Find Your Passion And Purpose With This One Exercise

What is your gift?

We each have something unique and special that we bring to the world. In fact, I believe we have many gifts. But for those of you who are struggling to find your passion, your gifts, your purpose in life, let’s just start with one. Many people like to use this type of activity when thinking about a change in career or reaching a different stage of their life. Others may like to apply it to their existing lifestyle.

Let’s do a quick brainstorm- or brain dump to find out what your passions are.

I want you to take out a piece of paper and write the word PASSION on it. Underneath that word, write the question, What am I passionate about?

Then I want you to take the next 7 minutes to write down anything that comes to your mind that you feel that you are passionate about. Be mindful not to overthink anything- there are no wrong answers here.

Even when you feel like you have run out of ideas, sit a bit longer and just let your thoughts flow. Sometimes our best ideas come toward the end.

The next step is to take a piece of paper and write the work PURPOSE on it. Underneath that word, write the question, What is my purpose in life? In my opinion, we have many passions and purposes, so give it a go for the next 7 minutes and see what you come up with.

The third step is to see which of your passions and purposes align and group them together.

For example, let’s just say you are passionate about fitness and teaching and healthy living, and believe that one of your purposes in life is to encourage people to be healthier. These passions and purposes may align in the form of being a personal trainer, owning a gym, becoming an ambassador for a fitness company or volunteering at the local community.

Spend some time aligning these two lists and seeing what outcomes come to the surface.  These are your gifts to share with the world.  Give yourself at least 10 minutes with this exercise. Remember, this is always something you can come back to.

Now, many times, the things that drive our passions and purposes are our life experiences. More specifically, things and situations in life that are or have been a struggle for us. This is like the icing on the cake. The ability to turn our mess into our message.  In this story we find the 'why' that will drive our journey.

If you’ve read my very first blog post- my origin story- you would have read that my teenage pregnancy experience encouraged me to find my passion for personal development. Aligning this with my purpose to help others, it has become a mission in my personal and professional life to make an impact and encourage positive change in the world.

So wherever you are in your life journey, it might be interesting to reconnect with yourself and give this exercise a try. You never know what may come out of it. At the end of the day, don’t be too hard on yourself- personal development is a marathon, not a sprint. But start the journey and keep going. Spend the time to discover your gifts, because when we can align our passions with our purposes, this is where the magic happens!