Find your passion and you find your purpose

I’ve often asked myself if my life could be more passionate. In general, I’m an extremely passionate person and tend to be quite emotional about the things I believe in. When it comes to my career path however, I find that with so much of what I’ve done in the past, I’ve felt unfulfilled. I am a completely creative person but creativity isn’t really a career is it? (Or at least that’s what I’ve always been told). So instead, I’ve spent my life searching for something to do with myself career-wise that was more in line with real jobs. (See this post where I struggled to come to terms with law not working out for me.)

I’ve had a number of different experiences and toyed with a number of different things. After what feels like a lifetime at university, academia seemed to be a good fit for me. Except that it wasn’t. I hated the control that went into drafting papers. I loved the research, the learning and the knowledge but I wasn’t made for hours and hours of picking through the perfect referencing style. When it was suggested to me that maybe lecturing was a good idea, I considered it for about 3 seconds before deciding I was done with academia.

I drifted from Non-profit to non-profit, constantly trying to find my niche but I still wasn’t fully satisfied with myself and my days. In fact, being dedicated to ‘fighting the good fight’ was rewarding one side of my need but completely neglecting my need to create.

I recently took the Tony Robbins Identity Test and was happy to discover (according to the test) that for the first time in my life, my career is the best part of my day. I feel like I’ve finally after all these years hit the nail on the head. Try the test for yourself, it really helps you to put things into perspective. I discovered that I need to work a bit harder in other aspects of my life, most notably, emotion and well-being. I’m naturally a worry wort, I worry about the outcome of everything. This year, I want to do my utmost best to sit back and just enjoy my life a little bit more.

I’m lucky that I’m finally in a good space with blogging. I wake up in the morning feeling excited, looking forward to drafting my next post and the day ahead. Finding a place you belong in the world is a really important part of being fulfilled. We can’t feel truly fulfilled if we constantly feel like we’re not getting that which we need to sustain ourselves and our passions.

If you’re not certain that you’re truly working towards your passions then maybe you should ask yourself a few questions;

• Are there areas of your life that could do with a spring clean?
• Are you feeling fulfilled in your career, in your personal relationships, with your finances, with your health?
• What can you do to change the areas that need a little bit of help?

We all have the power within ourselves to make our lives the kind of lives we are proud of, happy to be a part of and have always wanted. It starts with you but perhaps you need a little guidance about the steps to take to get there.

Here are actions that you can take to move you towards your true passion;

• Think about where you want to be in 5 years time and work your way backwards to where you are today. See what changes you need to make to get there.
• If you can’t actively pursue your life goals or dreams, take up a hobby in that direction
• Find your passion. If you don’t feel passionate about something it is really difficult to get up and do it. When you’re passionate everything is so much easier. If you don’t know what you’re passionate about, then today is the day to find out.
• If you’re not in the position right now to leave your job and get started in the area you’re passionate about then start working on the skills you need in order to pursue your passion full-time.

What’s important isn’t that you immediately jump ship on your life and suddenly start over, it’s taking the steps towards achieving you goals. Working on a plan to get you there when you’re ready. Sometimes all you need is knowing that there is more to life than that feeling of being stuck to help you out of your rut. It’s your life. Make it count. 

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

Abraham Lincoln