Discovering Your Passions

In today's session with Sylvester McNutt III, we will break down the overwhelming task of aligning with your passions into actionable (and therefore energizing) steps. We often view our dreams and passions as unrealistic ideals. But what if we are simply placing too much pressure on our dreams, making it discouraging to take action? What happens if we scale down our long-held ambitions into tangible tasks, allowing them to bring in a sense of accomplishment that would continuously drive us further and further? Today's simple but brilliant exercise in self-exploration will help you do just that.

Transcript

Welcome to day five of living a purposeful life,

A challenge here at Insight Timer intended to help you live a life that's in alignment with your values,

Your goals,

And your priorities.

Let's jump into today's session.

My name is Sylvester McNutt III.

Today I'm here to talk to you about discovering your passions and how this loops into the thread of living a purposeful life.

We have always searched for meaning,

Purpose,

For belonging,

For identity,

For our place in the world.

It starts off when we're young in our family system.

It evolves as we move into the world and make friends.

It evolves as we enter romantic relationships.

As we get older we see our parents and aunties and uncles and grandparents pass away.

We become parents.

We then see our kids have kids and then one day we're gone.

And in between these transitions in these spaces we are consistently looking for our passions,

Our purpose,

A reason to live,

A reason to fight,

A reason to be,

A reason to cry,

A reason to love.

And there is no one path.

There is no one way.

We all have different lives.

We live in different climates and different areas.

We have different situations.

We have different skills.

We have different desires.

So no one person can tell another person exactly what to do.

There's no exact blueprint.

But what I can share with you is a few things that have helped me find passion,

Have passion,

Cultivate passion,

Regardless of what phase of life I was in.

The first and most obvious and most practical step,

If you will,

If you're the type of person who likes steps,

Is to engage with the idea of curiosity.

As a writer what really propels me forward is my curiosity for an understanding,

Curiosity for storytelling,

Curiosity for exploring the human experience.

Whenever someone asks me,

Hey what's the meaning of life?

I say to explore.

To explore the experience.

That is the meaning.

And so if you're pondering more about your passion,

About your purpose,

Instead of looking for the answer,

I'm going to ask you a question.

And I think that that question can lead you to more questions which can lead you to more purpose and belonging and passion.

That question is this.

What are you curious about?

What sparks your interest?

What problem would you like to solve?

Is there something that makes you mad and you wish you could change it?

And you're in that space of wondering what you can do with your years and with your effort to make a change towards that thing.

What if there is an experience that you wanted to create that doesn't exist,

Or at least it doesn't exist in the capacity in which you think it should exist?

Are you willing to dedicate yourself to the cultivation of that experience?

If you like steps,

The first step is always to lean into the curiosity that we have as human beings.

Because when you lean into that curiosity,

It's not about right,

It's not about wrong,

It's about play,

It's about wander,

It's about being lost in this experience.

The next thing that you could do if you're the type of person who loves steps,

Is you could be intentional.

And so the first step we went over was more of an imagination based thing,

More of a feeling based thing.

Some people hearing this,

They want,

They want thoughts,

They want a list,

They want things written out,

They want a plan.

I want you to pull out a journal,

Pull out a piece of paper,

And I want you to write a list of ten things that you absolutely do not want to do.

And it,

I mean,

It could be anything.

It could be like,

I don't want it,

I don't want to do laundry.

It could be,

I don't want to fill up my gas tank anymore.

It could be,

I don't want to call my ex.

Write ten things you don't want to do.

And when you get done writing that list,

I want you to at least remove one of the things from that list.

This is called elimination.

I want you to begin to eliminate mindsets,

Habits,

Routines,

Activities that you do that you don't even want to do.

Let's begin to remove what is unnecessary.

Let's shred.

Let's get,

Let's get slimmer here.

And now after you do this exercise of slimming,

I want you to think about this question.

Well,

What do I want to do?

And write the list out.

Don't talk about what money you don't have,

Or what time you don't have,

Or what's,

No,

No,

No.

Think big.

Think possible.

And write down what you want to do.

It doesn't mean that every day is gonna be the things you write down.

It might be things that may take you a year to complete.

Just write down what you want to do.

And don't write down what an influencer thinks,

Or what your mom thinks.

Don't people please and write what you think your husband wants,

Or your kids want,

Or what you think your wife wants.

This is what you want.

Write down ten things that you want.

And it can be something small,

Like I want some spaghetti and meatballs.

And it could be something major,

Like I want to travel to Italy to eat spaghetti and meatballs in Italy.

See,

When it comes to quote-unquote finding your passions,

You don't find them.

They're already inside of you.

You cultivate the space to live them.

You cultivate the energy to create them.

You cultivate the time to be inside of that experience.

If you're hearing this,

Yes,

You're in the right place,

At the right time,

And you are the right person.

Your message today is to write down the ten things that you want to do.

And that this could be as present or as future tense as you like it to be.

