Live your purpose.  Live your passion.  Same thing…right??

This weekend I realized that I had been using the terms ‘purpose’ and ‘passion’ pretty interchangeably.  Furthermore, I realized that they aren’t the same thing.  And what really knocked me over the head was that my minsunderstanding was getting in the way of the truth!

purpose:  the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used

passion:  the object of enthusiasm or love

If purpose is the reason, than passion is the execution. 

Dereck of iWillNotDiewrote an article at LifeReboot called “The Courage to Pull the Plug“.  Dereck has decided he has had enough of being a cubicle monkey and just upped and quit his job.  Then  he decided that he was going on a cross-country bike trip for charity. 

(It is my understanding that he has a very  supportive spouse!)

Simplicity.

He tells us something that simple.  Really simple.  “Performing a lifereboot ultimately requires two things. It requires a thought, followed by an act.” 

And it hit me (like a lot of things these days) that purpose is the thought and passion is the act.  So you can have one ‘purpose’ but live and express it in many ways.  You can live on purpose, with purpose, through many passions, to live passionately.

Why does this actually matter, as opposed to being a nice, merely philosophical, exercise?  Because YOU and I, both, are living, expressing, our purpose!

Random Passion?

One’s passion for WoW means that you are questing, protecting, strategizing, or engaging your ‘inner’ warrior.  It is then a paler pursuit of what men used to do in society.  No surprise that the majority of WoW players are men.  How does being more ‘manly’ fulfill your purpose?  If you were to more fully express that drive, what would you become? 

So it isn’t a random exhibition, it’s a guidepost to a passion that more fully expresses your purpose.  To be who you are.  I don’t know what your purpose is, but the closer you are to fully experiencing your life and the closer you are to your truest self – the more you express that purpose.

Who are you?  Are you one who protects?  Solves problems?  If you limit yourself to expression of your being through a video game, you’ll feel hollow and you won’t understand how life got away from you.

Does it have to be significant?

One of my personal passions is dance.  I’ve always understood that I live my purpose through dance, but I never understood how.  I don’t make money at dance.  I am not a professional dancer.  I don’t particularly care for choreography.  What does it mean?  

For two hours, twice a week, I am completely in tune with the sacred nature of life.  I am Shiva The Destroyer as I stomp my way through Industrial.  I am the Venus, Goddess of Love, as I sexy to Salsa.  I am the open heart of the universe as I twirl, ballet-style, to techno. 

My purpose is not dancing, but I live my purpose through dancing.  If I lost my legs, I would retrofit some wheelies to my thighs, I love it that much.  Does dancing change the world?  Not that I can tell, but I do know that dancing brings me closer to love.

Aim.

What do you love?  What sets your soul on fire?  What purpose does that passion express?  Luckily you don’t have to have all the answers to start your path.  Just aim towards your passion.  Know that, even if you don’t know the elevator pitch for your purpose, the more fully your embrace your passions, the closer to fulfilling your purpose you will be.