Discovering My Passion and Purpose

Howard Thurman said..

"Don't ask what the word needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive".  

We all have a checklist in our lives that we have made which is based on our desires, we call them our "goals in life".  We work really hard towards achieving these and making them happen. Some of us spend our whole life chasing them. The list keeps growing and the hustle continues...

I had a similar checklist and I have successfully checked all the boxes on that list under the age of 30. But I still felt unfulfilled. These goals and desires looked good but I could'nt understand what was the missing point. Later did I realised that these were all for external validation and the external world. U know, the very famous thing called "Our Conditioning"makes us believe that these are so important. I had never created a list of goals for my internal world and the saying goes "Your external is just a reflection of your internal". I choose to believe it doesn't exist. No wonder the empitness and disconnection is what I found outside of my world. The door to my internal world was always open but I was afraid to walk through. This is where I was puzzled! Like what is the meaning of all of this.. Everyone seems to be pursuing a Purpose or Passion!! These words get thrown around. Isn't Purpose and Passion the same?? because all my life I thought I was pursuing my purpose through my passion?? and for a long time, I couldn't tell the difference between Passion and Purpose. To me, they felt like the same thing. Passion was that burning desire inside of me that made me feel alive and excited while Purpose was something very abstract sometimes and felt very distant, however  now I understood that passion can only light the way BUT purpose gives direction and both are necessary for living a meaningful life.

Back in my teenage years and my early twenties I was so consumed by passion. I felt like I was passionate about everything, I was the hustler, I was hustling behind external things like—career opportunities, new places, new things, new friends, new relationships, new clothes, new food—all of them exciting, but none of them long-lasting. In the beginning I would feel passionate towards something, like I had found "the thing" that would bring me purpose. I threw myself into these passions with everything I had, often disregarding whether they were sustainable or aligned with who I was at my core. The adrenaline rush of passion was thrilling, and for a time, it felt fulfilling. But as time went on, I noticed that the high of passion faded just as quickly as it came, leaving me feeling restless and empty, looking for the next thing to ignite that same spark.

I was confused and couldn't figure out why, no matter how much passion I poured into my life, I still felt like something was missing. I had moments where I was fully involved in what I loved whether it was a new exciting job, a relationship, a thing, a place and those moments were indeed temporary. Once the initial excitement wore off, I was left with the feeling that something deeper was calling me, something that wasn't about chasing after the next big thing, but about creating something lasting, meaningful, authentic and true.

I began to notice that purpose isn't always dramatic or loud. It's not about finding a grand mission or a specific career or the perfect relationship perfect body perfect looks. Instead, it's is about the alignment between who you are and what you choose to contribute. My purpose wasn't something I needed to chase or search for outside of myself—it's something I had to listen to, something that had always been there, just beneath the surperficial me.

As I went deeper into my inner healing journey I realised that it's about alignment. It's about the smallest unnoticed ordinary mundane of the day. We as humans are always chasing the extra ordinary but life is truly beautiful when we can be present in the ordinary moments too like our breath which we over look and fail to notice. When this shift happened, the pressure to find "the one thing" that would define my life and give it purpose dissolved. I know now that it's an ongoing evolving JOURNEY that could be expressed in many ways, through different passions at different points in my life. Passions will come and go, but the underlying purpose will always be there guiding me coz my purpose is anchored in my soul.

Knowing that passion and purpose were intertwined gave me a sense of relief. I figured that I didn't need to force myself to feel passionate about something every second of every day. It's about living with intention. I don't need to rely on them to define my worth or my direction. Instead when I allow my purpose to guide me through moments of doubt and confusion I am flowing with life's purpose I am here for more than just chasing fleeting moments of excitement. I become humble and aware that I am also here to contribute, to grow, and to be aligned with the truth of who I am—and in that alignment, the passions will always find its place.