How to Live Passionate Without a Purpose

I’m sure some of you read already blogposts about finding your passion or life purpose. One great example is Steve Pavlina’s How to Discover Your Life Purpose in About 20 Minutes which I really recommand. But to be true it didn’t helped me completly until today. Although I have not found my life purpose I got some great insights about myself and my possible life purposes. Yes, I still don’t know which path to choose. Many weeks I lived with a attitude of resignation and desperation while being stunned to move forward, to be proactive. My thoughts were similiar to:

“Fuck it. I don’t know what to do with my life. I’m seeing how other people get possibilities and crush it all the time but what about me? First I need to figure out what I wanna do before I can be fortunate about my work life. I’m going to watch TV now, lucky bastards.”

I’m not joking! Many weeks I was stunned and just lived my unfulfilling life while watching TV or playing computer games, as same as (thankfully) reading more and more personal development blogposts and books. But some evening when I was whining again about myself being unable to live passionate I got a even deeper insight about the word passion. This changed my whole life immediately.

What is the Purpose of a Purpose?

The funny thing is often we don’t even know why we search for our life purpose. Maybe we’ve read how very successful people chose to leave work and monetize their passion and called that their purpose. Maybe we’ve got a religious background which says that your purpose is to help others or to follow a certain pattern of behaviour to live your life purpose. Maybe we are just desperate and hope to be happy again. Whatever it is – we often don’t even truly know why we search it.

Your life purpose is the lense through which you perceive reality. It defines your life context and leads you on your path. What do I mean by that? I think the best way to explain the influence of one’s life purpose is an example:

John discovered his life purpose (in 20 minutes maybe) and knows what makes him feeling fulfilled: to serve himself. He’s really into the whole darkworker thing and wants to life a great life himself first. Others come second. His life purpose is to live the greatest life he can imagine through focusing on himself. So how does this purpose influences him? That’s really clear: Every decision he takes he faces through his lense of “which path may lead me to a more fulfilled, rich and joyful life?” His reality is changed because he’s focusing on opportunities for himself. Maybe there is a advertisement for voluntary work, but he’ll just notice an ad for a new money investment. I think you get the point.

Sarah discovered her life purpose (maybe in 40 minutes) as same like John. This time Sarah want’s to help the world to gain peace. Yeah its really a cliche, i know hehe! Well, now what Sarah experiences in her life is totally different from John. She notices the advertisement for voluntary work, she sees the poverty on the streets but she also has hope and knows that she can change something, too. She also takes immediate action.
So the purpose of your life purpose is to give you a new perspective on life, which has a great impact on your percipience and your actions!

The Difference between Your Passion and Your Life Purpose.

So what’s the difference now?
Your life purpose is on a higher level than your passion. That’s because your life purpose affects your passion at any time.  Believe me this insight is HUGE. Now you gonna give up searching for your life purpose and passion on the same level and start living a fulfilling life. This is also the mistake I did everytime discovering my life purpose. I discovered my life context but searched for something available, something to work with immediately. I failed. I’ve became frustrated. No action.

The key to finding your passion is to know your purpose already before. If I would know that I am just seconds away from my passion I wouldn’t believe it. At that time my purpose sounded like “I want to help people grow. I want to change the world to a better place. I want to contribute.” I had too many options left to go for it directly and take action! I could go to greenpeace, I could become a teacher, I could become a Rapstar to influence all the kids, I could even go to the NASA and search for Aliens to help us with our ecological problems. I’m serious. My possibilites – and yours also – are countless.

But when I realize that I’m aware of my life purpose  now and NOT of my passion I get a new perspective on the whole “find your passion or DIE” topic. This is a crucial insight which I want to share with everyone of you:

If I don’t know my passion consciously in this moment, there is no other way to get to know it then to act.

This is really unbelieveable essential. Because too many people stay stuck and don’t act (like myself), they NEVER FIND THEIR PASSION. This is all it needs to be happy, have a fulfilling life and get what you want to get as same as give what you want to give.

Play the Trial & Error Game – Act As If

There is no other path to be sure that you are on your way to your passion. But who said that your life passion needs to be forever the same? Sure you don’t want to work on a carrer for five years or more to realize that you want to do something completely different. But wait – why not? If you had fun working there, there is really nothing to regret. Even if it was hard and unfulfilling work like you did maybe up till today, you’ve gained insight in what’s NOT your passion. And that is as valueable as knowing your passion. So if you choose today to go one path straight forward, dont be afraid. There is no possiblity to lose something, you are gaining in either way great insights. And if you choose something fun to try out you maybe don’t even feel like working hard.

ACT AS IF YOUR ACTUAL PATH IS YOUR TRUE PASSION – and watch out for the results.   Be creative. Be active. Please. Now.