Yesterday I was paging through some of my folders. A folder dated, 2004, caught my eye for the label on the folder was ‘Call-Passion-Purpose.’ I had my first conversation about my ‘call’ when I was 16 (55 years ago). I began to explore ‘Passion’ (as in ‘What is your life’s Passion’?) when I was 20 and I was lost in the wilderness. Oddly, for me anyway, I did not begin to consciously explore ‘My Life’s Purpose’ until I was in my late 30s. It was another 19 years before I became crystal clear as to what my ‘Life’s Purpose’ is (I was much clearer about my ‘Call’ and about my ‘Passion’ years before this).
Some folks equate the three of these concepts; for me they are each unique. When they are in alignment harmony reigns and when they are disconnected or when they lack clarity then dissonance reigns. So, gentle reader, I thought I would share some of my thinking about these three powerful life-shapers. Let us continue with three brief definitions (I offer these for your consideration).
CALL = using our gifts, talents, abilities and capacities to meet a need that exists in my/the world.
PASSION = a driving energy that focus and motivates me; the fire within that nurtures and does not consume.
PURPOSE = my reason for being; ‘the reason I get up on Monday mornings.’
Given these three definitions it would seem to be helpful to one who is searching and seeking in order to understand, clarify or confirm/affirm one’s Call-Passion-Purpose that the following might be helpful.
It might be helpful for one to identify one’s gifts, talents, abilities and capacities. Some of these will be more fully developed than others. Some will lie dormant waiting to be nurtured into life. Some will need to be more fully developed. Some will have been neglected for years and have withered on the vine. This is no easy task for some. The process of discerning and naming and owing them might well last a life-time.
It might be helpful for one to reflect upon this question: ‘What motivates me?’ Consider, gentle reader, that each of us is motivated; the question is ‘Motivated to do or to be what?’ For some the Fire that is Passion burns brightly. For some the Fire is flickering and needs to be stoked and nurtured back into full flame. For some the Fire has never been recognized or named or it has never been allowed the air it needs in order to come into flame. For some the Fire has been extinguished and, as the poet David Whyte notes, the body then fills with dense smoke and we suffocate from within.
It might be helpful for one to spend some time – over time – reflecting upon the possible reasons for one’s existence. Each of us is unique. There was never one like us before and there will never be one like us after we have died. We are the one and only. How many of us go through life without understanding the ‘why’ – as in ‘Why am I here?’ ‘Why Me?’ I did not understand my Life’s Purpose until I was 53. I know folks who are older who do not understand their Purpose for Being. I am reminded of Oliver Wendell Holmes words: ‘Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us.’ A sobering thought indeed.