You can be passionate about the purpose of your life but your passion may not be the purpose of your life. Here’s how I figured it.
All my life I dreamt of being a television anchor. And I did become one. But did it become me? Not really.
Dreams make you a different person. They are a source of life energy to keep one going. If there are no dreams, the absence of will is inevitable. For then, you won’t have a reason to thrive.
Since I “dreamt” of becoming a television anchor, my understanding and perception of it wasn’t anywhere close to reality. I assumed the profession of anchoring to be rosy and glam, and I, subconsciously, gave it my own touch of all good, positive and merry (my real virtues) overtones.
Initially, I had to wait for few years to bag my dream job and I got the much-awaited call when I was tired, dejected, about to quit and almost on the verge of exploring a different territory for money.
The first year at my dream job was full of curiosity while the newness had me on my toes, craving to get noticed. I honed the skills of a good television professional one by one and soon was given “the opportunity” to go on screen. Why the double quotes? Oh, because that’s how anchoring has been projected and described since its inception. It is overplayed to be perceived as a privilege.
The carefully manufactured perceptions of it are: “not easy to get there”, “only for the top talent” and always projected as something exclusive and aspirational for the youth.
As I was living my dream of television anchoring, it started to feel like success because I had turned my idea of success (anchoring) into reality that gave me a sense of achievement and happiness.
Now, this is where we often make a mistake. We consider our happiness in, and as a result of, a certain image our mind has projected of us. We constantly tend to seek praise, approvals and fall in deep love with the idea of our success which is actually derived by the acceptance of others.
In reality, there’s no definition or a set rules of success. There’s always more than what meets the eye and becoming a popular professional or businessperson in the absence of inner happiness can never be termed as ‘success’ because happiness cannot blossom without the playground of peace, achieved by balancing outer and inner happiness.
Real, ultimate success is happiness. And, happiness is success.
Now, whether the real happiness comes from becoming a TV anchor or by becoming a roadside sweeper, it doesn’t matter.
We think of our passion, dream to be the only purpose of our lives because that is all we have known since the beginning and will be told till the end of our lives. But that’s not the ultimate truth.
As time passed by, I turned out to be someone who wasn’t easily satisfied by just being an employee of a media organisation. Soon, I found myself questioning my dream, realised I was meant for more and ended it.
I wouldn’t say I had found the purpose of my life but I sure had started to walk on the feisty path that led to it.
Keeping the passion alive, I moulded myself into an independent anchor-person, started to earn my living by hosting events and eventually worked with top media brands independently.
Something important to note here is that I had somehow co-related the passion of my dream to become an anchor with my eternal happiness. But, it was only a bubble waiting to be broken by the journey of my life experiences.
Not that I wasn’t happy being a television anchor but the depth of my introspections had opened a new door for me to go and break the comfort zone. This is the door of discomfort that makes one peel layers of thoughts and eventually, soul-search that one thing that s/he will truly be happy doing for the rest of his/her life. This is when you deep-dive inside and get closer to discover the purpose of your life.
It’s going to be six years now since I saw the face of employment and I have come to believe that I thrive in a free environment and it helps me to breathe towards what I feel is the purpose of my life—work on myself, genuinely learn, touch lives and create something that leaves a long-lasting impact on humanity.
However, it is quite possible that your passion is indeed the purpose of your life too. There are people who are passionate about animals and work for their welfare all their lives, seldom being in the spotlight.
The key to finding purpose lies in knowing what will give you the ultimate, pure happiness even if that means not making enough money or not being popular enough. Now, that in no way means one has to make less money to be happy. If making a massive fortune gives you real, inner happiness then it may as well be the purpose of your life too.
Passion germinates from a deep-rooted, intense thought but purpose is always sought.
You have to see what you cannot see, think what you haven’t thought, feel what you never knew could be felt, focus, indulge in your inner self like never before and life will open itself for you, absorb you, give you wings to discover your sky of purpose.
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