this subject goes beyond the scope of this article but this is the next step to consider about once you've found your passion. StevePavlina.com has a lot of articles and posts on this and I will soon be writing about this but as of right now what you should do is figure out your passion so you can find your purpose.

So good luck to you all when finding your passions and just remember, pass it on!

-YoYo

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