THE ED MYLETT SHOW - 9 Strategies to Pursue Your Purpose

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

Learn my "9 Strategies to Pursuing Your PURPOSE." This is your guide to Living Fully! In today’s power-packed episode, I'm peeling back the layers on a question that haunts many of us: Should I pursue my passion? It’s a fiery topic, and I’m here to make you think… why not chase your purpose instead? Today, in this 1:1 episode, we will explore the transformative approach of aligning passion with purpose, ensuring you lead a life charged with energy and fulfillment. This journey isn’t just about what feels good but about what truly resonates with your soul. Here’s what you’ll learn: - Learn why purpose can offer a more profound sense of fulfillment than passion alone - Find out if your current path fuels you with energy or drains you, and why it matters - I’ll help you assess whether your current pursuits align with your evolving personal needs - Discover how your deepest pains can guide you to your greatest purpose. - Check if what you’re doing is helping you grow or if it’s time to push beyond current boundaries. - How to make sure you don’t leave any room for ‘what if’ in your life From side hustles to full-time careers, understanding what drives you can transform the mundane into the extraordinary. Whether it’s through embracing pain as a catalyst for growth, or ensuring your activities enrich your spirit, this episode is a goldmine for anyone looking to deeply connect their daily actions with their ultimate goals. Don’t let another day pass wondering if you could be doing more—let’s discover right now how aligning your passions with a purpose can revolutionize the way you live and work.  Tune in, get inspired, and start living with intention and vigor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So hey guys, are you frustrated with where you're at right now? Maybe stunted in your progress? Well if you are, I want to recommend a place for you to go called Growthday. Growthday.com forward slash ed. It is the number one personal development app on the planet. It's got all kinds of high performance techniques in there, courses, accountability, journaling, live speeches from some of the top influencers in the world, including me, it's an overall environment to change your life. Growthday.com forward slash ed. That's the sound of unaged whiskey, transforming into Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around 1860, nearest green taught Jack Daniel how to filter whiskey through charcoal for

a smoother taste, one drop at a time. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. This is the Ad Myron Show. Welcome back to the show everybody. So one of the things I love about our solo episodes that I get a chance to do on Thursdays

is from time to time I get a chance to just directly answer your questions. And when a question keeps coming up over and over again, my team will submit it to me and say, hey, this is probably at a topic for one of the episodes. And so I always get asked about passion. Should I be pursuing my passion? Doesn't my career need to be my passion? And I think passion is great. In an ideal world, we'd be doing something every second of every day

we were passionate about. And so some people are fortunate enough that they get to do that. They're passionate about their sport, and they're a professional athlete. Or they're passionate about their music, and they play music full time. Although there'll be elements of their careers that they're not passionate about that they still have to do every single day. And so today I'm going to talk about pursuing something other than just passion. Maybe you should pursue this or at least nine thoughts about pursuing passion and the alternatives that exist. And again, I would love the fact that everybody did everything passionately every single day,

but we also live in the real world. And so today we're gonna talk about, instead of just chasing your passion, here's something you could chase, or something to think about. So here's nine thoughts. Number one, maybe instead of chasing your passion, you could be pursuing your purpose.

There's a little bit of a difference between those two things. And when I find people that are in pursuit of their purpose, there's a deep passion that comes with that, but there's also a calling that comes on top of it. And when you find somebody that's called, I just did a podcast today with somebody that I commented to her at the end of it, that I could tell that this was her purpose. And I wanted to know how she stumbled into the work she was doing. And it was very interesting.

