Most of the people who come to me for coaching on finding their purpose and having more passion in their life, are stuck because they are trying to choose the RIGHT path. If this is true for you too, then let me let you off the hook:
There is no RIGHT path.
Your purpose is not predetermined. Your path to a more passionate life is not something you need to locate or uncover.
As I say in my public talks:
Purpose is created, not found.
Passion is grown, not discovered.
I know that part of you doesn’t believe this though. Part of you still wants to believe there is something out there and that when you find it, you will be able to step into like a spaceship and it will whisk you away, angels singing haleluija, filling you with inspiration and making every task on the journey an effortless pleasure and your astronomical success inevitable.
That’s not how it works though.
What keeps most people from creating a purpose and a passionate life is their unwillingness to let go of the idea that it is out there waiting for them.
There is no spaceship.
There is only a large bucket of Legos.
And there is no instruction booklet showing you how to build the spaceship.
When you see that the bucket of Legos is all there is, what do you do?
Do you go on searching for a spaceship?
Or do you dump them out, use your imagination and get creating?
Let go of the idea that there is a right path for you to take, or even that there is a right way to do it. Stop believing that if you just get it right, then you’ll be totally fulfilled. You will never get it right.
Where does the ‘right’ path come from then?
Your purpose and your more passionate life results from the interplay of your genetic/spiritual predispositions, psychological imprints, environment, relationships, other random happenings, fears, desires and your acts of will.
If you want to be empowered and enjoy your life, then spend your time focused on the only one of these you have any control over:
Your Acts of Will
Your choice of what to act on is all you really have.
Back to the Beginning
Assuming you are with me now – that you are willing to let go of choosing the right path – let’s go back to where we began.
The real reason you wanted to choose the right path is so that you could, as Joseph Campbell says, “experience the rapture of being alive”. When you are experiencing this, it certainly can feel like the right path. Here is the paradox:
The experience of being on the right path happens only when you stop believing there is a right path and allow yourself to do what you love in each moment.
When you do what you love, your imagination activates and you give birth to a purpose. The pursuit of this purpose creates a positive feedback loop, filling you with passion.
Free yourself from the fictional chains of predeterminism – forget finding the right path.
Stop searching for the spaceship.
Instead, utilise your acts of will to create your purpose and to grow your passion.
After all, without finding the right path, to create & grow is the only path you have left.