Not long ago, I attended a seminar in which the presenter stated that 80% of us are not passionate about what we do for a living.
In the same presentation, I was introduced to the CAVE Dweller. The CAVE stands for someone who is Consistently Against Virtually Everything at work.
It is estimated that 30% of workers are CAVE Dwellers. We all know people like this, and they’re typically folks that you don’t want to hang around with.
What’s amazing to me is that the majority of us are spending 1/3 of our days and half our waking lives doing things we don’t enjoy, and for some of us, it’s those things that are making us miserable. That seems tragic to me.
Each of us is unique. No one has ever existed like us or ever will.
We are each unique expressions of human life, and that is a wonderful thing. It means we are all capable of doing something that no one has ever or will ever be able to do. That thing represents our passion, and it’s what will give each of us the life of our dreams.
I believe our purpose is to find that passion and share it with the world to the maximum extent possible.
Here are some of our favorite purpose of life quotes that I hope will inspire as you seek your passion:
At the center of your being you have the answer;
you know who you are and you know what you want. – Lao Tzu
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Do not wish to be anything but what you are,
and try to be that perfectly. – St Francis of De Sales
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You were born an individual, do not die a copy. – John Mason
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Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never
been hurt and dance like no one is watching. – Satchel Paige
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It takes courage to grow up and become
who you really are. – E. E. Cummings
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What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. – Rumi
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There are two great days in a person’s life: the day we are
born, and the day we discover why. – William Barclay
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Where your talents and the needs of the world cross,
therein lies your vocation. – Aristotle
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You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll
never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live
like it’s heaven on earth. – William W. Purkey
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Don’t try to fit in when you were born to stand out. – Unknown
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We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or
strange that self may prove to be. – May Sarton
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There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a
few will catch your heart… pursue those. – Michael Nolan
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Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where
there were only walls. – Joseph Campbell
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This above all, to thy own self be true. – William Shakespeare
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Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you
come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is
people who have come alive. – Harold Thurman
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You never influence the world by trying to be like it. – Unknown
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Give up on being perfect and start
working on becoming yourself. – Anna Quindlen
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To be nobody but yourself in a world which is
doing its best day and night to make you like everybody
else means to fight the hardest battle which any human
being can fight and never stop fighting. – EE Cummings
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In his book The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho uses the metaphor of a person’s “Personal Treasure,” which to me was synonymous with our passion or purpose in life. In the story, the young boy travels the world in search of his personal treasure, only to find that it was buried under a tree near his home.
My point is that our purpose is most likely not very far away from where we each are right now. It’s not some far off mystical dream.
If you open your eyes and pay attention, you can and will find that the purpose of life may be right beneath your feet.
