Connecting Passion to Purpose
What is your passion? If passion is too strong, begin with interest. What interests you?
After reflecting on these self-awareness questions, the answers might reveal hints of your purpose in life.
We also must acknowledge that passion is an emotion, and purpose requires movement beyond feelings. To find success in your life's purpose, you must be willing to do things that you might not feel like doing on some days. Commitment is necessary when working from spaces of passion and purpose.
You can find your life's mission by providing meaningful services and products to others. This achievement is possible through a job, entrepreneurial venture, or partnership between the two. Make time and reflect on which option is suitable for you.
Whether you hold a pessimistic, optimistic, or combination of worldviews, the time is now to start making moves! Depression is on the rise in this era of pandemics, white supremacists, and ethnic conflicts. Hope is also injecting through the veins of people with corona vaccines, newborn babies, and political elections.
Let's use some time today to begin making visions visible, despite others' judgment.
Is there something you would like to do, but you fear ridicule or social isolation beyond corona mandates?
I've wrestled with selling my possessions and living the rest of my life as a monk. My wife thinks it's an insane idea and reminds me of our major lifestyle shifts in moving to Mexico and Antigua. We don't have an abundance of clothes and other material comforts that often comes with living in the States.
To keep my marriage, I will not pursue life at a monastery. However, I am not giving up on enjoying simplicity. There are resources to support a monk lifestyle with my family in whatever part of this world I call home.
Jay Shetty's book, Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day, is a solid resource that can help you identify and use your passion to align with purpose. Shetty claims that when we are clear on the activities that bring us joy in connection with a service that helps someone else, we can live more fulfilling lives.
Through the unique experiences Shetty gained as a Buddhist monk, he found callings in helping others from multiple religious backgrounds develop a more mindful approach to living. He is an advocate for investing time in personal relationships and practicing meditation. Shetty's YouTube channel, podcast, book, and social media profiles exemplify his passion for self-development and life's purpose as a teacher.
Let me ask you again, what is your passion? Once you identify a passion or significant interest, think about how you can use it in service to others.
My passions lie in communication and exercise. I enjoy writing, teaching, and making edits to video footage. Training my body through capoeira, lifting weights, yoga, and jogging also yank the sheets off my head in the morning. Purpose, responsibility, discipline, and the alarm just out of reach from my bed, force my feet to the ground before sunrise.
I know my passions because I often experience flow, "being in the zone," when engaged in creative thinking projects and exercise sessions.
If you explore my website and social media profiles, it is impossible not to see evidence of passion and purpose in my life. My internal drive to help boys and men reach beyond self-limiting potential guides me through the intersections of my passions and purpose.
Please, stop waiting.
We cannot afford to postpone our dreams until "the right time." There will never be a "right time." I learned that the time is now through my experiences as a husband, father, and someone who moved abroad without having everything in order.
Last week, I announced my third book, Dear Brother: 82 Powerful Poems to Guide Your Journey to Healthy Black Masculinity. It will be available in March 2021.
While you anticipate my next book, share this post with one person, and take ten minutes to reflect on the roles that passion and purpose play in your life.