Passion without Purpose is a Shot without Target

Interest is one source of passion. Purpose the intention to contribute to the well-being of others is another.

In every person with perseverance, they speak what they’re pursuing has a purpose, they mean something much deeper than mere intention. They’re not just goal-oriented; the nature of their goal is special.

Aristotle was among the first to recognize that there are at least two ways to pursue happiness.

Aristotle clearly took a side on the issue, deeming the hedonic life primitive and vulgar, and upholding the eudaimonic life as noble and pure.

But in fact, both of these two approaches to happiness have very deep evolutionary roots.

On one hand, human beings seek pleasure because by and large, the things that bring us pleasure are those that increase our chances of survival. If our ancestors hadn’t craved food and sex, for example, they wouldn’t have lived very long or had many offspring. To some extent, all of us, as Freud put it, is driven by the “pleasure principle.”

On the other hand, human beings have evolved to seek meaning and purpose. In the most profound way, we’re social creatures.

Why?

Because the drive to connect with and serve others also promote survival.

How?

Because people who cooperate are more likely to survive.

How?

Because people who cooperate are more likely to survive than loners.

Society depends on stable interpersonal relationships, and society in so many ways keeps us fed, shelters us from the elements, and protects us from enemies. The desire to connect is as basic a human need as our appetite for pleasure.

To some extent, we’re all hardwired to pursue both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness. But the relative weight, we give these two kinds of pursuits can vary. Some of us care about purpose much more than we care about pleasure and vice versa.

The person with perseverance aren’t monks, nor are they hedonists. In terms of pleasure-seeking, they’re just like anyone else, pleasure is moderately important no matter how gritty you are.

The purpose is indeed a tremendously powerful source of motivation.

If you take a moment to reflect on the times in your life when you’ve really been at your best — when you’ve risen to the challenges before you, finding the strength to do what might have seemed impossible — you’ll realize that the goals you achieved were connected in some way, shape or form to the benefit of other people.

Many of us would like to like the third bricklayer but instead, identify with the first or second.

In a research that was found that there are 3 types of people who apply for a job.

In one study, psychologies David Yeager and Matt Bundick interviewed about a hundred adolescents, asking them to tell him, in their own words, what they wanted to be when they grew up, and why?

Two years later, young people who’d mentioned both self and other-oriented motives rated their schoolwork as more personally meaningful than classmates who’d named either motive alone.

Aurora and Franco Fonte an Australian Entrepreneurs whose facilities services company has 2,500 employees and generates more than $130 million in annual revenue.

Twenty-seven years ago, Aurora and Franco were newly married and dead broke. They got the idea to start a restaurant but didn’t have enough money to launch one. Instead, they began cleaning shopping malls and small office buildings — not out of any sense of calling, but because it paid the bills.

Soon enough, their career ambitions took a turn. They could see a brighter future in building maintenance than in hospitality. They both worked ferociously hard, putting in eighty-hour weeks, sometimes with their infant children in carriers strapped across their chests, scrubbing the bathroom tiles in their customers’ buildings as if they were their own.

Through all the ups and downs — and they were many. Franco said, “We always persevered. We didn’t give in to obstacles. There was no way we're going to let ourselves fail.”

I hard to imagine how cleaning bathrooms — or even building a multimillion-dollar corporation that cleans bathrooms — could feel like a calling.

“It’s not about the cleaning.” Aurora explained, “It’s about building something. It’s about our clients and solving their problems. Most of all, it’s about the incredible people we imply — they have the biggest souls, and we feel a huge responsibility toward them.”

Bill Damon, a psychologist in his research on purpose states,

The purpose is a final answer to the question “Why? Why are you doing this?”

We need to observe someone who is purposeful. The purposeful role model could be a family member, a historical figure, a political figure. It doesn’t really matter who it is, and it doesn’t even matter whether that purpose is related to what the child will end up doing. Bill explained: “What matters is that someone demonstrates that it’s possible to accomplish something on behalf of others.”

The child really gets to see how difficult a life of purpose is — all the frustrations and the obstacles — but also how gratifying, ultimately, it can be.

What follows is a revelation, as Bill put it. The person discovers a problem in the world that needs solving. This discovery can come in many ways. Sometimes from personal loss or adversity. Sometimes from learning about the loss and adversity confronting others.

Whatever your age, it’s never too early or late to begin cultivating a sense of purpose.

Thinking about how, in small but meaningful ways, you can change your current work to enhance its connection to your core values.

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