Struggling to know How To Find Your Passion And Purpose In Life? Check out this MEGAGUIDE on finding your passion, calling, purpose in 2024.

How to Find Your Passion and Purpose in Life?

Whenever I talk to people about finding their passion, I am showered with questions like these:

Should you follow your passion?

Why is it important to follow your passion?

What is your passion examples?

What does following your passion mean?

How to find what’s your calling?

How to find your passion and purpose in life?

How to find your passion in your 30s?

Is there a step by step guide to find your passion?

Is there any how to find your passion test?

Are there books on how to find your passion?

What are the best books to help you find your passion?

How to find your passion for a career?

How to find what you love to do?

……..

….

And so on.

Such questions are never ending! Everyone is so crazy about how to find your passion and purpose in life but they don’t really know how to do it. And even if you find it, then how to kick start your passion.

I love public speaking, writing and helping others to become their better versions. And this is not something that I got enlightened with on one fine day.

It is something I have developed over a period of time by experimenting and exposing myself to new things in life.

Finding my passion has been a challenging as well as a wonderful journey and I’m still exploring and evolving.

Another Related Guide:

How To Keep Yourself Motivated To Do The Impossible?

Why You Should Follow Your Passion and Purpose in Life?

Before you start your journey of how to find your passion or purpose in life, you must ask these questions to yourself:

Why should you find your passion?

Why is it important for you to find your passion?

How finding your passion will change your life?

You might think that finding your passion will make your life easier because you’ll no longer have to go to a job you hate.

Most of the people think that if you know how to find your passion in life, it will make their life easier. But it’s seldom true.

Most of the entrepreneurs end up working for more than 80 hours a week after leaving their 40 hours a week job. And the interesting thing is that they are happy to do that.

Sometimes that even takes a toll on their personal life, health, and relationships too. But they still do it.

WHY?

Because…

They do it to make their life worthwhile and meaningful. They are interested in creating a much bigger impact not just in their own life but for others too.

Passion + Daily Action = Meaningful Life

And if you’ll ask me if there is some perfect recipe for how to find your passion in life, the answer is a BIG NO!

But is it possible to find your passion and purpose in life or find what you love to do? The answer is YES!

Because discovering your passion, is something which you will have to do all by yourself. You might get clues from others but you will have to walk the path.

When you choose to self-introspect and are open to experimentation with your life…

When you are ready to do unconventional things and learn new skills

……there are greater chances that you will be able to find what you love to do, what you are passionate about.

But, if you will wait for a perfect time, for someone to reveal your passion to you

……I doubt if such a moment will ever come 🙂

If you ask me, I’ll share ways that worked for me and helped me to find my passion in life.

And I’m glad that it can be turned into a profession (that’s a discussion for some other time).

So…

How To Find Your Passion And Purpose In Life?

1. Take a PAUSE to Reflect (P)

The biggest reason why you might not be able to find your passion or calling is that you are constantly busy with your routine life…

…and never took a break to think for a moment from where you are coming and where you are heading in life.

Have you?

If you look at your life, you’ll find that most of the time you are distracted due to various reasons…

…sometimes it may be your phone, calls, emails, TV shows or stupid opinions of others.

If you really want to know how to find your passion in life, you’ll need to do something about it.

These distractions take away the most valuable thing you have, your focus and your time.

You think you are busy, but you are just distracted.

You spend your valuable time and focus on things which don’t add value to your life.

So, stop giving a f*ck about things that don’t matter, as Mark Manson tells in his book.

If you can take some time off from all of your daily distractions and spend some time with yourself…

…you’ll be able to explore a whole new world for yourself

…you’ll be able to find your passion,

…you’ll be able to find your calling,

…you’ll be able to find your purpose in life.

Suggested Reading: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*Ck

In order to take a pause to reflect on your life, you need to cut away all kinds of distractions at least once a day for at least 20-35 minutes.

Switch off your phone and any other thing that can take away your attention.

Indulge in something that soothes you and shifts your awareness inward.

You can try activities like…

• Mindfulness meditation
• Take a walk in a nearby park
• Observe nature

When you take such pauses, observe your life from a third person perspective,

…examine where you are, connect the dots from your past and see where you are headed,

…observe what are your fundamental values and beliefs on which you operate.

When you do this exercise on a regular basis, you’ll have more clarity about yourself and you’ll be more SELF AWARE.

Clarity and Self Awareness are the basic ingredients to find your purpose and passion in life.

While doing this activity, whatever comes to your mind, just write it down in your journal.

Oh! I forgot to ask. Do you have a JOURNAL??

If not, then you must have one. It will be a great tool for you on your journey of finding your purpose and passion.

This is how my journal looks like 🙂

If you want you can buy a similar journal online too. Click here to check it out.

2. ASK Questions to Bring Clarity (A)

To find your purpose and passion in life, ask some questions to yourself which will help in bringing some clarity.

You can try it now.

Take a moment and ask these simple questions to yourself, right now!

Grab your journal (or a paper) and pen, write down your answers to these questions.

Where do you spend most of your time and money, especially on holidays?

