Making art can be a wonderful passion… or purpose. One that can spark true joy in you. Photo: Pexels
To find your passions and purpose in life can be the most important thing in someone’s life. At the contrary, to not be able to find something that makes you excited to get up in the morning for or to become a better person for, can feel like a big burden to some people.
People often say at the end of their lives that they regret most that they didn’t live a life that was true to themselves. But what does that mean? Personally, I think that many people live unhappily because they don’t know what their purpose is in this life.
One could feel useless. Such people ask themselves, ‘Why do I even live on this earth’? ‘What would happen if I were gone tomorrow? Would it even make a difference?’
Similarly, passions are what make your life much more enjoyable living. But what should we do if we have neither? If we just can find something to live for, to make us get out of bed in the morning?
Passion ≠ Purpose
The first thing to understand is that passion and purpose are not the same thing! However, in my opinion we need both to live a happy and fulfilling life.
The two serve different things. Passions usually feel very good to us. These are stronger hobbies we have. Something we really love to do. These are things that make us happy while we do them, give us a strong feeling of fulfillment and joy. These are ‘nice to have’, they can totally improve our life quality.
A purpose on the other hand gives you a feeling of being needed on this earth. Your purpose doesn’t really need to be something enjoyable to do. Depending on what it is, it can be dirty work, painful, sad, etc. But at the end of the day it will give you deep satisfaction.
A feeling of being appreciated, needed, desired by a higher power. This could be something like taking care of your family, of people in need, animals that need care, the environment, or creating something special, etc. The work usually is hard, but the rewards are very big.
What’s the Point of having a Purpose in Life?
Well, simply said, the point of having passions and purpose in life is to make it worth living! Without dismissing the severity of it, I strongly believe that things like depression wouldn’t be as present in our society, if people only were able to find things that give them true meaning and a reason to leave the house happily in the morning.
Having a purpose in life is also something truly spiritual, as we all have something that we come onto this earth for. As a soul, deep inside, we all know what it is. We need to learn how to listen to it.
It will make us follow the path and the direction our lives are supposed to go in. It depends on how well we were able to strengthen our intuition. But if we are indeed able to listen to it, it will feel completely right when you find your passions and purpose.
Categories of Passions and Purposes
The categories of passions and purposes I could come up with, are the following. (In my opinion, all of these things could be both, passions and purposes. Even though I said above that passions usually are more pleasurable).
Creativity/Creations:
- Art
- Music
- Literature
- Business
- Inventions
- Science
- Sports
Personal:
- Self-Growth
- Spirituality
Social:
- Family
- Environment
- Animals
- Children/people in poverty/in need
These are self-explanatory; some like to dedicate their lives to their creations mainly, their achievements, etc. Others really love to give to others; to people in need, to the environment, to animals. And lastly, some people are focused to who they are, bettering themselves, their own journey, their family, or spirituality.
But what do I mean by dedicate? There are people who live as monks, owning nothing but the clothes on their body. Some totally identify with what their purpose is. But does that mean I can have nothing else? Of course not!
You can totally be in touch with spirituality and have it as your passion or your purpose while living it together with the rest that’s in your life; your job, your social life, your physical belongings, etc. I’m primarily saying that your purpose is something you give great meaning to that makes up a big portion of your life.
But remember; it’s also possible to find your purpose at the age of 85 or something like that. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!
Possible Characteristics of P&Ps
I’d say that your purpose and passions can have several characteristics. They might be directed inwards or outwards. They could be private or public. Your own self-growth or spirituality is directed inwards! Helping people in need, animals, the environment, etc., that’s directed outwards.
Your family for example, or if you’re an athlete and you have special physical goals, that’s something private. Whereas something like inventions, science, a business is public. Other people profit off of it.
Now what is something like art, music, literature? Well, it depends. Do you create for yourself or for others? Does your main concern lie in presenting yourself to the world? Do you want to inspire someone? Make someone’s life better?
I guess you purpose is more public then. Do you write or paint because you can express yourself? Because it gives your feelings meaning? Because it heals a part within you? In this case, your passions and purpose is much more private.
Whatever your passions and purpose might be, whether they’re private or public, directed more inwards or outwards… They’re all good. They give you a drive that nothing else could give you. They make your life better. Now, how do you find it?
The Child in you knows…
One simple thing that will show you where your passion and purpose might lie is in what the child you once were absolutely loved doing. Think of what brought you absolute joy as a child. And you might already be able to come up with your passions.
It’s also what you liked doing in school vs. what you didn’t like doing, and what you were or weren’t good at. A purpose on the other hand is something that you maybe would have loved to do but weren’t able yet, maybe because of your environment or your circumstances.
I recommend you to try many different things. Very soon you’ll be able to tell what you love doing and what you want to keep pursuing.
Personally, I always loved to dance! As a child I did ballet. At university I started doing jazz dance, latin and standard dances, flamenco and also salsa. Especially salsa I absolutely adore. It’s the one thing I look forward to doing every week.
It feels addicting. I love to listen to the music even when I can’t dance and it feels vitalizing. It gives me so much energy! It has quickly become a passion of mine.
Now, spirituality on the other hand was something I always turned to when life goes hard. Something that would calm me, inspire me, make me go softer. Is it my purpose? I don’t know (yet). I definitely want a family one day, I love to write. It’s possible to combine these things that bring me joy! And so can you.
What if you never find your P&Ps?
I don’t think there is such a thing like never finding your passions or purpose(s). I only think it’s possible to never look for it. We all have things we love to do. It’s not impossible to find things that bring you joy. However, some people lack the motivation to look for something.
We tend to get caught up in our daily lives. Our families, friends, job, the TV maybe. The secret lies in actually trying, breaking out of our routines, finding things that bring us joy, that make us excited to live our lives again. I encourage you to start looking 🙂 And I’m sure some things will find you. Things that are meant for you!
Love, Valentina <3
Written by Valentina – spiritual writer & founder of Valentina’s Diary