She described a very painful experience. And so a lot of times people say, Ed, I would love to pursue my purpose, but I'm not even so sure I know what my purpose is. And purpose can come from a lot of different sources. And not every single time, but most of the time, my good friends who have a purpose in their life or people that even been on my show that I feel like really are on a cause and a mission in their life. The source of that purpose ironically is pain. That oftentimes in life if you're struggling with finding your purpose the first thing I would say to you is take a look

at pain in your life. A painful experience, a painful moment and you may find in that pain your purpose will be born. Oftentimes, you know, I've met, you know, people that are incredibly passionate about raising money, let's say, for, you know, a cause for cancer, and I'll find out later that it's because they lost a parent or a sibling to cancer. The woman that was on my show does incredible work,

this particular woman, on personal development and attachment theories and relationships and personal development. She has a personal development company and I said where does this work come from and it turned out that she was an addict and had a very difficult time breaking her addictive cycle and she got into personal development the subconscious mind and learned how to reprogram that and so that painful experience of being an addict turned into her purpose. And so if you're struggling to find your passion, maybe you should look for your purpose.

And if you're trying to find your purpose, it could come from a lot of different places, but oftentimes if you review pain, I really believe this deeply that God gives us something for our pain. He'll give us a lesson, a purpose, a relationship, an insight, a breakthrough, a new emotion, something is given to us. And I really believe successful people, they just have a different relationship with pain. You know, I've had very successful people on my show in a lot of areas, but I had Phil Heath on my show

who's won a bunch of Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contests. And I said, you know, Phil, why do you think you're so successful at bodybuilding? And one of the things I concluded in the interview myself was he just has a different relationship with pain. And, you know, Phil, why do you think you're so successful at bodybuilding? And one of the things I concluded in the interview myself was he just has a different relationship with pain. And you know, everybody that's in bodybuilding, you know, goes through painful experience, let's say on leg day.

But when you're the greatest of all time or one of the greats, you just pursue it even deeper that after your legs are breaking or you're throwing up, you go back and you get more because you know there's a benefit to the pain you're going through. Most successful people look at pain differently. It's not something that they're ashamed of. It's not something to necessarily be avoided. That oftentimes they'll pursue it because they know in that they get a gift on the other side of it. Whether that's bigger legs than you in a bodybuilding contest or a bigger business and a bunch of wealth for the pain you go through. Or if

you survive a difficult time in a relationship and even better level of that relationship. Or maybe it's none of those things and you get a lesson, you get a gift, you discover a talent or an insight, maybe you discover a mission and a purpose. And so take a look beyond passion and I'd love again for everything to be passionate if you have that wonderful but oftentimes a deeper level even than, can be purpose, cause, mission, crusade. And so that's number one thought on it. Number two thing to evaluate whether you should continue to do what you're doing is ask yourself this question.

When I do my job, when I do my career, does it juice me? Does it energize me? Does it bring me energy? Or does it just take away my energy? I think a real telltale sign of whether something is something you should do long term is when you're doing it and you're doing it well, does it energize? Does it juice you? Does it take you to a different level or does it just deplete you and drain you? If what you do when you're even doing

it well just takes away your energy, it just depletes you. It's probably not the thing you should be doing long term. I think, you know, the reason I'm covering this today is I think there's a big part of our culture today, myself included, evaluating what should I be doing? So it's no secret that I've had some health issues recently and that causes you to evaluate, you know, is this still my dream? You know, I think it's okay to audit your life

and ask yourself, is this still juice me? Does this still energize me? Is the dream I've been pursuing, the thing I've been doing, give me the energy that it once did, or does it no longer do that? I think reflection and self-auditing and self-awareness about whether something energizes you or it doesn't,

maybe it used to and it doesn't anymore. An example for me is like, you know, I really loved golf for many, many years. I still like the game a lot but when I used to pursue golf and practice it would energize me, it would give me that juice you know and now I find a lot of rounds I'm playing that it just doesn't do that, that it doesn't move the needle for me anymore. So do I still play golf? Yes, but is it something I'm gonna pursue with the vast majority of my free time? No, because I think a barometer of whether something is your place is, does

it give energy or take energy away from you? And so I would evaluate that. That's thought number two. So, Hey guys, are you looking for more optimization in your life? If you are, try bond charge bond charge is a holistic wellness brand, huge range of evidence-based products that help you get more energy, perform better, recover faster. I love their infrared sauna blanket. It's what I've been using now for a while when I hurt my back. It's the perfect way to detoxify, reduce stress, improve your

