Passion vs. Purpose Mindset
How many times have you heard the clique phrase “Follow your passion?” Maybe you often hear the statement, “Just do what you love.” Have either of those sayings ever been that helpful to you, or do they feel passive and hollow? These phrases always frustrated me growing up. I never had an all-encompassing burning passion that I wanted to dedicate my entire life. I had many interests and valuable skills, and I dubbed myself too indecisive when I couldn’t choose just one. I lived through this guise of indecisiveness for a long time and thought I was the problem. This mindset not only held me back but broke me down. It made every accomplishment feel empty, and I felt so directionless.
It wasn’t until I overheard a conversation at a workshop I attended that my directionless apathy changed. A multi-talented man was speaking to a highly accomplished fashion stylist. He said he was having trouble deciding whether to pursue filmmaking or music. She responded with the powerful statement, “Why would you put a period where you can put a comma.” Upon hearing this, my mind started reeling, and I concluded that indecision was never the problem and being multi-hyphenate isn’t a flaw but an accomplishment. I never lacked in passion; what I lacked in was a purpose.
Changing your goals from passion-driven to purpose-driven can be dramatically empowering. This switch allows you to use your skills and passions toward a focused plan. You no longer have to dilute yourself down to your most capitalistic talent. You can go after something with your entire toolbelt and give it everything you have. Accomplishments no longer feel empty because once you have a clear “why” in mind, it’s easy to track your progress.
Taking passionate action is essential to success. However, if that passion is undirected, it is unuseful, or in the words of Tony Robbins, “Activity without purpose is the drain of your life.” So, how do you find direction? When I changed my mindset to purpose-driven, the first step I took was to find a problem that I could uniquely solve. I thought about how my past experiences and the skills I obtained from those experiences could come together. I thought about taking my background in art and design and combining it with my passion for mental clarity and empowering others to achieve their dreams. I thought about more minor or recent influences such as theatre performance or working with film and music production. When you list everything out, you can find patterns and overlap in your skills and experiences that inform your unique solution.
From this little bit of introspection, I could distill the problem I wanted to solve. I wanted to assist people in breaking past roadblocks and limiting beliefs toward a life they design. I desired to use my visual and audio storytelling talents to shift negative narratives. To accomplish this, I created the Creative Corrosion Podcast.
It would be incredibly disheartening to believe you had to focus your entire life on one thing. For myself, my interests and passions come in waves or cycles, and if I were solely passion-driven, these fluctuations would threaten my identity. The most exciting thing about being purpose-driven is that it isn’t inherent to your identity, and you are free to reframe your purpose and apply any newfound skills at will.
I want to conclude with a quote from Billy Sunday. He said, “More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent,” and I wholeheartedly believe this statement. There is nothing that hits quite as hard as wasted potential. Thousands of talented individuals could change the world if they stepped into their unique power and broke free from their limiting beliefs. I hope this proposal to act with a purpose mindset opens up the possibility of a brighter and more fulfilling future for you.
