GUIDELINES: Where There is Purpose, There is Passion

When you have a purpose, you have a passion. You could not have passion without an overriding purpose, because purpose generates passion. When you know what it is you seek, and when you intensely seek it, a passion to attain will arise in you.

As a young man, full of passion for life, I wrote:

“Passion is freedom given purpose. It is meaning struggling to shape matter, and beauty seeking immortality. Passion is the bridge to all tomorrows. It is not to be avoided; it is to be embraced. It is not to be feared; it is to be welcomed. For passion shall raise our horizons, it shall lift the veil of the future.

“When the spirit longs to fully stand, and the seed to bear its fruit, then shall passion come to serve. When desire learns its worth, and growth its direction, then shall passion lead the ascent. For passion is the heart’s messenger of change; it is the kindling of transcendence.

“To live without passion is to live not at all. For passion is life, when life has found a reason to be.”

Once you have found a purpose, once your passion has been aroused, you still need to risk sufficient faith in the possibility of actually achieving what you seek to throw yourself into working toward it. Purpose generates passion, and passion spurs on the willingness to risk faith, the faith which empowers action. And if you have sufficient purpose, passion and faith, you will likely persevere until you attain your goals. Perseverance is rooted in commitment, and what you commit to is your purpose. And the level of your commitment is determined by your passion.

I remember a funeral I conducted for a very fine man. He had lived a life of purpose, passion and perseverance. One of his sons said that for him, “failure was not an option.” When he encountered a road block, he would seek to go over it, or through it or around it – or under it. With that attitude, he generally succeeded at what he purposed.

This parallels the Taoist insistence that we need to be like water. Water will go through, around, below or above a road block. If necessary, it will gradually dissolve that which temporarily held it back. Persistence, fueled by passion, will carry the day.

Purpose gives you a reason to live. As Nietzsche said, “A person who has a why to live, can accept almost any how.” It is when we cannot find an adequate reason to live that we experience anxious aimlessness, which can numb, darken and debilitate the soul.

One personal exercise that can prove interesting and helpful is to write a succinct “purpose statement,” or “statement of purpose.” In a single sentence, what is your grandest life purpose, the purpose which defines what you are about as a person?

My purpose statement as a writer is this: I seek to express “Great truth, simply spoken, heart to heart.”

Once you have a purpose statement, you can use that as the yardstick by which to measure how you are doing at attaining it. Is your lifestyle consistent with your purpose? Are you doing what will eventually enable you to get where you want to go?

The state of your passion is a measure of the state of your soul. It’s also a measure of the state of your purpose in living. Once you find a purpose to live for, prepare to discover a passion to live by.