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prevent any disease or condition. If you listen to this show for a while, you've heard me and my guests talk a lot about how critical it is to have your wellness goals in order, especially lately with me. So you know how powerful visualization is when you visualize yourself one, 10, thirty years from now, you've achieved all your goals. Ask yourself this, am I healthy at that point? In your visions, of course you are, but like anything else without a plan to

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version of you actually looks like and is capable of. These products and statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Third, does it meet my needs? And does it meet my needs now? Not does it meet my needs before, but is what I'm doing now meeting my needs? You know this was not created by me, the first time I

ever heard it was from Tony Robbins, but there's basically six human needs. And so I want to make sure I give credit where I learned it from, and I'm sure potentially maybe Tony got it somewhere, but there's six human needs and there's the need for certainty in our lives, stability and certainty. Ironically, in verse of that, there's the need for uncertainty or variety, spontaneity. That's a need that we have in our lives. These aren't wants, they're needs. Need number three, depending on how you stack them up, is the need for significance or recognition, acknowledgement. That's a human need that we all have. The fourth

need is the need of love and connection. It's a real need that we have as humans. The fifth need is the need for growth, to expand, to grow, to improve. And the sixth need is the need for contribution. In my opinion, at any given time in your life, one or two of these needs are sort of your dominant need. And oftentimes in life, once those needs are fulfilled, it may not be your primary need anymore. So for example, once those needs are fulfilled, it may not be your primary need anymore. So for example, if you went into a business and the main reason you went into that business is you wanted to get recognized and wanted to be significant. You wanted to compete or make a bunch of money so you're relevant and people know you. And

maybe once you've got a lot of that, that that's no longer in need of yours. And so potentially maybe that business isn't the business for you anymore. Maybe you got into that business because you wanted to contribute and to give and make a big difference and you've done all of that. And now you really have a need where I wanna grow, I want to expand and that business doesn't give you that.

And so I think it's to know oneself. Does it fulfill my needs now? So you have a need for certainty and stability, you know, and that's a big dominant need for you now. Maybe being an entrepreneur isn't what you want right now. Maybe before when you were younger, uncertainty and variety and spontaneity is what you wanted, but now you're at a different stage of your life and you want stability and certainty. That's an indication maybe what you're doing isn't that thing.

Maybe at one point you didn't care about being significant or recognized and now you're at a point where you you want to be somebody and you want to compete and you want to you know prove your merit so maybe you need to find something that gives you significance and recognition and acknowledgement whereas before that didn't matter to you right. Maybe you know you at you know at one point in your life relationships weren't important to you but but now you want love, you want connection. And so maybe you need to make a shift to find that. So I just ask yourself, you know, if your primary need is growth is what

you're doing, giving you growth. Right. A lot of times people say, I don't know why I'm not passionate or I don't really feel a purpose in what I'm doing anymore. It's because your dominant need is growth and what you're doing, you're already great at and requires no growth of you. And so it's to know what your need is, is so critical in knowing what to chase. And maybe growth used to be your thing and it's not anymore.

And you're like, man, I just want a ton of variety and change. And you've been doing the same thing forever. And although you loved it at one time and it's still really good, you've got a dominant need for variety and what you're doing doesn't give you that. And so perhaps finding something that gives you that. And so it's looking at those six needs, you know, again, the needs for certainty, uncertainty, significance, love, growth or contribution at any given time, you got one or two of them and they change throughout life. Oftentimes when we get an overwhelming amount of one of those needs fulfilled, it's being met and it's no longer

