If you keep wishing, hoping, and praying for your passion in life to come down out of the sky and smack you in the face…you’re going to be waiting for a loooong time.
And while you wait, you are likely missing out on plenty of opportunities to create that passion and cultivate that purpose.
Like the cute girl next door that you overlooked while you had your eyes on the knockout that never looked your way, your passion and purpose may be closer to you than you think.
Your lofty dreams of creating a million dollar business out of thin air won’t get you anywhere. The hobby that lights you on fire and you can never get enough of, however–that has some powerful potential.
So, to my friends that are struggling to “find” their passion, let me help you out. Hoping and dreaming is a useful tool, but until you get on the ground level and start taking action, you won’t materialize anything that you’re hoping for.
You think that your passion and purpose have to be these majestic concepts that will warm the hearts of millions and inspire a generation.
Your purpose and passion in life are solely for you. If you want to inspire millions of people, cool. But that inspiration doesn’t stem from doing a specific thing particularly well. You will inspire people by being a person that leads their life doing something that sets your soul on fire.
So, start by being a little selfish. What do you like to do? What makes you feel the most alive? Once you start acting on the things that you love doing, that love and inspiration will emanate from your being.
Take a few minutes and write down 20 things that you enjoy doing. This could be reading, playing video games, or fishing. It doesn’t matter the activity, what matters is that you love getting lost in it. Don’t let judgmental thoughts like, “this isn’t good enough for this list” clutter up the process.
Go from the heart for now. We’ll let your mind get involved in a little bit.
Alright, do you have your 20 activities or points of interest? Good.
Now, let your mind engage with those 20 activities and think through how you would rank them. Put them in order from 1 to 20 based on levels of enjoyment and how much time flies when you’re doing them. There are going to be a handful that shoot right to the top of your list, and the others will be a little more difficult to position. Go with your gut and get them in order without overthinking it.
Alright, here comes the fun part.
For my pencil users, grab an eraser.
For my pen users, grab a Sharpie.
For my friends that are using their cell phones or laptops (it is 2018, after all), get that backspace key ready for battle.
Get rid of everything but the top 5.
It’s not that we can’t find time to do things we enjoy or that we feel passionate about; it’s that we try to divide our finite amount of time between too many things. Shortening your list of interests will be one of the fastest ways to create and develop your purpose over time.
Now that you’ve cut out some of the stuff that you really didn’t care all that much for, you can dedicate more time and energy to the activities that you really enjoy.
Don’t think that your hobbies and interests aren’t worthy of your life’s purpose. Some guy that loved video games as a kid grew up to create the PlayStation. Some person that really enjoyed interviewing people and asking questions now has one of the top podcasts in the world.
Take the lead from these people and just dive into what makes you feel good. You’re never going to feel passionate about something unless there’s some initial interest there. It can’t be forced. It can’t be faked. Embrace these top 5 things and dive in head first.
Set aside time every day or a couple times a week to explore these interests. Be intentional about giving your attention to it. Don’t just wait for time to gift you some space to play around with it, schedule it into your day.
As time passes, and you dive deeper and deeper into your top 5, you’re going to find that one or two of them stand out in the crowd. Don’t ignore this pull towards a select couple of activities. This is the Universe telling you to invest more into it.
Once you narrow it down to the leaders of the pack, you’ve got something that you can run with. As you put more energy into the top 1 or 2 activities from your list, you’re going to get really good at whatever is drawing you in.
As you gain mastery and develop skills relative to these interests, you’re going to feel the passion start to surge within you. It’s at this cross section of interest and mastery that passion and purpose are born.
It’s hard to feel passionate about something if you’re not at least interested in it.
It’s even harder to feel like the time spent on it serves a purpose if you’re not any good at it.