What is your purpose?
It’s not always straightforward
This past December I turned 35. This is the age where most people are settled in, have a plan, or at least the start of one. Most people's plan is pretty straightforward – go to college, transition into their career, get married, have kids, move up in said career, buy a house, then keep improving on all of those things until the end of time. I was lined up to have a plan too, albeit later in life than most. I had a career and was making solid money. I am married, but with no intention of having children. I didn’t have a house, though I was poised to buy one. I could have kept moving up with my previous employer or gotten a similar job to move up in. But then, in June of 2021, I quit my job, my career.
When most purposes are straightforward, how do you find yours when it’s not?
Admittedly, I am not much of a follow your path or follow the trend type of person. I challenge everything and everyone. I have never believed in the “American Dream” or the standard life that most people aim for. No malice to anyone that does believe or want those things, I am glad you know what you want, what your purpose is. For me, for the people that want differently, it can be challenging to find it, more importantly, get to it.
There are two stages when it comes to finding one's purpose.
First, there is the act of figuring it out. This is where a lot of people stop. It takes a lot of introspection and self-awareness to find one's purpose. You need to be very self-aware and very humble. Knowing what you want and what you are good at. If they are one and the same, it’s simple to figure out. If they are not, you have to decide to get better at that thing or find another thing. At times our pride stops us here, trapping us in a loop of pain and regret. This is when artists go mad, people gamble savings away, and people become homeless. But if you can fight through this part, be truly humble, and pivot slightly if needed – you can find it. As an example – if your purpose was to be a painter, but no matter how hard you tried you could not acclimate yourself to the medium due to shaky hands or color blindness, consider pivoting to digital painting where the technology can smooth the strokes or assist you with the color palette.
Second, there is achieving something with your purpose. After finding one's purpose, the alignment of passion and skill, you then have to go into the world and use it to make a difference. This difference can be small to monumental. It can be using your purpose to do something in your community to making a true dent on the wider planet. This is the stage where relentless grit and serendipity come in. You must have thick skin when trying to put your purpose to work. It might be receiving terrible feedback, the denial of a grant or proposal, or worse – making something wonderful that gets scrapped in the final stretch of the project. As an example – a politician could be lobbying a branch of government for a new clean energy plan, one that could make a huge impact. That plan could be perfect, their delivery and follow-through perfect, but it gets swatted down due to funding or an opposing party. They had the grit and skill to get it to the line, but other forces stopped it. As an alternate solution, they could find a private sector to target and hope that they can make enough change there, or they could go up to bat again.
As I mentioned earlier I am in the process of finding my purpose. I am in the second stage. I know what I want and what I am good at. But I am very much so stuck in the second stage. I cannot find true traction. I am a storyteller, I have always been. I do this with two mediums – words and images. I have been writing most of my life, but not until the conception of this newsletter have I thought of myself as a writer. I have been a photographer and filmmaker since college and loved it since my first developing session in the darkroom. Over the past eight years I have been both; trying to affirm to myself that I am good enough and can successfully do something with my skill. I know that I am good enough, but I have not found my delivery method. I hope to find my audience or niche that skyrockets awareness of my skills, so I can put it to work, impactful work.
My purpose: “To evoke change through the power of storytelling”. When I say this, I mean true change. I want to make monumental shifts in the topics of remote work, the environment, and minimalism. More specifically, how those three subjects so perfectly springboard off one another.
There have been hundreds, if not thousands of great artists, researchers, and politicians that knew what they wanted, and were damn good at it, but they didn’t see their effort return results until long after their passing. I am trying my damnedest, not to be one of them. I have respect for each and every one, but I hope to see the fruits of my labor. That might mean taking risks and going to great lengths, but that is generally part of the process.
Do you know your purpose? Do you know it, but it hasn’t gained traction yet? Are you totally lost, like I once was? Regardless of your stage in finding your purpose – be relentless and humble, it will keep you on track. When combining that with a little luck, you’ll get to your goal sooner than you hoped.