our dominant need. For example, many, many years ago, if you wanted me to come give a speech to your company, I had a big significance need. I'm not sure that that's ever going to go away, but you said, hey, give a big speech and there's going to be thousands of people there and when you're done, they're going to give you an award and they're going to stand up and clap and they're going to love you. I'd say I'll go there because that was a need of mine. Now if that was what you were going to say to me that probably wouldn't get me to go. My needs now are more contribution related. So now to get me to go it's a different mechanism, it's a different way to get me there, a different lever you'd have to pull, different

leverage. And so in my case now to get me to to go there, if you said, hey, we really need you, and we know you can make a difference, you could change people's lives to get there, you'd get my attention because that's more my need. And so I think you look for the catalyst that turns your chain a little bit. So third is, does it meet my needs? Number four, does it expand me? I think at any given time we as human beings have a Desire to expand I often say I'm addicted to the expansion of my being All human beings deep down want to expand want to improve want to change

It's our natural tendency to change our nature our digestive tract our lung tissue Even our skeletal system is constantly remaking itself over short windows of time and long windows of time And so it's our nature to change and to expand and so although that happens internally very naturally its nature It's our cellular system regenerates itself regularly ourselves do It's our cellular system regenerates itself regularly ourselves do

but us as a being as a person that has to be intentional and There's something we need to pursue in our life the pursuit of that change the pursuit of that Expansion is something to ask yourself is what I'm doing causing me to do that Number five thing of whether you should be doing something or not doing it I think think you've got to ask yourself this question, if I don't do this, will I always wonder? If I don't do this, will I always wonder? I think at the end of our lives, we don't regret the things we've tried and failed because lessons come with that. Wisdom comes with that.

I think at the end of our lives, and I've been blessed to be around several people at the end of their lives, if they have regrets, it's the things they did not attempt. It's the times they lived scared. Many people live their entire lives afraid. They never step out and do it and I don't know about you but I don't want to get to the end of my life and always wonder. For example, my son is a golfer and I played college baseball and I took it as far as I could take it. But I did take it as far as I could take it and I don't have to get to the end of my life and wonder whether I could have made it. I couldn't have made it.

And I've told my son many times, I said, Max, go play for a few years. I don't want you to be 75 or 80 years old and wonder whether you could have made it or not. It's okay if you don't make it. There's nothing wrong with that at all. You won't regret that. But you will regret when you're an old man laying in your bed wondering whether or not you could have. And so I think one of the questions you have to ask yourself

about whether this is something I pursue or not is can you live with it if you didn't? At the end of your life, can you say, I would never wonder whether this worked and I don't care. But if there's a party that says, I wonder whether this could have worked, I wonder whether this business could have worked, this idea could have worked, my music could have worked, my writing, my speaking, my relationship, whatever it is, if you're going to wonder at the end of your life whether it could have worked, then I think that's an indication

that's something you're going to pursue. And if you don't have that desire or that conflict internally, then I don't think it's something worthy of your pursuit necessarily. Maybe it was at one time and it's not anymore. So, hey guys, you know when I love technology and a great idea revolutionizes an old industry. And by the way, if there's an industry that needs a revolution, I think you'd agree with me, it's the healthcare industry. It's not easy to find good doctors.

And by the way, good doctors that are in your area that also take your insurance. And that's why I love ZocDoc. They are revolutionizing the healthcare industry and the way you get access to doctors. ZocDoc, by the way, is Z-O-C-D-O-C. Here's who they are. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare highly rated in-network doctors near you and instantly book appointments with them online. Tons of different reviews on the doctors and they're local to you. You can find out if they take your insurance. I just did it for a tear I had in my

shoulder one day later. I'm in the doctor's office getting some help getting an order for an MRI. So go to Zocdoc.com slash my let and download the Zocdoc app for free then find a book a top-rated doctor today that's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash my let Zocdoc.com slash my let. My sixth thought about whether you should pursue something or not is this, ask yourself this question, does this take advantage of any of my talents or giftedness? There's nothing more frustrating than watching somebody doing something every single day of their life that isn't a talent, isn't a gift, they don't have a proclivity for. I think oftentimes when you find somebody that's really happy, they have found their

