How to Find Your Purpose
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The advice to “find your passion” often feels vague and overwhelming, as if you’re searching for a hidden treasure with no map. But what if you had a compass instead? A framework with four cardinal directions that, when aligned, point toward a fulfilling and sustainable purpose.
This compass is built on four simple but profound questions.
1. What do you love?
What activities bring you genuine joy?
This is the starting point, the fuel for your journey. What are the things you would do even if no one was paying you or watching? What activities make you lose track of time? This is where your intrinsic motivation lies.
It could be solving complex puzzles, organizing systems, creating art, or connecting with people. Don’t judge it or worry if it’s practical yet. Just identify the activities that feel less like work and more like play. This is your ‘passion’ in its purest form.
2. What are you good at?
Where do your skills and talents lie?
Passion alone isn’t enough; it thrives when paired with competence. This question isn’t just about what you love, but what you excel at. This can be a natural talent or a skill you’ve honed through years of practice.
Where do you find that your effort produces unusually good results? Maybe you’re a natural teacher, a gifted coder, or you have a knack for simplifying complex ideas. While you can love something without being a master, the feeling of competence is a crucial ingredient for long-term fulfillment. This is your ‘profession’ in the making.
3. What does the world need?
What problem do you want to solve?
This is the question that transforms passion into purpose. An activity done only for yourself can feel isolating, but an activity that serves others creates a profound sense of meaning.
The ‘world’ doesn’t have to be the entire globe. It can be your community, your family, a specific industry, or a small group of people who need what you have to offer. What problems do you see that you feel compelled to help solve? This could be anything from building sustainable water systems to creating software that makes someone’s day a little easier. This is your ‘mission’.
4. What can you be paid for?
How can your value sustain you?
This is the practical question that grounds your purpose in reality. It asks: Is there a market for the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, and what the world needs?
This isn’t about selling out; it’s about creating a sustainable loop where you can continue doing meaningful work without burning out. The world signals what it values through exchange. Finding what people are willing to pay for—whether through a salary, a business, or freelance work—is what turns your passion and mission into a viable ‘vocation’.
The goal is not to find an answer to just one of these questions, but to find the place where all four overlap. That intersection is where passion, profession, mission, and vocation meet. It’s more than a job; it’s a reason for being.