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How To Find Your Passion, Purpose & Calling In Life… By Starting Small (Counterintuitive Life Advice)

The internet is filled with motivational speakers & guru's telling you that you need to find your passion in life… your purpose… something that makes you jump out of bed each morning filled with excitement…

And, as it turns out, the guru's are actually right...

Not only is passion positively correlated with productivity & goal attainment…

There are other benefits to passion/purpose too…

…with various studies proving people with a greater sense of self-reported purpose & meaning in life…

• sleep better at night

• have more energy during the day

• enjoy better sex (a surprising finding, but an unusual relationship tip here)

• are healthier (including stronger immune systems, reduced risks for conditions like Alzheimer's disease, heart attacks, strokes)

• lower risk of mental health problems (like anxiety disorders or depression) &

• they also live longer too...

But while the guru's may be right about the factor you need to find (or create?) your own passion/purpose in life…

A lot of the advice out there is wrong about what that passion/purpose needs to be…

One significant misconception here is that our passion/purpose in this life has to be something big & grand...

It has to be life-changing & world-changing...

We look at some of the most defining stories, messages & legacies of our modern world from Martin Luther King Jr & the civil rights movement, to Rosa Parks & the woman's vote, to the stories of Gandhi & Mother Teresa... (these examples are often shared)

And we assume based on them that unless our own purpose is to end poverty, create equality, fight against climate change, feed all those who are starving in the world, or end all violence & suffering for good... we're not doing it right.

But, this is simply not true...

There are countless individuals in this world who have a purpose just that’s as inspiring, intoxicating, meaningful & fulfilling to them as these icons... but it's not big, it's not grand...

(or, perhaps it didn't start that way!)

In the book, titled "Ikagai" (after the Japanese word for this type of purpose/calling in life, loosely translated to "your reason for being")… there are a couple of really great stories about this...

One is an example of an artisan from Kyoto, "Shakunaga" who made cups, vases & plates from porcelain he was getting from the nearby mountains…

This was a man who spent his life doing something he loved... passionate... fulfilled... but what he was doing was making cups, vases, plates & so on from porcelain he was collecting from the nearby mountains (porcelain unlike any you see in the world).

Another is a story of a man who has been making sushi every day for more than 80 years...

He owns a small sushi restaurant near a subway station in Tokyo...

Even though his restaurant received a 3-star rating from Michelin, he never considered opening other locations or expanding the business.

They continue to serve just 10 people at a time at the bar of their small restaurant…

Why?

Because they don't care for business, or don't aspire to make much money, they just want to make sushi.

That's their passion: sushi.

Although perhaps our favourite example is that of Hayao Miyazaki, the director of animated films produced by Studio Ghibli in Japan…

Unlike most modern studies, he (& his entire team) actually draw everything by hand...

In the year 2013, Miyazaki announced he was going to retire...

To commemorate his retirement, a TV station in Japan made a documentary showing him in his last days at work...

In one scene, several of his colleagues are seen coming out of a meeting & there he is, drawing in a corner, paying no attention to them, drawing.

In another scene, he is showing walking to work on December 30th (a national holiday in Japan) & opening the doors of Studio Ghibli so he can spend the day there, drawing alone... because drawing is his passion.

Even the day after his so-called "retirement", instead of going on vacation or staying at home, he went to Studio Ghibli & sat down to draw (his colleague didn't know what to say... he was supposed to have "retired", yet here he was still “working”.)

One year later, he announced that while he wouldn't make any more feature films but he would keep on drawing until the day he died.

The book then poses the question:

And it's a great question indeed...

Here is a man (like countless others around the world - we just don't read or hear there stories on a daily basis) who has found & cultivated a passion so strong that he simply cannot not do it…

Miyazaki can't stop drawing & he won't...

Now, in each of these examples, their passions, purpose, calling, their "Ikagai", or whatever you want to call it...

It is not big, it's not grand, it's not world-changing necessarily (although little things do ripple out, or as Mother Teresa put it, “If each of us would only sweep our own doorstep, the whole World would be clean.”)...

In each example here, it's small…

It's simple…

It's making cups & plates from local material.

It's making sushi.

It's drawing.

