“Passion Not Purpose”
This is not going to be a popular opinion, but I ask that you keep an open mind and an open heart. I don’t believe in the notion that there is any such thing as our calling, purpose, or an indisputable force that drives us to something that we were meant to do or born to do. I think some individuals may find this is a disheartening and downright erroneous theory, and I don’t blame them, but I do believe spending a lifetime to find your purpose is counterproductive.
I think it is beautiful to believe and to feel as if you were created to accomplish a specific task, but at the end of the day, I believe that is less than likely the case. Please do not become discouraged, though. I believe what we possess to be more notable, impactful, and useful than this notion of a predetermined fate, calling, or purpose. Now, before I go on, I want to acknowledge that the concept that we were specifically put on this earth to be the very best we can possibly be, at one specific task, feels empowering and honorable. I think the reality is, well, more realistic.
I believe that we, as a human race, do our very best to justify and make sense of everything that we are physically and mentally able to. I believe it is almost a failsafe switch in our minds to make sense of things, situations, and hell, even the world. I think that we have this innate urge to provide ourselves with an ultimate understanding of every situation we are put into. It is my opinion that it is an unwavering dialogue that is ingrained in our DNA. I think we do our very best to understand everything that has happened to us in our lives to help keep our sanity. In this system of belief, I think we convince ourselves that we are born to do something or born to accomplish a goal. We convince ourselves that we were made for this. We were put on this earth for this specific task, whatever that may be.
The truth is, I don’t think that being put on this earth for a specific reason is even in the realm of actuality. For example, just think about how often your interests change and your passions vary throughout an entire lifetime. I don’t mean within a year, five years, or even a decade; I’m speaking about from birth until death. Everyone changes. Everyone grows. Everyone becomes a different person year after year. I have a saying that I tend to use quite a bit. “If you don’t look back and think, wow, ten years ago I was a moron,” then you are not growing as a person. Stagnation is the thief of growth, as “comparison is the thief of joy” - Teddy Roosevelt. If we were truly put on this earth to accomplish a specific goal, this should be ingrained into us from day one, and that thought should never vary
Now, I know up to this point I have been a bit of a bummer, but I needed to explain the first part of my theory to portray the most important part of said theory accurately. The fact that we are not put on this earth for a specific task or reason should be considered one of the greatest gifts life could ever grant us. The thought of being placed here to accomplish your “purpose” is rather restrictive and frankly debilitating. It sounds so honorable and unshakeable, but it will theoretically hold you back in a myriad of ways.
Finally, the upside. Lacking an undisputable purpose or believing that you were placed on this earth for one primary reason can only hold you back as an individual and a collective of society. The ability to possess passion is what really matters, not finding your one and only purpose. Who knows where passion festers? If you have passion inside you, in your heart, your spirit, hell, your big toe, that is your compass for finding why you’re here and what you can accomplish. If you believe that you hold the capacity to be passionate, you will never be left without purpose. Your purpose can change as frequently as you would like, and the magic is that you still contain the passion that drives whatever purpose you see fit for that period in your life. Passion is the gasoline to the vehicle that is purpose, or in today’s day and age, passion is the electricity to the vehicle that is purpose.
This is wonderful and should be highly motivating news for everyone! You see, as romantic and driven as it sounds, very few of us find what we believe to be our calling in life. Instead, we kind of stumble through, day by day, hoping our purpose smacks us in the face and we are provided with incontestable direction for the rest of our lives. The problem with that is that it’s bullshit. I am not denying that some people feel they have found their purpose, but I will argue that it is not true. With passion, not purpose, you can morph, mold, and transform on a never-ending timeline. Well, never-ending until you cease to exist, but I think you get my point.
I feel many people share in a bottomless pit of depression and despair because they feel they lack a sense of purpose. They feel that half their life has passed them by, and they still don’t know what they want to be when they “grow up.” Well, I argue that this is unequivocally normal and will undoubtedly be unpopular, but forget one specific purpose, forever. It is freeing to shift your perspective to what I believe is the healthiest perspective one can have, and that perspective is that we will never have just one purpose in life. Our purposes should change, mold, and shift as we do as individuals. Our purposes can be an ever-revolving door, popping out new purposes like my grandparents popped out eleven children. This theory, if you let it, can be the most freeing mental exercise you may ever experience. If you give up on finding that one purpose and begin to follow your passions, no matter how abstract, simple, strange, and everything in between, you will forever be free and willing to be undeniably adaptable. Adaptation is essential to survival, so the next time you are listening to someone who is preaching to you about their life’s purpose, just remember you have passion, and passion provides you with the tools to have an unlimited number of purposes.
By: A.L. Blackheart