It could be ten things for today.

It could be ten things for the next three months.

It could be ten things over the next two years.

There's no wrong answer here.

Think big.

Think imagination.

Feel imagination.

Think possibility.

Do not allow any of the limits of your mind to stop you from imagining what you want to create.

If you want spaghetti and meatballs in Spain or Italy,

Then that is what you will create.

If you want to begin to write the book that has been inside of you since high school but you've been afraid,

You will start today.

If there's a girl that you wanted to ask out but you have not because you've been afraid of rejection,

You're gonna write her a poem.

You're gonna buy her some flowers.

You're gonna put on a nice shirt and tie.

You're gonna tell her what she means to you.

Now you want to go on a date with her.

See,

You don't find your directions to purpose because they're inside of you.

You just have to remove everything else that is distracting you.

You have to remove everything that is making you sick,

That is making you mad,

That is making you angry.

Because purpose and passion,

For some people,

Sure,

Maybe it lives inside of those emotions.

But for most of us,

It lives inside of joy.

It lives inside of curiosity.

It lives inside of fun.

It lives inside of enthusiasm.

It lives inside of presence.

The last thing I want to say to you is this.

This society has convinced us that our job may be the most purposeful thing to us and I strongly disagree with that.

Your job is related to your skill set.

Your skill set in this world may not actually bring you purpose and that's okay.

It's okay if the thing that you are most skilled at brings you an income that takes care of you and your family,

But it doesn't feel purposeful,

Quote-unquote.

That's okay.

That just means outside of that vocation,

You need to make sure that you're cultivating the space for things that are purposeful to you.

And then there's a vice versa.

There's some people who find a vocation that allows them to connect to purpose and a passion that also allows them to use their skill sets.

I'm one of those people and I consider myself lucky.

I consider myself lucky,

But I also feel like I arrived here because of the two things I gave you.

One,

I was intentional and two,

I used my imagination.

I removed everything that didn't align with the reality I wanted to create.

The reality that I wanted to create was I felt like I was a pretty good writer above average.

I felt like it was something I was passionate about because I would do it every day.

I felt like one of my skills was to be able to translate and decode language and communicate it in a way that helps another person look within.

And so when I was working at my my corporate job that took care of the bills but didn't really do much for my soul,

I valued that job.

I loved that job.

I appreciated that job.

But I listened to that that inner calling that was asking me to listen.

And I didn't know if that was gonna be a summer backpacking or if it was gonna be like a 12 year career like it's been.

But I just knew I needed to listen inside to that voice that was asking me to listen to my passions.

This is your reminder to listen to your passions.

You don't have to leave the job but if you go look at that paper that you wrote and you wrote 10 things that you need to stop doing or 10 things that you need to leave,

If you see it on there,

It's time for a change.

I would like you to let me know how this made you feel.

Share in the discussion forum what your passion is.

I would love to hear from you and to know what you're passionate about.

And the very very last practical step I could give you for integration is this.

Start today and start small.

Don't allow your passion or your curiosity for passion or your curiosity for purpose to overwhelm you.

Start small today.

Not research.

Start small today.

There's a difference between research and action.

Take an action today that gets you going in the direction that you want to go in.

Any small step towards your passions and towards your purpose it's a great step if you ask me.

My name is Sylvester McNutt III.

Thank you for joining us as we talked about our passions and our purpose.

I hope you stay open to curiosity.

I hope you remove what distracts you,

What hurts you,

What haunts you.

I hope you are intentional and I hope you take action today towards discovering your passion.

Reviews

Great probing questions. Love your voice. Curiosity is what I want to focus on. I wish you had more content here!! Please come back!

I appreciated the encouragement to create space in life for the things you want do. To start with curiosity is inviting because all the musts and shoulds of life have muddled my recognition of what I want to do. Thank you for reminding me that research is not action 🌸

I loved it. Thank you very much!

Thank you for relaying your passion to me . The list of things I want to not do is the exact same list of what is secretly holding me back. Blessings to you brother for this challenge and your part in it. And yes I am an above average designer, Thank you

Practical yet intentional and thought-provoking. Clear call to action. Appreciate your belief in us!

This was again a sincere blessing, and a confidence booster. A vision on the horizon to move forward! In joy, peace and enthusiasm. To fall in love with what I want. So encouraging, again, thank you 🙏🏾

Thank you so much Mr McNutt III.
Your advice, talk, lesson is one I will regularly come back to, not just because of your assuring beautiful calming voice but also the poignant message you have delivered. I have listened to this talk several times over, vehemently taking notes and making my lists, so helpful!…
Please keep up the excellent work, I can’t see any other talks from you on Insight Timer but I’ll certainly look out for more of your work & talks, so please keep it up. Blessings to you Sir! 😊🙏🏾💕💕💕💕

I arecieta and value your reflection about having a job or activity that brings the Money and having a passion for what I love.💕