I would like to share a TEDx Talk by Tanveer Naseer who discusses what he has learned about Passion and Purpose. It’s an amazing insight into what he has experienced in his work as a doctor, and how a summer job at age 17 gave him more purpose than his professional career. Listening to this talk is a good exploration of how passion without purpose is a lost opportunity.
His insights are exactly the things I like to share and teach people about having Purpose and Meaning in life.
It’s not all about having some prestigious or grand “Purpose.” It’s about how we choose to view what we do in life that is the point of difference.
You could be working in a job where your passions, skills, and abilities are fully utilised and still not feel like waking up to go to work on a Monday. You could be operating on autopilot, going through the motions of just existing and not living.
What if you woke up every day feeling fulfilled, happy, living in alignment to your purpose?
How do you think that would affect your wellbeing – mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually and energetically?
Making The Wrong Connections
I am reminded of a common way of thinking my clients have when they are on their first steps toward discovering their purpose. They explore their strengths, passions, skills, and talents then go on to see how that could be translated into their purpose.
At times, they can get stuck in a cycle of attempting to make connections that don’t exist. This type of exploration is always at the beginning of the journey when our ego is attempting to think its way through to the solution. Attempting to make the connections it feels will make sense and seem aligned.
We also tend to try and connect our purpose to our means of income, which can lead to a lot of unrequired stress and overanalysing.
The Fine Line Between Passion And Purpose
Something you are passionate about does not necessarily equal what your purpose is. Nor is it always something you need to incorporate into the work you do that earns you an income.
Think of your passion as something you enjoy, that lights you up, that you may be skilled at, or challenges you in all the right ways. Your passion can last a lifetime or it can be only for a moment. It can transform and change or completely disappear at any point.
This is because our passion is generally related to our ego wanting something:
- joy
- freedom
- fun
- excitement
- challenge
As we change and our priorities shift in life, so too can our passions.
Discovering our purpose or applying purpose to our life comes from a deeper exploration of who we are. Our purpose is something uniquely ours, that can be expressed in many ways.
When we discover this purpose it just feels inherently right within us. This purpose, then, can be applied to all the things in our life as we chose to live in alignment with it.
That means that our lives can be expressed and experienced differently. We can then explore our passions and determine how they could be used to express our purpose in the world. Not from a place of ego, but from a deeper understanding of our spiritual nature.
Don’t Lose The Opportunity To Live Your Passions From A Place Of Purpose
Without purpose, life is a little shallower and a lot duller.
If you are on a journey of discovering your purpose, I encourage you to watch the talk above and see if it resonates with you.
I also invite you to explore my 4 Stages of Self Discovery post that delves into my own process of how I discovered my purpose.
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