I never had one hobby or interest in my life. As a kid, my only interests were Barbies and television. I could literally watch television from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep.
In my late teens I just started drinking for fun. And well, that's really the only way I knew to have fun.
My life partner (who I've been with for more than half of my life) always had lots of interests. His parents made him do tons of sports and activities when he was a kid. And he was baffled at the beginning of our lives together how I didn't have any hobbies. He couldn't fathom it. I couldn't fathom how he could.
The thing is, I didn't have enough exposure to life. So I set out to pretty much experience anything. I read anything I could get my hands on in my early 20s. I found I was interested in human psychology and behavior. I wanted to understand how to be a human.
We moved to different places and lived in colorful neighborhoods with eccentric people. I took public transportation. I mingled with all sorts of people. I kept reading. Psychology led me to metaphysical subjects. I ended up starting my own business. It turns out I was massively passionate about thrifting and vintage clothes and business. I revel in making my own living and having total freedom.
I found Kundalini yoga and took Kundalini Yoga teacher training.
I've found diet and fasting and health.
I've found so many things.
See, I cast my net wide.
If you're like I used to be, just starting doing things. It doesn't even really matter what you start doing. Just do any fucking thing. Take rock climbing or Cross Fit. Start fasting. Take a yoga class. Take a painting class, or just watch some YouTube videos about painting, and start painting. Have some kind of creative outlet that you do every day.
I have so many passions and interests now that it's massive! The stark opposite of how I used to be.
But purpose goes beyond passion. Both are things we need in life. They're a fundamental need. We need a purpose for being alive, otherwise we're just here. And I know that this really, really bothers a lot of people. How do I find my purpose? It used to kill me, too.
Americans garble up their purpose with making money. Now, what I am not saying here is that it's bad or wrong to make money on your purpose and passion. It's ideal if you can. But. I think the money making aspect clouds the passion and purpose aspect. If you can take money out of it, and pursue your passion and purpose for the brain chemical rewards, it's much much easier to see and do. Money just gets us all garbled up. Your purpose and passion really are not that hard to find. They're just hidden underneath a bunch of scary shit about money.
Purpose is actually extremely easy to find. Purpose always comes down to helping others. Helping others gives us our greatest brain chemical reward. And there are opportunities to help people EVERYWHERE all the time.
Here are two examples I can think of of how I served people yesterday: I went to multiple grocery stores, and in all of them, the cashiers had a case of the Mondays. So I set out to to be a catalyst for them to feel some joy and know that there's nothing wrong with Mondays and they should live their best lives everyday. Did I tell them that? No. That would be kind of weird. But what I did was ask them in a genuine way how they were, and I told them that I hope they have an extremely good Monday. Nothing earth shattering. But if that helped their attitudes for an hour.... cool, man.
I saw a homeless just standing there and staring at the ground on the corner. Instead of nervously looking away, I thought, "Why do we always do that? We treat homeless people like fucking diseases. I wonder what it feels like to be treated that way." So I looked at him. No, I didn't pull over and hug him and have a conversation or give him anything. Again, not earth shattering. But I help people where I see an opportunity. That's purpose.
Between looking for opportunities to help people and exposing yourself to a lot of life and interests, you're bound to have a really interesting and exciting life that absolutely fills you up and fulfills you and lights you up and releases tons of good dopamine and seratonin and human growth hormone all day long.
As for me, recently I found fasting, and all I want to do is shout it out to the world how it can change their lives. Between that and Kundalini yoga, I see a ton of passion and purpose in my future. The stark opposite of how I began my life.
Life is meant to be lived. And maybe you don't really know how to get out there and live it. Maybe you live in a relatively small and quiet place where nothing really happens, and you've been relatively sheltered in your life. That's how I started out. But I got out there and to be honest, I got fairly roughed up in my quest for experiences. That's life. Get a little beat up and bruised, and you'll really be alive. ❤️
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