How can you find your passion and purpose in life? Learn how to find your passion and live a life with purpose with tips from the world’s most brilliant minds.
Most people go through life without knowing how to find their passion or find a purpose in life. As Henry David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
So, how do you find your purpose in life and how to know your passion? Does finding purpose in life keep eluding you? Would you like to know how to identify your passion and live a life with purpose?
Most people accept whatever life offers them, and spend their lives trapped in a routine that does not truly fulfil them. This is because they’ve not found their authentic purpose and passion in life.
Depression, hopelessness, and a sense of futility stem from a lack of purpose and passion. Finding purpose in life and knowing how to find your passion can create true happiness, but they seem to elude most people.
How To Find Your Passion And Live A Life With Purpose
Having a sense of purpose and passion for what you do can help you find satisfaction and fulfilment in life. However, finding purpose in life can be a journey full of twists and turns.
Read on for tips from the world’s most brilliant minds that will help you learn how to find your passion and live a life with purpose.
1. Find your element
In his bestselling book, The Element, Sir Ken Robinson inspired people to find their natural talents and personal passions in search of self-fulfilment.
We all have natural talents but many people never discover them. Those who have discovered their natural talents and the work they love, describe themselves as being in their element and finding passion in what they do.
When you’re “in your element,” you’re in your most natural and authentic state of being. In Finding your Element, Sir Ken Robinson helps you reflect and focus on finding your own Element.
Watch the short video below to understand the summary of his book, Finding Your Element.
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2. Know your authentic self
Connect with your authentic self and get to know who you are. Your authentic self or Inner Being is the source of your inner guidance and you can align with it by spending some quiet time by yourself every day.
There are many ways you can do this such as going for a walk in Nature, meditation, focusing on your breathing, listening to music, or just sitting still for a while and listening to the sounds around you.
If you can quiet your mind for just a few minutes a day to still your mental chatter, you will be more in tune with your authentic self and act in accordance with your core values and desires.
3. Find your life purpose
You are here for a reason. It does not matter where you come from, what you look like or what kinds of hurdles you are faced with. If you feel lost and don’t know what to do, one thing can lead you to where you need to go and that is your life purpose.
You need to figure out the reason why you’re here and the one thing that will define you as you grow older. You need to know where life is leading you or where you want to be led.
You probably have an idea of who you want to be in future, but you might be surprised to learn that your vision for your life is not necessarily what you were made to be.
The first step to finding your purpose is to know who you truly are. This will help you fit yourself, your gifts, and your talents into the bigger picture.
As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”
To discover more about yourself, you may consider taking some Strengthsfinder and other personality tests. This will help you discover your strengths and know where to put your energy and focus.
You can also do a personality psychometric test to find out more about your personality type and know what sort of work is best for your personality.
4. Find your genius zone
Satisfaction and fulfilment are what you find while operating in your genius zone. Look for activities where you lose your mind, body, and soul, and get into the flow or feel like you’re in your element.
To know what is your passion in life, you can find out what is it that you are uniquely suited to do. Whatever helps you express your talents and special gifts is the area in which you should be operating.
As the painter Pablo Picasso so wisely said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
You can find a number of “how to find your passion tests” online if you’re looking for more tips on how to discover your passion.
Just remember that when you’re in your zone of genius, you never feel like you’re wasting your time. That’s how you can identify your passion and what you should be doing with your life.
5. Find your Ikigai
How are we able to move forward when life gives us no reasons to do so? What makes us conquer hurdles when no one else seems to care if we do? It’s our life purpose that keeps us growing.
The Japanese word, Ikigai, means fulfilment or a reason for living. It’s the reason we get up in the morning. It’s also the reason many Japanese never really retire and remain active and work at what they enjoy.
“Our Ikigai is different for all of us, but one thing we have in common is that we are all searching for meaning,” writes author Hector Garcia Puigcerver in his Ikigai book.
In order to find your Ikigai and fulfilment in life, you need to find the place where these four elements – Passion, Mission, Vocation, and Profession – intersect, so that each day is infused with meaning and purpose.
Studies have shown that those who find meaning in their work are happier and job crafting (creating the job you’re interested in, one that suits your skills, and that makes you happy) can make your work more meaningful.
Finding your Ikigai can help you create a life with purpose and enjoy the happiness of always being busy doing the work that you’re passionate about and good at.
6. Follow your bliss
Following your bliss is the best way to live a fulfilling life because you spend almost all of your time doing the things that you love to do.
As Joseph Campbell said, “Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid. If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.”
When you find out what you’re passionate about, you’ll make better life decisions that are aligned with what you truly love. When work feels like play, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.
Your passion is something you love doing even when you’re not forced to do it or even paid to do it, and you do not struggle to do it. To find your passion, ask yourself, “What would I do even if I were never paid to do it?”
When you know how to discover your passion, you can research it and devote all your energy to doing that which makes you happy.
7. Ask for help
Sometimes, other people seem to know us better than we know ourselves. Asking for help from your friends and family members can help you find your purpose.
This is because they may see potential, strengths, and weaknesses of which we may not be aware. The feedback you get may not be honest or true, but it can help you find yourself.
If you need help to find out what you’re good at and what career or work you should do, you can do a career aptitude test free online.
If you want to get career guidance from a real person, you can also chat with a certified career counsellor and get free career counselling online on the SHEROES app for women.
8. Take inspired action
Once you know how to find your purpose and passion in life and are feeling inspired, it is time to take action. After all, the only way to know if you are on the right track is by dipping your toes in the water.
Don’t overthink it. Just listen to your intuition and act on your feelings. Allow that loving inner voice to motivate you and push you into trying new things and discovering new opportunities.
If for some reason, your passion and purpose are not aligned and you cannot give up what you’re doing in order to follow your passion, you can still find a different way to express it.
For instance, if you’re a lawyer who has a successful and fulfilling career, but what you really want to do is to serve people who are marginalised, you can create a life with purpose and meaning by volunteering or offering pro bono services to those who need it.
If you find a sense of purpose being a stay-at-home-mom, but love painting or crafting as a hobby, you can use your free time to create beautiful handcrafted gifts and sell them online.
If you want to start finding purpose and meaning in life and start doing what you were meant to do, use the tips above to learn how to find passion and start finding purpose in life.
Before you know it, you’ll learn how to find your purpose and passion so you can do what you love and start living the life of your dreams.
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Also read:
- How To Always Be Happy: 10 Tips To Increase Your Happiness Quotient
- How To Be Happy Alone Without Being Lonely
- 7 Best Hobbies And Skills To Earn A Side Income From Home
- Need Fun Interesting Hobbies? Here Are The 7 Best Hobbies To Take Up
- 21 Days To Recreate Yourself And Design A Life You Love
- 7 Brilliant And Easy Ways To Better Your Life Starting Today
Author bio:
Priya Florence Shah is the Group Editor at SHEROES and author of Devi2Diva, an emotional self-care book for women.
Disclosure: This blog contains affiliate or sponsored links. For more information, read our disclosure.
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