What kind of content do you consume in the form of videos, blogs, and books?

What your friends reach out to you for, most of the time?

What did you love to do when you were a kid?

What makes you happy even if it is tough to do and you can even forget to eat?

What would you do if money didn’t matter?

What would you spend your time doing, if you had the complete financial abundance to do anything?

Don’t be so selective about the answers, whatever comes to your mind, just write it down.

I do this exercise whenever I find myself a bit lost.

When I answered these questions for myself, I got insights like these:

I spend most of my time reading books, blogs and watching videos on self-improvement, human behavior, and psychology. I spend money to buy books and online courses on similar topics. And my sweet wife always complains about it 😉

I love to write about my experience and because of that, I was able to publish my book too. Fortunately, it became #1 Amazon Best- Selling Book in Coaching & Training category within a couple of days of launch. This book has my journey of going through the toughest phase of my life and discovering my passion and purpose for life, my calling.  You can check it out here. 🙂

Over the years, I have realized that my friends use to ask me about how to deal with situations,  people and their own mindsets. That’s what I have been doing since I was in college.

And that’s what I love doing. Some people call it counseling and some call it coaching. But that’s something really excites me.

As a kid, I used to stand on my bed (using it as a stage) and speak as if I was delivering a speech in front of an audience. My friends and family would sit around to listen to me. I don’t exactly remember what I used to speak, but it was fun and all of them used to enjoy it.

Because of that, I started participating in public speaking competitions at school and fortunately, won some accolades too 🙂

Writing articles, interacting with people, conducting workshops, promoting my blog and spending quality time with my family, is what makes me really happy.

Although I’m still doing a 9 to 5 job, even then I’m able to do so many additional things because it makes me happy and keeps me excited.

Similarly, you can reflect upon your life and find out answers to the above questions. This will help in understanding how you can find your purpose and passion in life.

3. REMEMBER, You are Mortal, to look at a Bigger Picture  (R)

Remember you are mortal and can be gone at any moment.

Sorry, for saying it. But it’s the universal truth.

This might be intimidating but it’s true. You might love to plan your entire life as if you are going to live forever but that’s not the case.

The sooner you realize it, the better you will be. This life is very fragile and we don’t know when we are gone forever.

People think too much, hold grudges, plan everything meticulously, accumulate so many things, believing they are not going to die.

This human body has an expiry date too.

Therefore, whatever life You and I are left with, must be spent to make it meaningful and joyful.

Try to look at the bigger picture of your life

If you can look at the bigger picture, you’ll understand why it is important to find your purpose, your passion, your calling in life.

It is very easy to get carried away with your emotions or situations and make bad decisions in life. If you are in confusion about something right now…

…fast forward your life 30-40 years and see if it still matters to you.

Then decide what you need to do.

Therefore, try to add more and more experience to your life. Make it blissful.

Get as much as exposure as possible.

And how can you do that?

The best way is to Read and Interact as much as you can.

• Invest time in reading stuff related to your interest and explore.
• Read blogs, books, autobiographies, magazines…
• Meet new people who have similar interest.
• Go to meetups and clubs like Toastmasters.
• Talk to them. Understand how they look at things and how they work on their passion.
• You don’t need to copy them, just imbibe the good practices they follow.

It will give you an opportunity to widen your horizon of thinking, it will give you more perspective and new angles to look at the same situation.

It will give you exposure and open doors to new possibilities.

And you will understand that the world is much bigger than what you had thought.

Your adversities, challenges, and struggles will start to look smaller.

And the first thing you can do to make your life meaningful is by fueling your curiosity about how to find your passion in life.

4. FEEDBACK from Friends to Discover Your Natural Talents  (F)

Off recently, I was doing this online course on “Personal Branding Mastery” on Udemy.

During that course, I had to do one exercise. Initially, I was reluctant because it pushed me to become a bit vulnerable to accepting feedback.

I didn’t know what people were going to tell about me.

The exercise had some questions which I had to ask my friends and colleagues in order to know what my skills and qualities are, from their perspective. Also, get feedback on areas I need to make an improvement.

But when I did this exercise…I got some incredible insights that I never thought about myself. That proved really helpful and I’m thankful to people who took out time to respond to the questionnaire.

I’m sharing some of the snapshots from that exercise with you.

This is how the questionnaire looks like:

And this is a summary of the responses I got for one of the questions:

Wondering, what I got for improvement? 😉

Sorry, that’s personal. I’ll have to work on that.

I would recommend you to go through such exercise too and open yourself to accepting feedback.

All of us know that taking feedback is a good thing but we seldom do it in our personal life to become a better person. Generally, we limit it to our offices and professional life.

You can simply use google forms to create it.

Here’s a link to a basic step by step guide on how you can create a similar questionnaire for yourself, in case you are not familiar with how to use google forms.

And once you are through this exercise, let me know how do you feel after getting responses 🙂

It’s exciting and an eye-opener too.

Based on the exercise, you will be able to uncover some of the qualities and skills which can shape your passion.

That will help you have some clues about how to find your passion in life.

