Over the years, we have seen many quotes come from successful people at the top of their field but perhaps one of them are as poignant as – success is a journey, not a destination. When we set goals in life, this does not mean that we have to dislike every moment leading up to the achievement of said goals. When we make a commitment, we are aiming to enjoy every single day of life whilst feeling passionate about our progress. As long as you enjoy the path you are on, you will remain motivated for years to come.

That being said, you need more than just passion alone. Within passion itself, there are three key elements to consider – talent, purpose, and needs.

Purpose – First and foremost, this goes well with passion because you need to know your purpose in order to move in the direction you desire. When you consider criminals, you could argue that they lack no passion but they are not guided by conscience and purpose. As long as you have these two factors pointing the same way, you will love the path that you are on. Whilst loving what you do, the world will see your contribution and an overall positive cycle can be introduced where positivity breeds off of itself.

Talent – Normally, passion can only get you so far before you need the core talent to push you forwards. When people have passion but no competence, their passion is not enough and they fall short. For example, this can be seen every single day with people who are enthusiastic about an idea until it eventually dies without being seen through. Over time, talent can be developed because you can learn new skills and improve your knowledge. Also, you will discover talents that you did not even know that you had. If you really sit down and assess your talents, you will find one that you can develop and have that required passion at the same time.

Need – Finally, we all have needs in the world but can you combine passion and need in a way that allows you to feed yourself? As long as you master the previous two as mentioned with passion, the need should look after itself and financial abundance will be an easy step.

In life, there are far too many people that struggle to find fulfilment but this comes from working with your strengths along with passion in order to service purpose. If you choose to do something that you are good at, you will remain efficient and the passion will ensure that you work hard at all times. Finally, add in the purpose and you will be making a difference to others in addition to yourself. Once you learn to combine these four factors, you will be putting yourself in the best possible position for success. If you cannot earn a living once you have these in place, you will not be able to do it from anything else either. From this, we achieve ‘value’ because it decides how much people will pay for us.

Sadly, we do not tend to give ourselves a chance of finding the area that allows us to combine these key attributes these days. If you really want it, you need to start with purpose because this will come from your conscience. After this, it will lead to talent and passion which will show you a number of possibilities because we all have numerous things that we love to do and have the potential to become good at. Once you have this list, allow yourself to put them into categories and reflect on what each one offers. Remember, the talent section is very much adjustable since you can learn new skills.

As said before, the need area is often the last to be seen because it will come once you have prioritised purpose, talent, and passion. If you think about it, talent is what you can do, purpose is what you should do, passion is what you enjoy doing, and the need results in what you must do.

For some reason, there is a common misconception that these four areas cannot intertwine and this can be seen in the famous quote ‘you cannot make a living from what you love’. As you may have noticed, that this is nonsense because everything is possible. As long as you follow the steps as suggested, there is no reason to suggest why we cannot enjoy life, serve a purpose, and take care of the needs that we have and even go on to achieve great things.

Instead of dreaming about it, we just need to take the first step. In truth, you can plan all you want but you will never be more ready than you are right now so decide to take the first step today. Nowadays, there is no need to get into debt doing what you love or working in an industry you despise. Furthermore, you can make a difference and a contribution to the world at the same time.

Today, take the first step by reflecting on what kind of career and life would allow you to perfectly balance these four key areas. Once they are pointing in the same direction, take a deep breath and go out there whilst enjoying the journey!

Umair Khan