A Life of Purpose and Passion
I’m passionate about having a purpose in life.
I’m fortunate. The purpose for my life was revealed to me when I was eighteen years old. I was told in a vision dream that I was to be a minister to God’s people. The dream changed and determined the course of my life. It focused my education, my career goals, and how I was going to live my life. My purpose has served as a north star that has guided me. I check in with my purpose daily as a part of my morning devotional to ascertain what I have done during the past day, and what can I do during the coming day to fulfill my purpose.
I have become passionate about having a purpose as I have encountered people who had no clue about having a purpose in life. They had graduated from High school, went to college without any real clear direction guiding them. They graduated from college, entered a career and they had spent fifteen, twenty years pouring their life into something that little meaning for them. At some point in their late thirties and forties they asked themselves, “What am I doing with my life?” This question began the quest searching for their purpose in life.
I believe the quest for purpose changes and morphs during a persons life. The other day a retired woman came into my office and said, “I need to find a new sense of purpose. I knew my purpose when I was working, but now it’s gone.” She described that retirement had to be more than reading books and just hanging out. She described she wanted to have a sense of passion about her life.
Passion is one of the keys to discovering your purpose. I describe passion as the thing you can’t stop talking about. When people ask you, “What have you been up to lately?” You suddenly launch into how you’re into cooking, or volunteering at the food bank, or going back to school to study engineering. They might start figeting and sighing as you become more and more animated. When you do this you’ve found one of the key’s to your passion.
Your passion leads to a sense of purpose when you take what you’re passionate about and put it into action. Purpose focuses passion. When you start developing plans and chart objectives that are specific and measurable your purpose becomes a north start that guides you.
Other keys to discovering your purpose is to celebrate your joys, understand your fears, discern your gifts, and talk about your burn, or what you feel is unjust in society. I’ll talk about these in other blogs, podcasts, and video’s.
In a life coaching relationship I work with people on these key areas so their purpose becomes clarified. I believe someone should be able to write their purpose down on paper - make it concrete, something they can point to and say, “This is me.”
My purpose has guided me throughout my life. It has helped me make decisions about how I’m going to spend my time. If something doesn’t align with my purpose, then I’m hesitant to spend time doing it. This doesn’t make me the most popular person to just hang out with. Hanging out doesn’t further my purpose. Some might say I’m single focused. Instead, I say that I’m passionate about fulfilling my purpose.
Do you know what your purpose is? Have you found what you can’t stop talking about? If not, then let’s work together.