What does your passion have to do with your business and survival? To answer in one word: everything.
Even back in the 1950, when Viktor Frankl created Logotherapy, he had hard evidence to prove that finding your passion was not only a matter of wellbeing but a matter of survival.
Frankl was a psychotherapist that survived the concentration camp. He observed that it was not the inhuman treatment or diseases that killed the inmates, but the lack of having purpose to live.
As soon as they lost the hope for seeing their partner or children again or going back home, their light extinguished within a few days.
During the past century, psychotherapists, and pharmaceutical industry have been trying to alleviate and root out the modern day epidemic such as anxiety and depression, says Martin E. Seligman in his book ‘What you Can Change and What You Can’t’.
We live in, according to Seligman’s research, the age of depression and helplessness: the permeating feeling of uncontrollability, struggle for and failure achieve power.
Finding purpose in life helps us find meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones. So if you are depressed, one reason may be that you are working in a job that doesn’t allow you to express your passion and talents.
2. Find your tribe
Being in your element is connecting with other people with whom you share your passion and desire to make the most of yourself through it, Ken Robinson, The Element
When you find community of people that fascinates you, enlightens you, motivates you and loves you for who you are Ken Robertson calls it discovering your element.
When the things we love come together with the things we are good at.
Meg Ryan discovered her passion for acting by accident. She was, in fact, terrified all her life of speaking in front of an audience. She came to New York to study journalism and to pay for her education she would work for a commercial, then at one point she got chosen to act in a soap opera.
She found the world of actors fascinating, ‘the job was like being in a nutty extended family’, Robinson reports in his book the Element.
It’s is about finding what fuels you, and being around other people that validate the passion you have in common. Finding your community brings forth the inspiration, knowing that what you do matters and is actually worth doing. It’s also the alchemy of co-creating with others.
For example in a Scaling Deeep business membership community I met women that work as coaches and corporate trainers with enneagram coaching, which is a similar business model as mine. I thought I was alone and lost in the world with my approach of tailor made corporate programs.
Your community raises your bars higher.
Isaac Newton said: ‘I saw further because I stood on the shoulders of giants’.
Who we surround ourselves with is very important for reaching our goals.
Are you surrounded with people that support your goals or laugh at them? Consider joining my community membership to support you on your entrepreneurial journey.
3. Discover your zone of genius
‘Everybody is a genius but if you judge the fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing its stupid’, Albert Einstein’.
Often we are growing up in the families or environment that tries to mould us into their vision of what is considered good, desired and successful. That’s how I grew up, and even though I was talented in painting and writing, helping others improve their lives, having a career in those fields was never considered an option.
Each one of us is an individual creation of the universe, with unique talents and capabilities and it’s irrelevant what society thinks we should be or do. We need to contribute to the world with our unique vision and actions, and tune into what we are drawn to do, what makes us happy.
“The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal; it is to find and fully use our own gifts.”, Guy Hendricks: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Your Life to the Next Level
The only way to live well is to follow internal values and listen to inner guidance. So Hendricks explains in his book that one of the main reasons why people don’t follow their inner guidance is because of fear.
Fear of success, funnily enough, not of failure.
We put up our own upper limit. Some of the reasons are underlying negative beliefs such as: I am fundamentally flawed, I’ll end up alone, become disloyal to my roots and leave behind the people from my past. I can’t do it because I will outshine my father/mother or success is a burden.
Hendricks preaches minimizing spending energy on activities we do not enjoy to be able to focus on the stuff we love to do and are great at. He divided the areas of human activity into four zones.
The first one is the Zone of Incompetence: All the activities we’re not good at. Delegate them to someone else or find a creative way to avoid doing them.
The Zone of Competence: Activities you can do but others can just as well. Successful people expend far too much time and energy here. The Zone of Excellence is the trickiest area. Here are the activities we do extremely well. We usually build a career and earn a living from this activity and others rely on us here. The problem is, a sacred part of you will wither and die if you remain within this seductive and dangerous trap.
The Zone of Genius: Activities you’re uniquely suited to do, that draw upon your special gifts and strengths. It’s easy. Everything flows.
How to find it? Develop positive habits to be able to hear your inner guidance.
4. Take 100% responsibility of your life
‘I believe each of us is born with a life purpose. Identifying, acknowledging, and honoring this purpose is perhaps the most important action successful people take’, Jack Canfield, The Success Principles
Canfield speaks about habits and thoughts of successful entrepreneurs, and finding your purpose is number one pre-requisite for success.
He puts it simply –‘Decide upon your major definite purpose in life and then organize all your activities around it. Everything you do should be an expression of your purpose. If an activity doesn’t fit that formula, you shouldn’t work on it. Period’.
Having a why behind your purpose is very important. Why do you want to do it?
Many authors including Canfield speak about the inner guidance system that tells us if we are on or off our purpose by the amount of joy we are experiencing. Work that bring us the greatest joy is in alignment with our purpose.
List all the times that you felt the most joyful, and find out what is common ground in those experiences. How could you make a living doing those things? List 20 things you love to do and think about how you could make those profitable.
To start the change in your life, we first need to accept where you are now.
Face what isn’t working in your life and resolve it to create your personal transformation.
Successful people face the circumstances squarely, and deal with them, no matter how difficult and uncomfortable they may be.
‘To achieve major success in life you must accept 100% responsibility for your life and results. Nothing less will do’, Jack Canfield
5. It’s the way to serve others and make the world a better place
There is a reason why you are here and you need to find out what the reason is for yourself, Deepak Chopra, The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success
One of the most important laws in the book of Deepak Chopra’s 7 Spiritual Laws of Success is the ‘Law of Dharma of Purpose’. It says that everyone has a unique talent.
You can do something better than anyone else in this world and living that purpose is actually your duty. It’s your real reason of having this living experience.
So by discovering your passion and finding how it can fulfill the actual needs of people is the spark that creates the affluence, Chopra says and I couldn’t agree more.
How can you serve your target audience with your unique talents and passion?
If the late Wayne Dyer didn’t take the path of his purpose, the world would have missed his guidance, his clarity of thoughts, great teachings, and all of his books.
You matter and your talents are needed.
If Louise Hay didn’t face her life problems and overcome the abuse, cancer and find inspiration in her hardest experiences we wouldn’t have ‘I can heal my life’ book nor Hay House Publishing that printed so many inspirational works of many authors.
Here are Chopra’s steps how to find the purpose:
1. Firstly you must discover yourself
‘There is a God inside of us, waiting to be born!’
2. Express your unique talents.
When you do that one thing you love, you lose the track of time and it takes you into the timeless awareness.
You feel in the flow. Around which money making activities do you feel in the flow?
3. How can I serve?
Serving others with our talents brings untold rewards back to your life. When I help my clients (and friends) grow while overcoming a difficult experience, I feel like a million dollars.
So, after reading about all these tips, try them out -now it’s your turn to do it.
Start living your purpose.