Passion and purpose are different things but they seem to be often bundled together or interchanged in their use.
Find your passion
Live your purpose
You only have to be on facebook for 5 minutes (or is that seconds) and someone will be touting how they can help you find your passion, monetise it and then you can finally live your life of purpose!!
It sounds appealing doesn’t it? It is certainly enticing!! Who doesn’t want a life like that, a life where you get to focus on your passion 24/7 and make a bucket load of money in the process therefore never really feeling like you are working.
Hands up
Who is interested
Who would love that
I sure would!!
Here is what I have found though and what I am finding with many of my clients ….. we have been sold, and willingly bought into, a passion lie!
Passion isn’t a thing it is a feeling, we feel passion we don’t create it, we allow it we don’t stalk it. It can and does change, just like other emotions. Sometimes it changes slowly, sometimes swiftly. It can be long lasting or relatively fleeting. Passion, the feeling and what ignites it, can and does change!
So many people are waiting for their passion to rain down on them almost magically, then they will turn it into a thriving business because it is their passion after all so of course they can make money from it and then they will never ‘work’ another day in their life.
Is this possible…….yes!
Is this likely ………. maybe not!!
You find your passions (yes plural, life isn’t about finding or being passionate about one thing) by doing things, by experiencing things, by trying things, by failing, by stepping through doors that open that maybe don’t scream passion to begin with. There is no neon sign flashing ‘passion this way’ for you to follow. There are signs and steps and messages, often subtle ones, that might lead you to something you are or can become passionate about but passion often grows in the most unlikely places.
I know it sounds appealing, ‘Find your passion, turn it into your job, make a fortune from it, follow it everyday and now you will live a life of purpose.” But what if this is a lie or at least for most of us not the whole truth?
‘Find your passion’ is easy to sell but often harder to do because for most of us passion will be linked to many things and for many of us our passion may not ever be our job! It can be enticing when you see someone living and working within their one passion and making a fortune, spruiking that nothing feels like work to them as you get ready for another day at your ‘job’. I get it, that is appealing but it could be sending you the wrong message, it could be perverting your perception and drawing your focus to all you don’t have and all you don’t like. It can make those of us going to a ‘job’ feel like failures. Shift your focus from finding your (one) passion to living your life passionately.
Stop seeking your passion and start living your life. Take the job, go to the party, try the dance class, learn pottery, take up swimming, write the book. Find ways to get passionate about life and to do that we have to try new things, step out of existing comfort zones and sometimes take risks.
Get passionate about life! Your life!!!
And then, when you find something fun, something that excites you, a job, a hobby, a course, a person, love it and enjoy it but don’t put undue pressure on it to be your ‘passion’. Don’t hold so tight to it that it can never change and you can’t change direction. And don’t decide too early that it will be your income.
Most of us have experienced many things we are passionate about in life, remember, some might be fleeting, some might last.
When I was child I was passionate about horses, well for 5 minutes I was, I have never owned a horse and I have never ridden a horse since!! There was a time at school that I was passionate about the school magazine, I loved it. For a while I devoted so much time to it and spoke about it constantly but that passion didn’t continue. I didn’t want to become a magazine editor, yes I have gone on to publish a book and I am passionate about that and I am defiantly passionate about communication but not magazines. I was passionate about various boyfriends and our relationships, well those passions died but I am now passionate about my husband and our relationship. As a young adult I was passionate about spirituality, healthy food….the list could go on. Some of these passions have remained as interests and some have completely melted away but they were passions at the time. The point is my passions have and continue to change and evolve and yours probably have too.
Not all passions are meant to be careers, jobs, businesses or money earners. This ‘passion lie’ we are being sold is leading us to believe that our passion should also be our pay check and this isn’t always the case.
This doesn’t for a moment mean you can’t have a life you are passionate about. I think this in fact is the goal. Living a life you are passionate about in many different areas.
So stop seeking your passion, that one thing that is going to completely change your life and focus on living your moments with passion. Remember passion is a feeling, an emotion and you can bring it into many areas of your life. Who knows where it will lead you.
Stop seeking passion and seek yourself!!
Find yourself, connect with yourself, tune into your own feeling and emotions, notice what lights you up, what excites you, what feels good, what raises your vibe and make time for those things in your life.
It might be making money
It might be activism
It might be cleaning
It might be sales
It might be listening to people
It might be gardening
It might be dancing
Passion is a feeling, a good feeling, an energising feeling. Nurture it, follow it but don’t stifle it too early. Follow those feelings without placing undue pressure on yourself to turn it into a career.
Yes, I know people who find their passion and turn it into their purpose and create a business out of it but I also know people who go to work to earn a pay check and fill their life with passion in other ways!! You aren’t broken, a failure or less than if you don’t find your passion in a area you can monetise or in your job. You might love going to work, contributing to your team or company and coming home with a pay check free to pursue your passions in other ways. That pay check might even finance a life you are passionate about!!
So you see passions and how we integrate them into our lives are as unique and varied as we are as humans. There is no one way to find your passion or to live a passion filled life and purpose is simpler than we think.
What if purpose was just to live life, to experience life, this life, with as much passion as possible?
Stop looking for passion and connect with yourself so you can feel it.
Stop seeking purpose and decide you are already on purpose because you are living.
Stop buying into the ‘passion lie’ and start living your life with passion at every opportunity.
Yes, you can have a life you are passionate about and it might just happen when you let go of the need to find your one passion. Let yourself live, let yourself experience, let your self feel and then follow those feelings of joy, excitement, peace and maybe even glimmers of passion.
Finding that one thing we are passionate about and turning it into our purpose and income is a ‘passion lie’ for many of us. Do it if it feels right for you but if not just focus on living as passionately as possible!!
Jodi Reeves