Living your passions sounds exciting, doesn’t it? But there is one more ingredient needed to live a life worth living.
The most important ingredient of all is fulfilling your life purpose. This is an ancient concept that you might have heard described as “your calling” or “right livelihood.” By any name, it is the key to creating meaning that will guide you through the peaks and valleys of your life.
You may be thinking, what is the difference between passion and purpose? One easy way of thinking about it is this: your passions are WHAT you enjoy doing, your purpose is the WHY behind your passions.
Let’s take this example. Lots of business people have a passion for making money. They may enjoy the game, the art of making the deal, or just the feeling of being on top. But if you ask them WHY they love making money, you will get a different answer.
Here is a little story I read not long ago. An aspiring business person hired a coach to help him succeed. The first question the coach asked was: “How much money do you want to make?” The guy thought for a minute, and said: “I want to make a million dollars.”
The coach then said to him, “What are you going to do when you have a million dollars?” Without missing a beat, the guy said, “I’m going to go fishing.”
The coach shook his head and said, “You don’t need a million dollars to go fishing. What’s keeping you from going fishing right now?”
There is a lot of food for thought in that short parable. The first lesson I took from it is, why not be happy now? Just because you want more financial success in your life, it doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the gifts you already have. In fact, all the great spiritual teachers tell us that expressing gratitude every day will take us a long way on the path to achieving our dreams.
The second lesson is, you’ve got to think beyond yourself. Once you have all the money and possessions you want in your life, what else will matter to you? Most successful business people keep earning money long after they really need it because they want to make a difference in the world.
So take a minute and think about the WHY of your life. And as the Buddha of the Internet, Joe Vitale once said, DARE SOMETHING WORTHY.
Maybe you’ve never thought about your life this way, but we all leave behind a legacy. If you’re having trouble coming up with your life purpose, try this little visualization:
Imagine you are at your retirement party. Your family members, good friends, and professional acquaintances are gathered around, and they are each taking the time to say what you have meant to them. What would you like to hear about yourself? What accomplishments would you like to be remembered for? What kinds of relationships would you like to leave behind? How would you like the world to be different because of your life’s work?
Next: Creating a Vision
