Contemplate Your Life Purpose and Passion

Contemplating the purpose of your life as well as your true passions, can enable some of the most powerful leaps in self development and personal growth.

And this is because your passions are what drive you, and your life purpose is like a compass that keeps you on your personal path to fulfilment in life.

Passions – Things that ignite your enthusiasm.
Life Purpose – The central motivating aims of your life.

Following this, if you are unclear of what your passions are or you’re not in touch with your life purpose, navigating life in a meaningful and fulfilling way can be challenging.

We often have a loose idea of what our passions are, but rarely do we stop and reflect on what we want our life to be about

This can lead to all sorts of undesired outcomes where the “zest” and “spunk” are taken out of life

By Zedek Boateng

Hi, I’m Melchizedek Boateng, also known as Zedek. My spiritual journey began at 19, sparked by a sudden profound experience that led me to delve into deep meditation. Gradually increasing to two 1-hour sessions daily, I explored existential questions and realized that the deepest answers lie beyond language, found only through direct experience. Drawing from diverse traditions, I confidently distill powerful insights and transformative techniques to enrich lives with a fresh, multilayered perspective.,

The Importance Of Engaging With Your Passions

Passions and purposes can change and when they do it is usually to guide you closer to your most authentic desires, paying attention to your past passions as well as your current ones can paint out a map highlighting the areas you should be funnelling more of your attention and resources to.

This is because when we place more attention on our passions and actively engage in them, we naturally get better at them which also results in us being more valuable to those around us.

This can turn into a snowball effect where since you are passionate about a subject it inherently makes you happy and produces fulfilment, and since you feel fulfilment from engaging in your passion you feel inclined to work on it more which makes you better at said passion

Overtime this makes you happier, and more passionate and so on, this self-beneficial feedback loop is why it is so important to know your passions as well as your life purpose.

It should be needless to say engaging in your passions is also a surefire way to earn income whilst doing something you enjoy and care about, and because you care about the subject you are more likely to outwork and outperform all your peers who are less passionate about the same subject, which gives rise to the possibility of increased earnings also.

The Importance Of Having A Life Purpose

So far we’ve touched on passions and why its crucial to understand and engage with them. Now lets discuss the importance of having and actualizing your life purpose.

Your passions are an indication of what you find most meaningful in life

And as humans we tend to find purpose in things that carry meaning to us. For example my biggest passion is spirituality (encompassing meditation, philosophical contemplation, nature appreciation and a few other things)

The reason these things are my highest passions is simply because they carry the deepest meaning to me and my way of viewing life they bring me the most happiness, purpose and fulfilment, and as such it would only be wise for me to incorporate those into my life purpose.

And that brings us to the next important point about your life purpose. There is a common misconception that even I held, and it’s that your life purpose will just fall into your lap.

But from personal experience and observing others too, this simply isnt true, you must create your life purpose, or in other words create the central motivating goals of your life.

And you do this by contemplating the following:

Your passions
Your skills
Your hobbies
Your worries
Your desires

Before we delve into how to use this contemplative process to actualise your life purpose, let me briefly explain point 4 or “Your worries”

This may seem odd to contemplate but the things we’re worried about heavily determine the actions we take in both the long term and short term.

Our worries can strongly influence our skills or what we’re interested in, and even what we’re passionate about, so take note of your worries and reflect on how they interact with the other 4 aspects of your life purpose, take note of whether your worries are hindering your skills or passions, or maybe your worries and pushing you to develop new passions.

Either way there is valuable insight to be extracted from doing such an exercise. List out multiple ideas for each and see if you can notice any connections or patterns.

Once you have a solid map formed with the 5 points listed start to make the connection between your strongest passions, skills, hobbies, worries, desires and the life you want to lead.

Here’s an example of how I figured out my life purpose using this method

My biggest passions: Spirituality, Cooking, Martial Arts,
My skillset: Writing, Web Design, Communication, Cooking, Meditation, Beatboxing, Climbing
My Hobbies: Visiting Parks & Nature Reserves, Cooking, Anime, Calisthenics & Weight Lifting,
My Worries: Financial Insecurity
My Desires: Financial Freedom, Helping Others In Meaningful Ways, Creative Expression, Fun, Peace

After reflecting upon these ideas I began delving into my life purpose, creating a website sharing my cooking content and plant based insights, I also began this website here to express my passion for spirituality.

I began an e-commerce store to combat my worry of financial insecurity whilst pushing to achieve my desire of financial freedom, and I primarily sell nature themed art because nature appreciation is one of my biggest passions and hobbies. I could go into more detail about the other ways I am actualising my life purpose but I think you get the point!

Taking Charge Of Your Destiny

Earlier I said your passions can and do change and the same can be said for your life purpose, it is not a rigid entity that cannot change.

Your life purpose should grow and evolve with you over time, becoming more refined and aligned with your authentic views and desires.

Don’t be discouraged if it takes time to refine your goals. Embrace the exploration process, and keep an open mind to new discoveries about yourself. Take the first step today by reflecting on these five aspects, and watch your life unfold with newfound purpose and direction