Discovering Your Purpose
By: Taylor Pircey
It’s January 1st, 2022 & the anticipated “New Year’s Resolutions’” are in full swing. We expect this tradition each year as we determine to be better than we were the year before; to evolve into someone wiser, wealthier, stronger, healthier, kinder & more accomplished. This yearly motivation is met with mirth, knowing all too well that February so often brings us back to where we started & life goes on. It begs the question – how exactly do we change? How do we get these resolutions to spark a revolution in our soul, transforming us into the “better” we desire?
I believe we’re focused on the wrong goal; we seek to be “better” when we should be strategizing how to establish our identity & purpose. Without a guiding force directing the changes we want to make, we will remain the same, stagnant creatures reverting to past habits in our futile attempts to be “better”. Without a vision of what “better” looks like, we remain the same.
I am often asked – how do you do what you do? What the questioner means by this is, how am I able to live my lifestyle. I travel often, exploring breathtaking places which prompts many people to inquire how I can live this way. My response is always this – it’s all about your priorities.
We forget we have the power of choice & free will,the ability to look beyond ourselves & our basic survival instincts to choose what we will love, what we will devote our attention & affection to. We get to choose what we will prioritize. How do we keep our New Year’s resolutions? We decide what we will love & how we will love it.
Without love’s compelling force, we will not experience joy, peace or contentment. Without love, we become restless creatures driven by our basic fears & desires rather than love’s higher call to be something greater than our base cravings. Love illuminates the dark night of a purposeless life. It grants meaning, depth, passion & community. We all want to be loved, but we also want something to love.
What if, in 2022 we were marked by our love? To be seen as lovers rather than fighters; people endowed with purpose & excitement rather than the familiar strivings of our usual New Year’s resolutions. What if we were resolved to love? This formula is simple & from personal experience, it works!
The first step is simply noting what you love, what you crave most of all. What does your ideal life look like? What would you be doing, where would you live, what job would you have, what relationships would you be in, etc. Then ask yourself why you want these things. What about them enchants you? Could you live without them or are they essential to who you are?
Then ask yourself, do you truly love these things or do you just want them – there’s a crucial distinction you must make between what you want & what you love. Love drives & inspires us whereas our desires have the power to master & distract us. Love gives & uplifts, desire drains & demands. Your goal is to find what in this life gives you purpose & direction birthed from your love of it. Don’t feel as though you need to limit yourself – this is your moment to brainstorm; you’ll likely find you love many things all which stem from your primary thing. Once you have determined what you love, you’ll want to figure out how to make that passion tangible. What would it look like to pursue what you love? How would it express itself in reality? What would immediate, short term, long term and lifelong goals look like that are practical & attainable for you? How will you need to shift your lifestyle & finances to achieve this?
Here is an easy example – one of the things I love is exploring nature. I love it because I’m driven by an even deeper love for beauty & connection to the natural world. Because of this love, I’ve made intentional decisions which enable me to explore nature. Some examples include, having a job which allows me to take time off & be flexible with traveling, maintaining a budget that helps me save money for trips & driving a car with incredible gas mileage so that I can drive to destinations much more economically.
All of these lifestyle decisions weren’t determined in a day,or even a year, but over the years I have allowed my love for adventures shape my long-term decisions so I can be free to pursue these things. It’s simply a matter of priorities – where will I invest my time, treasure & attention? Where will these priorities take me? What kind of person will I become based on these choices?
This is a call to a deeper intentionality, a more rigorous plan of action stretching across your lifetime, not simply one year. It is both immediately attainable & sustainable for your lifetime. What if we approached our New Years’ seeing each year as a new chapter in the book with specific goals we want to meet which will culminate in a lifetime dedicated to what we love most? If we do not love, we are not living. What if feeling truly alive looks like fully loving?
Ask yourself what you get excited about, what you’re passionate about,what you love doing. Make a list of those things & group them together in categories. Find an overarching theme you could target as your driving force & begin to break down year by year, how you could work towards what you love. You’ll find that the more you do what you love, the easier other things like exercise, sleep patterns, eating habits, financial strategies & relational dynamics work themselves out. What if we’ve been focusing on the wrong things? Attempting to tweak the small things when it’s really the major cycles we are meant to break & restore to health.
This method is designed to help you find your purpose. As an example, my purpose is to pursue & create beauty & be hospitable. These two go hand in hand & nothing makes me happier than them. I craft my life around these qualities because when I am pursuing them, all the little details fall into place & I am fulfilled both in the present & the future as they shape my goals, financial decisions & lifestyle. What do you love & how can it drive you in 2022? Let’s be determined to become more loving people this year. □
Article Credits
Poem by Taylor Pircey
Personal Instagram: @t_prestininzzi
Photography Instagram: @seeking__sun
Poetry Instagram: @seekingsun_words
TikTok: @seekingsunphoto
Website: seekingsun.org
