Passion Becomes Purpose With A Plan

If you’ve checked out the Relationships page on our website you might have noticed a hidden message in the picture of the young man looking out at his future—it says “Passion Becomes Purpose With A Plan”. If you haven’t visited the page yet you can see the picture below.

This is one of my favorite images on the entire RLS Wealth website. I love the look in the young man’s eyes—a look of focus, determination, and perseverance. He sees the life he wants to live, the impact he wants to make, and the legacy he wants to leave. He has a passion for life and can see his purpose.

But passion alone isn’t enough to live your purpose.

As the “hidden” message states, “Passion Becomes Purpose With A Plan”. Throughout your life you will develop passion for many things, but over time that passion will fade and you’ll find something new to be passionate about. If you’re lucky, one of your passions will lead you to your purpose—your reason for being. When/if you discover this, you will need a plan to help transition from a passion to your purpose.

Passion vs. Purpose

Before we discuss how a plan transforms your passion to your purpose, let’s examine the difference between the two terms. According to Google Dictionary, an individual’s passion is a “strong and barely controllable emotion” and an individual’s purpose is “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”. The emphasis on “reason” is mine—I want to stress the power of the word and the weight it carries. Once you have found your reason—your purpose, it becomes the center of your universe; everything you do revolves around it. When you are passionate about something it is an important part of your life and who you are, but it is not necessarily the center of your universe. Often times we see individuals living out their passion as side hustles or hobbies becoming something that fits into the spare time in their lives, but never reaching the status of priority number one.

You will be passionate about your purpose, but not all passions will be your purpose.

Bring In The Planning

You cannot take your passion, an important part of your life, and make it the center of your universe without planning. The transition from passion to purpose requires making sacrifices—it could be a change of careers, moving across the country (or the world), it could reallocating the dollars in your budget, or any number of other changes that will drastically impact your finances. There will be changes in your life that will need to occur. No matter what adjustments you will need to make, it is important to first, make sure the financial impact is sustainable and secondly, create a blueprint for how you will navigate the changes.

And this is where planning, specifically financial planning, is so valuable.

Reviewing your current financial situation, projecting your future financial situation (to be safe error on being conservative with your numbers—underestimate income and overestimate expenses), identifying and addressing weaknesses, and protecting against risks will help you determine if he transition from passion to purpose is attainable. In my last blog post, “Shortening The Leap Of Faith”, I shared a real life example of helping a client work through the analysis and planning to turn her passion, a lifelong passion, into her purpose.

A Disclaimer For Following Your Passions and Purpose

As much as I would love for everyone to be able to turn their passion into their purpose, I understand it’s not always meant to be. Sometimes your passion is meant to remain a passion and that’s ok; there is nothing wrong with something being an important part of your life, but not becoming your purpose.

With that being said, I don’t believe in not following your passions and not living your purpose. If you believe you’ve found your purpose, you owe it to yourself and your family to explore how you can turn your passion into your purpose. Have you found that passion leading you to your purpose, but not sure if you can actually make it work?

Let’s talk. Helping individuals pursue their purpose is what we are here to do—it is our purpose.

Bonus Content:

I found this Ted Talk about the search for passion and I think it is a fitting conclusion to this post. I am obviously an advocate for following your passion, exploring if you can turn your passion into your purpose, and ultimately live the life you want to live. But, I do agree with Terri Trespicio that your passion and your purpose is not something you should be seeking. Instead, they will naturally find you—you just need to be open to recognizing them when they show up. If finding/following/living your passion and purpose is of interest to you, take ten minutes and watch this video.