How to find your purpose in life
Recorded – watch the full episode on YouTube.
What advice do you have to someone who is genuinely struggling to find their purpose in life?
Ish Shabazz: What I would say first is don't necessarily tie your purpose to your income, your job and your career, because those things aren't always aligned. That works out fantastically for some folks, but other folks, not so much – it could be something else.
You basically find it by just feeling it – what makes you happy? What brings you joy? Spend more time doing those things and figuring out how you can share those things with other people. That's pretty much it. In your core, what makes you happy? What brings you joy? And then how can you share that joy with other folks?
"What brings you joy? Spend more time doing those things and figuring out how you can share those things with other people."
Paul Hudson: Yes. And, and Ish is right here: it's not necessarily attached to money. The money might come from it, but often you'll find yourself being passionate about something you had no idea you'd even have an interest in.
There was a brilliant talk, I forget the chap's name but he was talking about how the best tax lawyers in America fly in private jets. They earn silly amounts of money, and you can bet they are totally passionate about tax law, but they weren't born that way. You meet no kid saying, "I can't wait to be a tax lawyer one day," but getting the results, getting the acclaim, getting the, the feedback, getting at some point the wealth as well, may actually make you passionate about the thing you were doing.
It can go in any sort of direction. It's not like you're born to do this thing always. If you are, you are very, very fortunate. Well done. Go with it. But it can come in any sort of way. And be prepared. Back to the thing Ish said earlier, be prepared and be present – you never know what happens.
Ish Shabazz: And also it could be an evolution of things, right? You might not always know. Coming into this in the Steve Jobs talk where he's like, "Sometimes the dots connect looking backwards, but you can't see them going forward." Yeah. So I think it's kind of a combination of all that.
Paul Hudson: Okay. Ish, thank you so much for your time and it was awesome having you here. Thank you to everyone who attended, especially to those who asked questions. Where can folks find you on the internet?
Ish Shabazz: You can find me almost all the time, too much of the time, on Twitter – I'm @ishabazz on every social thing, but I basically spend all my time on Twitter. I also encourage you, if you have time, to check out that talk, it's about 25 minutes. I’m not hugely into self-promotion that much, but I really do think that it's an excellent talk and can serve to help pretty much anyone out. So I encourage you take a look at it and that's on YouTube.
This transcript was recorded as part of Swiftly Speaking. You can watch the full original episode on YouTube, or subscribe to the audio version on Apple Podcasts.
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