The pandemic led to more people desiring to know their purpose. As society and the world of work experienced a seismic shift, people began soul searching for deeper meaning. With newfound downtime, as the world seemed to grind to a halt, people began to re-evaluate their lives. They began to ask the important questions such as “what am I here for”, “what should I be pursuing”, “am I living my purpose”.
Many of us are guilty of it. We were told we were to go to school, get an education, get a good job. If we followed this pattern or pathway, it would put us in position to have the American dream. The American dream: a spouse, children, and home ownership. No one told there would be 10 – 12-hour workdays, the working while on vacation, and more work. Maybe getting to see our children before they go to bed, or maybe not having time at all for a family or social life. Working to pay the bills and keep up with the culture yet experiencing little fulfillment.
Then we experienced the day all our lives changed. As we began to take inventory of our lives, many realized what they were doing was not living but merely existing. There began the thoughts that there must be more in this life. Life is short. There must be more to the career. More to the relationships. More to give to the world than working, going home, and doing it all again tomorrow. There began the pursuit of purpose, seeking fulfillment, and making our days count.
What is Purpose?
Famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear almost any ‘how””. Perhaps this is the struggle that became obvious when we had time to examine our lives. Many could not identify the ‘why’. Personal Branding pioneer, William Arruda says “It’s your why – your reason for being. It’s your mission”, when speaking about purpose.
To really understand what purpose is, it is helpful to look at its root. The word purpose comes from the term ‘purpus’ meaning “intention, aim, goal; object to be kept in view; proper function for which something exists”. Part of the definition I find most interesting is “object to be kept in view”. The thing which keeps us motivated, focused and gives us meaning is our purpose. It is the object to be kept in view.
Are Purpose and Passion One in the Same?
We are often told to “live our passion”. Or maybe you have been told “follow your passion and success will follow”. The problem is we have tried to use the terms – passion and purpose interchangeably. If we understand the terms individually, we will see they are better used as complements to one another rather than one in the same.
The term passion derives from the Late Latin “passionem” meaning “suffering, enduring” from past participle stem of Latin “pati” which means “to endure, undergo, experience”. When we look at these two words together, it shows they are not one in the same. Instead, it poses a challenge to us, considering our focus on passions.
What we have a passion for is something we are willing to suffer for and endure through until we reach the end goal. For our purpose, it is our why, it is our aim or our goal. It is the object we keep in view. The question is would we be willing to suffer and endure for the goal we have our sights on? Instead of telling people to follow or live their passion, we may want to reframe it to say, “Live Your Purpose with Passion”. Live your why with suffering and endurance. Those who are willing to go through the process, for the sake of what they are pursuing, will reap the rewards.
Purpose and Passion in Action
When we hear the word passion, we think of the passion of the Christ. Jesus was willing to go through three years in his earthly ministry for a cause bigger than life. He would be willing to go to a cross and die a painful death for purpose. The why for Him was so those who would accept Christ would have access to the Kingdom of God. The object Jesus kept in view was the lives of those who would be forgiven. For that, He was more than willing to suffer and endure the journey because He knew His why.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The Need for Purpose in Our Lives
No, we may not have as big of a why as Jesus did, but we all should discover our why. There has been a growing trend of unhappiness in our society, especially after the pandemic hit. Many people are feeling dissatisfied and unfulfilled in their personal lives and in their careers. According to Kaytlyn Gills, LCSW-BACS, “Feeling like you do not have anything to look forward to can drastically affect your mood. If you feel unfulfilled in your job or relationships, or just feel overall ‘stuck’, this can make you feel unhappy”. Associate Professor of Psychology Brett Steenbarger says, “We experience stress and distress when our lives lack such positive ingredients as happiness, fulfillment and energy”.
According to a Pew Research survey, 1 in 4 workers (39%) say their job or career is “extremely important to their overall identity”. However, less than 50% of American workers are satisfied with their jobs and day to day tasks. Work/life balance is one of the areas of life causing many to feel miserable, unfulfilled, or trapped. The John Templeton Foundation states “A sense of purpose in one’s career is correlated with both greater satisfaction at work as well as better work-related outputs”. If one’s career is a large part of their identity and where one spends a predominance of their time, it is a recipe for disaster when one feels unfulfilled or miserable due to the lack of purpose.
How Do We Discover Purpose?
American writer Mark Twain is famous for the quote “The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why”. If we are going to experience living, in its fullest sense, it begins with us discovering our purpose. The first place we should start is in prayer. We should seek the Creator of All to know God’s purpose for us as God’s good creation. Then we should become interrogators of our own lives, mining for clues. We can start by asking ourselves some powerful questions such as:
- What is Important to Me? Our values hold clues to our what is most important to us.
- What Breaks My Heart? There are many issues in the world. There are certain things which affect us deeper than others. The issues that impact us most can be clues to purpose.
- What Do People Seek Me Out For? Though we may not realize it, there are certain areas people seek our advice, wisdom, or assistance. We should ask those who come to us to see what makes them seek us out.
- What Would You Do If Money was not an Object? It is a familiar question, but it holds great information. The things that illuminate purpose in us can usually be found within this question.
As we begin to pray and ask the important questions, we will begin the journey to identifying our purpose. Purpose is not simply for the benefit of us, but it is for something greater. The John Templeton Foundation says purpose is “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once personally meaningful and at the same time leads to productive engagement with some aspect of the world beyond the self”. We are truly fulfilled when we know we are living for and contributing to something greater than ourselves. When we discover the why (our purpose) then we can bear any how (our passion).
Let’s talk about it. How are you living your purpose?
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