Passion and Purpose

There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There’s a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you? Rumi (13th century Persian Poet)

Over the past couple of weeks I have been having a conversation with a friend about having passion for something and having purpose in life.

And I must say that whilst I really enjoy these discussions there are times I want to run away. I just know that I will end up re-examining my life, my passions and my purpose. And sometimes I don’t want to delve too deeply! You have to bare you soul a bit to delve deeply and have these conversations – something we don’t do all that much.

And can you actually help someone who is looking for a new purpose? Yes, I think so but there is no easy answer or solution.

And before I carry on with this, I must stress that I think what happens is that because our circumstances are always changing, we just happen to wake up one morning and say something like “my life has no meaning”…which isn't entirely true….it has had an awful lot of meaning up until now and you shouldn't forget that - but NOW you want to do something different, you might even want to be someone different. But the previous passion and purpose has just fizzled out, gone and maybe this is the signal that you must move on.

So how do you find something new to be passionate about: I don’t actually know. What I do know is that you have to work really hard at finding it….think about things, think about what you were doing when you were really happy, make a list of things that might interest you…..throw that list away and start another list.

I believe that what is the most important thing to do is to open your mind to new experiences and ideas. Go places, talk to people, read stuff. You can’t not go to the opera because that is not your thing…how do you know that? What do you know about it? Have you been to one before….I rest my case. One of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s (The Black Swan) 10 tips on life is: ‘Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity.’ Sometimes, just talking to new people triggers something, a small spark, a germ of an idea…and then you can run with it and hopefully you can fly with it. And the more people you come into contact with, the more exposure you have to new and exciting ideas and thinking

When my daughter was very small, she was about 3, I wanted to go off into darkest Africa – or anywhere actually - and care for starving children (NB: I think though, I was more keen to escape my really awful life at the time!). The person I spoke to about this gave me some really good advice: he said that my job for the foreseeable future was to bring up my child to be a creative and constructive member of society; someone who would contribute positively to the world. I was a bit put out at this but realized (after a few days of sulking) that this was actually my job, my purpose, and I had better be damn passionate about it. But then, time moves on and things change and I haven’t had to ‘bring her up’ for a long time. And I have been through many cycles and have had a number of ‘purposes’. Sometimes I have just dabbled with something and other times I have been really and truly involved.

Some years ago, after spending an awful lot of time practicing Omphaloskepsis, I had an epiphany that I wanted to be passionate about Happiness…it was like a thunderbolt and it was life changing. I have since studied happiness quite seriously, and the more I get to grips with it the better (happier) I feel and I am sure there is a knock on effect to the people around me. But, let me tell you that I had a lot of negative comments when I announced “I am passionate about happiness”. Comments ranged from ‘don’t be stupid’ to ‘how can you be passionate about something that is not real, it is a feeling – you cant be passionate about a feeling’ and ’that is the most ridiculous bloody thing I have heard’. Well, I just smiled and got on with being passionate about happiness.

I don’t really care what people say about my passion for happiness. And you are the only one who can find your passion…..all the suggestions from others will help but at the end of the day it is your decision, your choice….if you are passionate about wild life photography or Bentleys, or you go back to university at 60 to learn about astronomy, or decide to climb the 7 Summits…just do it – its your passion and purpose….live your passion.