purpose or their passion and then they're taking advantage of a natural talent or gift they have to utilize it in the service of other people. So there's really three elements. There's a purpose, then they use a talent or a gift they have or a proclivity, and then it's in the service of other people. Those three things really make up

whether something is something you should be pursuing and spending your time at. So ask yourself, does this take advantage of a talent that I have or a skill, which are different things, right? Like talent is something you're kind of born with, skills are something you can learn, but ask yourself that question,

does this take advantage of one of my talents or my skills or my experience? Do I bring something to the table that gives me an advantage at this? Even with my kids, same thing, when they're looking for careers they're're going to pursue, I would hope. And I've told them to try to find something that takes advantage of their three, four, five, six gifts that are unique to them.

And when you find somebody really good at something, typically they've got some sort of natural talent, proclivity, skill, or experience that sets them up to be great at it. There's nothing more awesome in life than whatever you do being great at it. You're a professional pool player. You know, you're a landscape architect or a landscaper or a business person or a school teacher or a neurosurgeon, or you work at a bank, whatever it is that you do, there's something awesome about being great at what you do and pride in what you do and greatness

almost always comes with some that's why there's not a lot of guys that are five foot eight in the NBA why because usually it helps to have the ability to be six three or six eight or six ten to play in that business it it certainly helps to have athleticism and leaping ability right and or a great hand-eye coordination whatever it might be, it takes advantage for the most part at that level to be great of a talent or skill or an experience. So same thing in your life.

So number six is, does it take advantage of my giftedness of my talents, right? And then I would say that number seven is, maybe your passion just needs to be a side hustle or a hobby, doesn't always have to be your career. You could spend something from nine to five every day that sort of pays the bills and then after that time you pursue your passion or you side hustle it and it's the second business that you have or it's a hobby.

Like a lot of times you don't have to monetize your passion. You don't have to monetize your purpose. Maybe your purpose is to spend time in your church or a philanthropic cause that you're passionate about. You're not going to make any money doing that, but it also doesn't need to be your career or it could be, but it doesn't have to be. So maybe your passion, your purpose is not a career at all. I think there's this misnomer that my career has to be my passion or has to be my purpose. Oftentimes we also have to support our families and maybe it's after that time, or maybe we're going to work in a side hustle for three, four, five years or a

decade so that we can leave our job and pursue our passion or our purpose. But not every day necessarily. I mean, in an ideal world, you'd be passionate and your purpose would be your career. But another thought I have about it is that potentially maybe it isn't. And maybe that's your side hustle. Maybe it's a hobby you have. One of my really good friends here, his passion and he loves to fish. Well he can't make a living fishing where he lives and so his job isn't his passion.

But I can tell you this, this guy loves to take his vacations for two weeks and go fishing. He loves to go out early in the morning on Saturdays. He's got a rich life because his passion is his hobby and he enjoys that. He's got a rich life so it doesn't have to necessarily be your job in an ideal world. Of course it would be. Maybe someday he should start a business where he does fishing expeditions. He could pursue that. But for now, it doesn't mean he's losing because he fishes on the weekends and takes

vacations that are fishing trips. He's winning because he's doing something that he loves, right? And so number eight, if you're trying to find your purpose or your passion, take a look at somebody that you admire. You might find your passion or purpose through them and it may not even be correlated. Think of somebody that you really admire. And if you look at their personality traits

or something they did, that usually leaves a clue to something that matters to you. Like my case one of my all-time heroes I wrote a dissertation in college on dr. Martin Luther King and you say well what in the world about you know, dr King correlates in any way that what you do Well, one of the things I admired most about him was his oratory skills. I saw wow amazing Look how he can speak and move people and energize them. Well, guess what? Later in my life, I found a passion for public speaking. So found out it's something I'm pretty good at.