5. ACT & Experiment to Find Your Passion (A)

Act, experiment and correct the course as you move ahead.

Passion is not something that you’ll realize about it in your dreams and the next day you start working on it.

Passion is developed and evolved over a period of time. You experiment with several things and evaluate your experience.

You might find yourself changing from one interest to another over time. And that’s completely fine.

Don’t presume that your passion should be your job or you’ll have to quit your job to find your passion. That’s not true.

Finding passion is not always about getting into a profession you love. Passion is spending your time doing something which is close to your heart.

It may become your profession or something which you do by taking out time apart from your profession.

But the crux is, you’ll have to act and be ready to experiment with things you do in your life. Experimentation is one of the best ways to find your purpose and passion in life.

Your passion will not come to you just by sitting on the couch, sipping drinks and watching Netflix.

You will have to spend some time every single day to explore new things and experiment.

• Here are some examples:
• If you think traveling is something that excites you, then you’ll have to start researching about a place and pick up your backpack to travel on this coming weekend
• If you think cooking re-energizes you, get into the kitchen and start preparing your unique recipe
• If you think playing football is great, then stop watching a football game on TV, call up your friends and plan a match on this coming weekend
• If you think writing is your passion, pick up a question you would like to answer and start writing about it right away
• If you think playing Guitar is really awesome, then stop dreaming about it. Find the nearest music classes, call up, enroll and start attending classes from this week
• If you think dancing is something very close to your heart, then find the nearest dancing classes or club and join it right away
• If you want to explore something new, list down good books on that topic and start reading them one by one. List down names of people who have knowledge in that area and start meeting them one by one

There could be ‘n’ number of such examples but the core message is the same.

Stop, just dreaming.

Stop asking for secrets of how to find your purpose or how to find your passion in life 🙂

Act right now and take the next step.

By doing this, will you find your passion?

Maybe, Yes!. Maybe, No!

BUT!

You’ll be at least one step closer to finding your passion.

Taking such steps will make you a Doer.

You’ll no longer stay entangled in your thoughts.

Even if you don’t find happiness in doing what you thought could be your passion, you’ll at least come to know that it’s not your passion.

Otherwise, you would have kept on dreaming your entire life or maybe regretting that you never tried.

Take actions even if they are small.

Let your passion evolve with time.

Give it some time.

Let it grow like a baby. Don’t rush.

As Gary Vee says,

“Micro speed and macro patience”

Be fast in taking actions in your day to day life, however, keep immense patience over how you do in your entire life.

Enjoy the journey of discovering your purpose and passion in life.

6. Find Your STORY You Want to Tell the World (S)

To conclude what we have discussed so far, you may choose whatever you wish to do.

But always remember what story you want to tell the world.

Imagine Yourself as the Protagonist and Your Life as a Story. Decide what you want to convey.

What kind of qualities do you want to express in this world?

How do you want yourself to be known or be identified by others? (This is not about getting influenced by others’ views but rather what kind of image YOU want to build)

Be brave and bold about it.

Tell me, what kind of story do you appreciate?

A story where everything is easy and predictable…

Or a story that is difficult to predict, where the hero has to struggle, face challenges and emerge as a winner at the end?

Obviously, the second one.

But when it comes to your own story, you wish it to be like the first one.

That’s not fair. Isn’t it? 🙂

So, stop worrying.

Look at your life as a great story in making and work for it every day.

Believe me, your life will be more fun, worthwhile and valuable not just for you but others too.

And whenever you wonder again about how to find your passion in life…

Remember this acronym: P.A.R.F.A.S.

1. Take a PAUSE to Reflect (P)
2. ASK Questions to Bring Clarity (A)
3. REMEMBER, You are Mortal, to look at the Bigger Picture (R)
4. FEEDBACK from Friends to Discover Your Natural Talents (F)
5. ACT & Experiment to Find Your Passion (A)
6. Find Your STORY You Want to Tell the World (S)

Books on How To Find Your Passion:

1. Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk 
2. Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build their Business and Influence and How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk
3. Grit: Why passion and resilience are the secrets to success by Angela Duckworth
4. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica
5. The Passion Paradox by Brad Stulberg

Quotes About Following Your Passion

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” ~ Steve Jobs

“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.” ~ Steve Jobs

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.” ~ Wanda Sykes

“You can do anything as long as you have the passion, the drive, the focus, and the support.” ~ Sabrina Bryan

“Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.” ~ Jon Bon Jovi

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

“If you don’t love what you do, you won’t do it with much conviction or passion.” ~ Mia Hamm

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” ~ Nelson Mandela

“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” ~ Anthony J. D’Angelo

Let me know what is your passion, how your journey has been, what story you want to tell the world? Share in the comments.

If you need any help, feel free to post your questions.

Read books from these amazing collections to support yourself and grow in life:

• Best Self Help Books Of All Time
• Best Self Help Books For Young Women
• Good Books To Read For Teens And Young Adults

A Small Request:

If you like this article and found it useful, please share it with your friends so that they too can find their passion and live a better life.

Cheers!