find your passion and purpose and fill your life with joy
Building a business and life you love starts with discovering your true passions and purpose. Sometimes it comes easy, other times it takes a little bit more work. Here are the steps you can take to find out yours.
I began my career as an entrepreneur for the same reason that most people do: to make money and have free time. At the moment, I thought those were pretty legitimate reasons to pursue my own path. I had been working in Advertising for a while, but was ready to make my own decisions in business.
So, I began this crazy path of entrepreneurship. In the beginning, I did everything by the book: I worked my way to get new clients, I studied the basics, I did an MBA to learn more about business and simply kept my head down, working quietly in my little bubble.
And then, the bubble burst.
We decided to move from Venezuela to the US, and that meant starting my business from scratch. It meant building MY own brand and doing everything in my power to stand out.
in the process I found my passion
Here’s the thing: up until then, I had been working for a living. Literally. I was working to earn money, and didn’t really understand the value of my work. I undervalued myself constantly, feeling that a being a designer wasn’t anything too special. However, when I had to truly rebrand my business, it was the moment that everything truly changed.
By the way, if you need help in terms of branding and what to know all the details it entails, make sure to enroll in my free 7-day email course on branding!
knowing what you´re good at
I discovered my passions, by first understanding what I already knew how to do.
Moving and relaunching my business from scratch was the perfect moment to audit my own business, and it all started with me analyzing what I was already good at. At the time, I offered a lot of other services which I was okay at, but not as strong as my branding experience. I want you to ask yourself the following questions:
what are your skills?
what are you good at?
what have you learned to do?
These simple questions will take you on the path to defining what your true purpose in life is. Sometimes discovering your passions is as simple as understanding those things that come SUPER easy to you. You know what I mean? Those things that you could almost do with your eyes closed. Those things that people come to you for all the time.
Sometimes these are things we actually studied. Other times, they are traits that are in our system somehow. So, for me, I had studied design in college and had experience designing when working in Advertising. However, to have taste and knowing how to put things together is something that I don’t think you can learn. It’s something that you have within you. And I was good at that.
knowing what you love
The next step to discovering your passions is actually defining those things that you love. You see, it’s not necessarily the same as those things that you’re good at.
For example, I’m a pretty good cook, however, I would NEVER in my life like to be a chef. In fact, I only like cooking on special occasion, but the day to day? Ugh. Can’t stand it.
This is the same thing that happened with my business. I mentioned before that I offered different services like designing brochures and flyers. The truth is I always hated doing those things. What I have always loved is working on brands.
To discover what you love, ask yourself these questions:
what brings me joy?
what fires me up?
what do I love doing?
what makes me lose track of time?
One of the things I was really surprised to discover was that I love studying. Yep, I’m a nerd.
Seriously, I absolutely love learning new things and then teaching them too! I love writing and sharing my knowledge and experiences with other people (can you tell?). What do you love?
connecting the dots
You already know what you’re good at and what you love, now it’s time to connect the dots. Are there surprising things that are overlapping? Are there things you are great at that you actually love to do? These are the clues I want you to follow when designing your purpose. You see, your purpose is actually being able to translate your passion into something that serves others. It’s a pretty incredible thing.
For me, it meant discovering that I not only would be just focusing on branding, but I would be doing it in a very vocal way. I started this blog and started sharing my experience and stories on social media too. This is part of the reason why I created the free email course. I love teaching and REALLY love teaching about branding.
So, I simply connected the dots. I brought together my 2 great passions and skills into something that truly represents me. What represents you the best?
why having a purpose matters
Here’s the thing, having a clear purpose really matters. I mean, really. I have found that it makes my days so much more fulfilling. Where before I used to LOVE Fridays and be bummed out on Sunday nights because I had to work the next day, now the actual opposite happens.
When you have a purpose you also understand that what you do goes beyond you. It becomes something bigger than yourself and enables you to truly connect with others.
Having a purpose lets you make better decisions and basically gives you total clarity on your goals. The reason for this is that you now know that every decision you make should bring you closer to those passions. This can be big things like which offer to launch, or something very simple like what to post on your blog.
You are truly creating something that motivates you and gives your life meaning. It’s not about you working for living, it’s about living a life you absolutely love.
Remember, we go over all of these parts of branding in detail in the free email course. Make sure to sign up for that right here!