How to Discover your True Passions and Live a more Fulfilling Life

Your true passions and living a life fulfilled. It sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? But how do you discover your true passions? How do you know which choices you make are the ones that will actually help you lead a more fulfilling life? Yesterday when we talked about defining your dream life, you answered some questions about what that looked like for you. What is that dream life?

While dreaming is exceptionally fun, it doesn’t necessarily tell us what our passions are, nor does it guarantee a fulfilling life. You may believe that something is your passion, until you actually try that thing. Then, all of a sudden, you realize that isn’t exactly right.

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True Passions: Must be YOURS

The first step to figuring out your true passions is to make sure they are actually your passions. It seems simple, right? But, we live in a world where we are constantly being told what the next best thing is. And it may be the next best thing for somebody, but that somebody may not be you.

You need to take a discerning look at those passions, and figure out if they are for you or not. Otherwise, you may go in expecting a fulfilling life only to become disappointed when you put that thing into practice.

For example, you may see a beautifully curated instagram page of a little cabin in the woods, living off the land, and the simplicity of it all seems lovely and like exactly what you want. That is until you realize that they don’t have indoor plumbing and they forage for a lot of their food. Now, that could still be a passion of yours, and that exact lifestyle could be exactly what you are looking for, but if you don’t see the challenges behind that lifestyle, it isn’t a full picture. You need a full picture. So instead of looking at what other people are doing, look to yourself first

What Activities make you Lose Track of Time?

When you think about your days, what are the activities that make you lose track of time? It doesn’t have to only be things you are currently doing. Remember to think back to what you used to love doing before you had kids, before you were homeschooling. What are those things? Might those be some of your true passions?

A great exercise to help you with this is to think about your ideal day. If you had complete control of your day, what would it look like? What rhythms would you want to fall into? Who would you be spending time with?

This is similar to the exercise from yesterday about defining your dream life, but it is a little more granular. More details. What exactly are the rhythms you are working through in your day? In your week? What sticks out to you?

True Passions: Brainstorm

Grab a notebook and start to brainstorm. This is one of the easiest ways to figure out your passions. Take the time to write down your ideas, flesh them out, and see how they may play into your current life. Do you want to travel more? Get off screens? Plant a garden? Take up a handcraft? Read more? Those are all wonderful ways to lose track of time, find your true passions, and start to live the fulfilling life you want.

If you need a little help with brainstorming, a tool like this brain dump journal can give a bit more structure to the process. But, keeping a notebook with ideas is a great way to discover your true passions. And remember, just because you write something down does not mean that it is a true passion. Instead, these are ideas. Ideas you can try out, cultivate, and then decide whether or not they are contributing to a fulfilling lifestyle for you. Don’t be afraid to write down the random things you think no one else would enjoy. Remember these are YOUR true passions!

Can you live a fulfilling life through your true passions?

I think this is an interesting question, and one we are constantly faced with. When we are young, we often are looking to the future. But, when we are older, we are remembering how much less responsibility we had in the past – the time where it would have been easier to live out those passions.

Now, there is something to be said for being able to support yourself and your family. However, oftentimes we are unable to differentiate between lifestyle needs and wants. So, it is possible to lean into your passions and live a fulfilling life, but you may need to give up some things along the way. The beauty is that if these are your true passions, you will be able to overlook some of these struggles.

One of my True Passions

One of my most important, and very much a real passion for me, is homeschooling. I absolutely love teaching my kids as well as learning alongside them. It is a passion, and it has to be. Homeschooling is hard! Not only is it hard, but it requires sacrifice. Financial sacrifices, and time for other things. It is a choice that I made when Emma was a baby, and one I am thankful for.

It doesn’t mean that it has been without struggle. There are struggles in any life choice, but what really matters is if it is fulfilling to you. You may look at the choices that I make and say “that wouldn’t work at all for me.” And you know what? That is OK! Why? Because it isn’t your life.

So as you go through and write down what is important to you, and as you start to explore these new ideas of how you want to live your life, don’t be afraid of what others will think about your ideas. Again, these are YOUR ideas. They are meant to fulfill you, not your neighbor, not your friend in the next town, not even your extended family. They are meant to bring you and your nuclear family joy.

The Bottom Line

There can be a lot of blocks when you try to figure out your passions. It takes a while, especially if you are short on time and resources, to figure it out. But, if you think about the things you love to do, and that you lose time doing, that is going to help. The sky is the limit, seriously. I said above that living a fulfilling life to you is going to require sacrifice. And that isn’t a bad thing. We all get to make the choices that are right for us, for our families.

The bottom line is to make sure that you are making the choices for you and your family that are right for you and your family, whatever they may be. Within that, you will start to see what is most important to you. You will begin to tweak your choices to spend more time on the things that matter most to you. That is how you discover your true passions, and how you begin to live a life fulfilled.