It's no different (atleast on the outside) from what you see everyone else doing... except, for these individuals, it is different...

Why?

Because it's their passion & they love it (there is no Monday morning dread in these stories)

It's what they would do whether they would get paid for it or not.

It's something that they've been doing for decades & will do until their dying breath... it truly never feels like work for them.

And so, your passion doesn't have to be big & grand...

It can be something small & simple...

It can be owning your own restaurant & serving your favourite dishes from your homeland, or teaching kids about a topic that's close to your hard, or being an instructor at a dance studio & spending your days making peoples lives happier through the power of dance...

It doesn't really matter how big, or how small it is...

...whether it's teaching sport to kids, or coaching one of the best sports teams in the world...

Whether it's writing poems, books, novels...

Helping people with weight issues as a personal trainer, helping them through this problems as a therapist or a coach, or simply offering them your wonderful hand-crafted jewelry, shoes, or handbag...

All that really matters is that your passion is yours (& it motivates you intrinsically, so much so that you look forward to do the work, because it's work you enjoy & more than that find meaningful & fulfilling).

And even if you do have bigger dream & ambitions than I'm sharing about here…

(which is great & we're not here to discourage this... go for it, dream big if that's what you truly want but don't do it because you think you need to based on what I or anyone else tells you... do it because you want to, not anyone else)...

And, even here... you can (& probably) should atleast start small.

The high achievers & world-changers I started this insight with... they didn't start with what they ended up doing...

Rosa Parks didn't set out to start a movement... she just got fed up of the injustice & decided to take a stand against it (or, rather in her case, didn't stand, but choose to stay sitting against it...) & it snowballed from there...

Steve Jobs just wanted to make some quick cash by selling computer parts, before he stumbled into the field properly & started Apple Computers.

Same with the others...

So, the insight still applies... start small.

But, just start.

And if you'd like to eliminate the guesswork & learn practical, step-by-step processes & strategies for uncovering your passion, purpose & goals in life... be sure to check out the Potencia course, called:

"Passion Code: How To Find Your Passion, Discover Your Purpose & Create Meaningful Work You Love"

👉 Get all the details & start the course today »

✅ RECOMMENDATION

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In case you missed the update, we recently announced our newest, companion newsletter, titled:

‘Frameworks For Life’

As part of it, we’re doing the heavy lifting of researching, studying & curating the best insights, concepts & frameworks to help you make more intelligent decisions & get ahead in life... & sending those to you (in simple terms, easy to implement) every single week…

Ultimately, helping you to achieve more of the results, the success, happiness & wellbeing you truly deserve in this life!

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💭 QUOTE OF THE WEEK

‎‍🎯 CHALLENGE

‘Social Media Detox’

Much like you can do a 'detox' or 'cleanse' to restore some balance & improve the functioning of your body...

You can do various types of mental detoxes to reset your mind, clear your head, take a mental vacation & come back thinking & feeling much better than before...

A 'mainstream media detox' is one example where you (assuming you consume the news) take a break from it for some time (& the pain, suffering, chaos, fear that they usually cover as that's what gets your attention) & just focus on yourself...

A more extreme example is the 'digital detox' which includes taking some time off all technological devices including smartphones, tablets, your laptop, TV, etc... (great for a weekend for example)

And the one we want to focus on here is the 'Social Media Detox'...

We don't need to devote yet another article to the harms of social media & the various ways it negatively affects all dimensions of your wellbeing...

Here are the steps:

1. Pick a timeframe (e.g. 24 hours, a weekend, 1 week, 14 days, a month, 30 days, etc) - up to you.

2. Set the parameters of what you can & cannot consume during your 'social media detox' (which apps / sites are included & which are not, according to you?)

3. Unsubscribe, silence, or block sources... (To make it easier, you might want to pause notifications, or change defaults on your devices - set yourself up for success here.)

4. Track your progress & reflect on how you feel at the start, throughout & most importantly, at the end of doing this…

Try the 'Social Media Detox' & let us know what you think 😃

If you’d like to learn more about how to eradicate distraction from your life, improve your focus, productivity & wellbeing, check this out:

"Laser-Like Focus: How To Eradicate Distraction & Create Laser-Like Focus On Demand"