Hey Superstar,
A lot is said about finding your purpose and I have found that the word can come across as rather bombastic to many, triggering a worry response that reacts by freaking out about NOT having found your “purpose,” or knowing where your life is going.
If this is you, purpose is a term I work to deconstruct, helping you build a robust understanding of it and within this, to uncover your own with each of my talks and programs. Even before we go there (and we do hope to see you in session), I want you to begin to just ease into the understanding that your purpose can and will be find inside that for which you are PASSIONATE. Your passions contain your purpose.
So, how has it possibly escaped you thus far? How is it escaping you thus far?
It’s simple – you have not come to associate your passion (example: music, interiors, uplifting people) with security (MONEY). This is because of society and your parents (by the way, hi, Mom!).
Society, parents, and well meaning teachers and peers spend a lifetime telling us directly and indirectly that we can’t make a living pursuing our passions. Where else do you think the silly term “STARVING ARTIST” came from?
They tell us to “get a real job” and reserve our passions for hobbies.
With my own life and career, I challenge this notion since passion is the healthiest source of attachment at work. “Passion puts pleasure in the work,” said Aristotle, and PS: it does not NOT make money. “Starving artist?” Try telling that to Gerhardt Schroeder.
Take start-up entrepreneurs, for example. Investors value an entrepreneur’s passion for their business as the third most important factor when deciding whether to invest. Our great friends David Heath and Randy Goldberg, the founders of Bombas socks, have been role models in this respect. They started their company not because of their love for socks but because of their passion for helping the homeless – which I know first hand, because I used to sit next to them when they weren’t even a company, back when we shared the common space at Neuehouse NYC. Just TWO GUYS – who were incredibly moved and inspired once they learned that socks were the most requested item in homeless shelters, and thereby created a buy-one-give-one program that has since donated 75 million socks and become one of the most profitable investments in Shark Tank history.
Or, let’s go back to me. I love uplifting people and speaking – literally, a passion for entertaining and talking, and happen to have had a powerful series of life experiences and business experiences and success through which I can share these passions. For YEARS, I ignored these passions because there was no such thing as making a living through these things, right? Until I realized that Eddie Murphy, Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, Esther Hicks and Mrs. Maisel beg to differ.
If you feel the same about your passion, you shouldn’t mask it behind something you think will make you better money, give you more stability, or give you a higher title. YOU SHOULD GO FOR IT. Why? Because everything, and I mean EVERYTHING without purpose is living a deadened, muted and subdued life. As the great Viktor Frankl wrote, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
Purpose ends suffering, as it awakens us to the power of our soul.
To discover and unlock yours and begin to build a lifetime of joy and success around it, either apply for one of our spots in coaching, or at very least come and pivot with us at the upcoming Midlife Awakening Retreat in Todos Santos, Mexico. We will be so happy to see you there.
To your best life,