Steven Pressfield (author of The War of Art) believes that everybody has a passion and a purpose in life, and that his or her passion exists at all times, even if one is or is not aware of it. What he said on Joe Rogan’s JRE podcast is a line that I will never forget:
“I really did have ambition, and tremendous aspiration, but I had buried it under layers of fear.”
Therefore, if one is confused regarding ambition, passion, and purpose, he or she needs to begin at once to destroy all the layers of fear, in order to get a clear picture of what it is they are passionate about.
In summary:
Choose the path of most resistance.
Let’s break it down into tiny, mini practical steps — steps that you can follow to find your passion and purpose in life.
- Identify your fear(s): What are you afraid of? What makes you really, really anxious?
- Do the first thing: What is a small step you can take towards this fear, that as a result it begin to lose its power over you?
- Do the next thing: What is the next small step to overcoming this fear? Repeat this until the fear subsides.
How this may look like:
- Fear = Public Speaking
- Record myself talking about something that I’m interested in, something that I’m passionate about, or something that I’ve invested a lot of effort toward. (eg. gaming, reading, favourite song)
- If successful move on to something harder. If not, repeat. (Talk about the same topic or a different one, you choose.)
- (Assuming that I had achieved success in step 3) Speak about a topic of my choice to one close friend, family member etc. (If successful, continue. If not, repeat.)
- Talk in front of a group of my best friends (5–10 people). (You can talk about what you’re passionate about, or you can talk about potential plans for the weekend)
- Then scale this up to increase the difficulty. Remember, use difficulty as a measuring stick for your improvement.
- At some point, you may want to seek speaking opportunities in your city. Find these events, and go do it. Seek every opportunity to contribute to the conversation.
The idea isn’t to go from 0 to 100 in one jump, but rather to go from 0 to 1, from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3, and so on. There is no shortcut to mastery. You either put in the work and earn it, or you delude yourself by looking for unicorns.
Twitter: @iBrandV
