“Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.” ~ Seneca
Finding your purpose is like being the One. As the Oracle says in the Matrix, “Being the One is just like being in love. No one can tell you you’re in love, you just know it. Through and through. Balls to bones.”
So, when it comes down to it, finding your purpose is finding what you love to do, what you’re passionate about. But to find out what you love to do, you must first be open to discovery.
You must be pliant to fate and vicissitude, not merely compliant to “rules” and cultural norms. This requires vulnerability and deep questioning. But most of all it requires courage and curiosity.
1) Stay curious
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” ~ Albert Einstein
What are you curious about?
Every mission begins with deep questioning. Every adventure begins with hearing the call to action and asking what it means. You must ask the tough questions, and then you must act on the hard-fought answers.
It begins with asking yourself, “what do I like doing?” Write it down. Analyze it. Dig deep, and then unabashedly learn about that thing. Eventually you get to a point where that thing is connected to another thing. And so, you learn about that thing – no holds barred, unapologetically.
You keep doing this, again and again. Over and over. Before you know it, you’ve spanned a myriad of different, but related, domains of knowledge. Multiple streams of curiosity become manifest. This is the essence of autodidacticism and it is the epitome of self-discovery.
Why is curiosity so powerful? Because it is both a proactive engagement and a playful presence. True Curiosity is deep, primal, absorbing, imaginative and ravenous for updated knowledge that has the potential to put outdated knowledge to rest. It all begins with curiosity.
Stay curious. Fall in love. And deep passion is inevitable.
2) Stay passionate
“Passion exists at the intersection of three or more things you’re really curious about.” ~ Stephen Kotler
Where do the things you’re curious about intersect?
Satiating your curiosity never really ends, or at least it shouldn’t. But once you’ve discovered at least three things you’re deeply curious about, find what it is that overlaps within these three things and then allow that intersection, that passionate crossroads, to take you to the next level.
Remain curious to what this sacred crossroads has to teach you. Remain open and vulnerable, yet challenged and courageous, and a passionate Flow state will not elude you.
Flow will take your passion to new heights. It will get you out of your own way so that creativity can manifest and guide you toward your true purpose. Practice every day. Stay curious. Stay passionate. Keep showing up at that crossroads.
Before you know it, flow states will become second nature and you’ll wonder why you weren’t able to see the path before. Indeed. You’ll become the path: your own path. The one that only you can walk.
3) Discover your mission
“Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.” ~ David Bach
When your passion becomes your purpose, your life’s mission is born. Your immortality project becomes a reality. You feel it. You fall in love with it. Through and through. Balls to bones. Ovaries to marrow.
The path of “the One” becomes illuminated before you. When you look back at the well-trodden path, the typical path, the all too boring and predictable path of the passive and fixed state of being human, your breath catches and drags in your chest in sheer amazement at how you somehow couldn’t see that choosing your own way was just a leap of courage away.
But now it has opened-up before you, and it’s so beautiful it’s transcendent. You’re on it, your own path. You’re a walking, talking, questioning, curious, passionate, courageous Flow State.
Having discovered sacred oxygen, you are now prepared to place the oxygen mask on others. Your curiosity became passion. Your passion became purpose. Your purpose became your life’s mission.
You realize that the meaning of life is discovering what your life means. And then it’s about owning it, remaining curious about it, loving it through and through with your mind, body, and soul. And you only look back to laugh at yourself for not beginning sooner.
As the Buddha said, “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: Not going all the way, and not starting.”
And so it goes also for discovering your own mission in life.
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