There is so much talk about finding and pursuing your purpose. Many books, articles, videos and tips exist to help you identify, pursue and live out your purpose. In many cases, it’s information overload. Some people diligently put into action the strategy and advice given to them and often do not achieve the fulfilment of their expectations.
Here are 3 practical ways for you to identify, pursue and live out your purpose.
1) Be Passionate
To help ignite and maintain your passion, whatever you do, do it to please God first and foremost. After all, without God you wouldn’t have breath / life to do anything.
Regardless of the circumstances, past or present, God has the final say, so give it your all, your best to honor God in all that you do, being eager and enthusiastic. If you are struggling to be passionate or need a reminder, take some solid advice from God’s word in Romans 12:1-2, as taken from The Message version…
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” ~Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)
The more known, traditional ESV version reads “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)
2) Be Positive
Being positive is more than being grateful, focusing on the good and the bright side of life in any given situation. While these, it can be argued, create a better state of mind, less stress and can, in many cases, actually help people be “healthier”, being positive is truly NOT self-focused. Rather, being positive is rooted in hope, even in the face of challenges and hardships.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ~ Romans 8:28
Being positive is not a denial or dismissal of suffering, pain and grief. People deal with challenges, hurt and emotions in different ways and while we acknowledge disappointments, hurt and despair we must also know to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and not lean on your own understanding.” ~Proverbs 3:5, especially since “our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.” ~ Romans 8:18
3) Be Persistent
Keep going, pursue and continue in the face of disappointment, difficulty or even failure. Combined with being passionate and positive you are more likely to achieve your goals. As Romans 5:4 encourages us, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
Especially when your passion is driven by pleasing the Lord, push through and persevere, your labor is not in vain.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. ~ Galatians 6:9
Being passionate is mostly about pleasing God. Being positive is more about hope and trusting God. Being persistent in truly a combination of both. When you chose to be passionate, positive and persistent, you can seamlessly identify, pursue and live your purpose.