In the Beginning … Passion, Purpose, & Pursuit
There’s really no such thing as coincidence … Everything happens for a reason!
Think about it … You might not know at the time what the reason is, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be revealed to you later.
I mean, as a kid we were told to do things, and not do things, for our betterment. If you were one of those inquisitive kids, you probably asked “why” for everything, and you might have gotten an explanation.
But, did you understand it? Or did you only understand it when you tried it for yourself and then realized exactly what the reason was that you should or shouldn’t have done the thing?
This was a part of your growth and your exploration.
If you have to grow and explore from childhood, do you think that that growth and exploration stops as you enter into adulthood? It doesn’t … But what did stop for a lot of us was asking “why”.
I’m challenging you to start back asking why! If you’ve talked to me for any length of time … It’s something that I’m bound to ask in any given conversation.
What’s the Point of All This?!?
Now, I’ve gathered all of us here to begin the first in a series of blogs that deal with passion, purpose, and the pursuit of the two. In order to embark on this pursuit, it’s going to involve you opening up that childhood like curiosity and exploration again.
In order to uncover your deepest calling, that passion and that purpose, you have to be willing to go on a journey of self discovery and self exploration … This is all a part of the pursuit!
So, how can you explore your path and uncover your deepest calling?
How can you go about finding that thing or things that you are passionate about?
How can you go about living out your greater purpose in life?
By being authentically you … By being real!
You have to live in alignment with who you came here to be!
No one can define your passion for you!
No one can define your purpose for you!
Your passion is what you truly enjoy doing. It’s the things that give you peace, comfort, are relaxing, or therapeutic to you.
Your purpose is largely a call on your life. I believe in God, so my purpose comes from him. But, if you don’t believe in God, or whatever higher power you do or don’t believe in, that’s where your calling and purpose come from.
While your passion is what you love doing, your purpose is what you were created to do.
This is why I say that no one can define your passion or purpose for you. So while no one can define it for you, others will notice it in you often before you notice it in yourself.
Take a Look at Your Life
I started with the statement that everything happens for a reason.
Now I want to ask you something: Do you believe it? What does it mean to you?
You know what I like to say: change your perspective, change your mindset, change your life. Applying that to this statement means that depending on your view of life, that perspective, will determine what this means to you.
It comes down to this: You either learn and grow from your experiences or you let your experiences define what happens in life. It goes back to that whole who is in control of your life … You or someone else?
It's up to you to find the meaning, the reason, the purpose, or the lesson in everything that happens to you. When you find that, it infuses our lives with a greater sense of purpose.
You get to choose it! It’s up to you to decide if you will allow the unexpected or “negative” aspects in life to be a curse, or will you turn them into a blessing. If you choose to see experiences as an opportunity, no matter what the challenge or obstacles are, it can be turned into a big blessing. You have to look for blessings and lessons in things … They stretch you, they help you grow, they teach you lessons.
I’m going to give you another challenge. This time, my challenge to you is that you start looking at your life. I want you to look at your life experiences to see how those different experiences have been a driving force in your life.
By taking the time to look at these different life experiences, you are taking the time through self discovery and self exploration so that you can see how the puzzle fits together and helps you see your true passions and your true purpose.
How Will this Work?!?
Life is so complex that you sometimes miss the different circumstances, journey, or patterns that have truly influenced you. Why?!? Because you get so focused on getting by that you aren’t thinking about the past, the present, or the future … You’re just in a rush!
The best way that I can illustrate this is by telling the story of me getting here … To understand my passions which have allowed me to find my purpose.
But, keep in mind that this is just the beginning … So we will use my story to walk us through the various parts of the blog.
And through this, we will explore passion and purpose … The similarities and the differences.
And then you too can go through your life and look at the significant events that have happened in your life.
As you go through this you can ask yourself various questions:
What were the turning points?
Do you see any patterns?
What lessons were you taught or learned?
What does it look like you’ve been “in training” for?
What do you see your life has been heavily focused on?
What stands out?
What’s my Story?
In telling this story … I’m combining passion and purpose for ease and simplicity as well as to lay the groundwork for parts that we will have to dive deeper into later.
Growing up I was the child who was always walking around with a book. No seriously, like I’d be in the car or in a room that’s getting dark and I would still be trying to read. I was also the child whose parents would call to come upstairs, or I’d need to get something from downstairs, that I’d read the book on the way up and down the stairs.
Let’s just say that reading and learning has something that I’ve been about since I was little. I mean, I graduated high school with an Associate of Arts Degree and was barred as an attorney by twenty-three.
I used to read to my stuffed animals and teach them lessons. I thought I wanted to be a teacher growing up. Based on this, is it really a surprise that I’m still seeking knowledge and learning and that the desire for constant knowledge has turned into me giving it back to others.
By middle school, after a week in Miami with my aunt who was a corporate attorney, I decided I wanted to be an attorney. BUT, I knew that corporate law wasn’t for me … I wanted to work with people, not some big corporation. I wanted to be able to make a change and an impact in people’s lives.
Growing up I played sports, but come college and beyond it became intramural sports because I didn't want to give up sports and I enjoyed being active … But it also morphed into starting to work out as well, didn't have PE anymore to just count as a workout, which led to working out online. This is where my motivation started to really show it’s head and I became an online health and fitness.
And this is where others started to see passion and purpose in me. The encouragement, the motivation, the simplicity in being able to prioritize and get things done. Remember that wanting to make an impact in people’s lives … Yea, that’s Coach Lee - inspired to impact.
Stay Tuned … This is the Beginning
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this, and if you’ve been following my stories then you already know … this is just the start of this discussion.
I wanted to give you some background to work with … Since we’re going to keep diving into this passion, purpose, and pursuit talk. And in doing so, I will also go deeper into some parts of my story as we are on this journey together.
We’ve got a couple more weeks of this … Which will all be put together and ultimately truly culminate in an interactive way. So save the date for September 11, 2021 … More details to come!
Oh, and as always … If you’re ready to get started on this now, you know not procrastinate and all so you can start living your best life now, go ahead and reach out to me and we can talk.
Until next week … Let me know if you’re taking the challenges I gave you today.
-Coach Lee
Your Productivity & Accountability Coach