Right. And so one of my purposes in my passions came through one of my heroes. I had to look at it, but when you look at your hero or somebody you admire, a personality trait, a skill, a talent that they have may leave a clue. There's a reason you admire them. It could be their character, their behavior, their talent, their skill. And when you begin to unpack what is it that I admire about them and how does it relate to me, you might find it. The other thing that he did in a massive way was change people's lives. Well, in a much smaller way, clearly, infinitely smaller, but in a smaller way, I try to make my life improve other people's lives. And I didn't know that when I was younger. I found that

out as I got older. One of the things I admired so much about Dr. King. And then as I look at other people that I admired in my life, people in my personal life that were, you know, heroes to me and role models, my dad. My dad, as many of you know, was an alcoholic who got sober and my dad helped lots of other people, hundreds of other people get sober themselves. I thought, well, what is it that I admire about my dad? I admire about my dad that he helps people, that he's taken his pain and his mistakes

and used them to help other people. Like I often say, you're most qualified to help the person or people you used to be. I didn't make that saying up, but I say it a lot. And so I've realized that most of the through line with the people that I admire was they change and impact other people's lives. And my dad wasn't a public speaker. He couldn't stand it. So it wasn't that every person, but when I look at the people I admire, those are the things. And that led me a pathway, a clue as to what my purpose and my passion was through

looking at people you admire so who do you admire right take a list of the two or three people you admire the most and what about them do you admire that could correlate that you could find a purpose is it the character that they have a personality trait a mission I don't, could it be a skill? It could be something they have that sort of leads you to connect with your purpose and your passion. And then last, and I think this is a big one, number nine, I wanna remind you of something,

my thought on it. Time is running out on you. Time's running out on you. I talk often times about the weapons of the adversary uses or just negative things in our life we could call it, which is there's doubt, there's discouragement, there's delusion, and then there's delay. Too many people are delaying in their life and not trying things. You know, Matthew McConaughey said on my show, and I tend to agree with this, that sometimes it's a

process of elimination. You got to try a bunch of things to figure out what you don't want to do. And too many people are delaying and waiting and they think they got all the time in the world you know there was a whole long window of time before you were born and There's gonna be a whole long window of time after you're gone. The time you're here is so small Think about this how much time existed in the world before you? It's a long time and how much time will exist after your physical body is here? You're here for a flicker. You're here for a short window of time.

I mean, it's so small. It's scary to even think about it. And so don't delay. Don't wait. Too many of you are waiting. You're sitting on your book. You're sitting on your great idea. You've got all this great music within you that you're not playing yet in your life because

you're waiting to be perfect. You're waiting for the right time. You're waiting for the right time. You're waiting for the right inspiration. You're waiting to be sure this is the thing. You're only going to know until you try it. Process of elimination. That's not the thing. That's not the thing.

This is the thing. Right. And so I think my ninth thought on this is profound for you, which is stop delaying, stop waiting, get in the game. Time's running out. I've got to be honest with you. I, I just yesterday, I was a little boy. I mean, I'm 53 years old at the time. I want just yesterday.

I was a little guy. It was just yesterday was my first baseball practice. Just yesterday was our championship in high school baseball. Signed my scholarship and then baseball ending and then starting in business. And it's like that I mean just a flicker just yesterday. My babies were being born. They're both out of the house now Life is short. You got to quit delaying. You got to get after it. You got to try now Get in the habit of doing things now

People that win do more things now people People that tend to struggle in life wait, delay, deliberate. I'm not saying don't plan, don't prepare, but some of that's overcooked. Most of the time that's an excuse not to do. Thinking is so fun, isn't it? Doing is real work. And most of the time thinking is not the work, doing is. And so I'm just challenging you, don't delay. And so those are all my thoughts on

what you could chase in addition to or instead of just passion in your life. And so just think about those thoughts today. I did this podcast for me as much as I did for you and I hope that it served you. And if it did, I would ask you to subscribe, write a review, make a comment, maybe share it with somebody if it brought value to your life. Alright everybody, God bless you, Max out.