“Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.” ~Dan Dennett
I love that quote!
To truly feel alive, you need to find something that you love, and you can’t do it for prestige.
It requires passion.
There’s a great video of Steve Jobs answering the question asked by Kara Swisher, “What’s the number one thing required to accomplish some of the things you’ve done in your life?” To which he replies, “Passion.”
He then goes on to explain that it’s not for the reason most people think.
It’s not because you should love what you do and be passionate so you can do your best work.
He argues that you need passion because what you’re about to do is probably gonna be so hard, that any normal person would give up, and that because of that passion, you’ll push through – and that’s where greatness comes from.
Essentially you need to be a little crazy.
I tend to agree.
When you decide to dedicate your life to something more important than you, something special happens.
Your mind connects to the idea and the people around you in a way that just isn’t possible without it.
Passion (and purpose) allows you to tap into a special place of creativity and action that you would otherwise lack.
Huge challenges seem solvable or at least irrelevant to the bigger picture.
In some ways you feel possessed.
Unfortunately, there’s no guaranteed way to find that passion, only a process.
It’s filled with trial and error, but at the core, it’s that you continue to search. It’s a process of discovery that can only come from within.
There are ways to increase the probability of finding it, like being in the proximity of others who have found it, but for the most part, it’s a journey.
The one thing that may help is to continue to ask: What could I dedicate my life to?
That’s a great place to start.
If money wasn’t an option what would you do? If all your expenses were covered and you could do anything with your time, what would you do? Leave a comment below with your answer!
