YOU! I have a message for you.

What are you passionate about?

The question sounds simple, but for many of you reading this the answer might not immediately leap into your head. Let me ask some follow up questions.

What do you feel like your purpose is in this life? What excites you to jump out of bed in the morning and take on the day?

Did that spark any answers? Hopefully, for a handful of you it did. And if you've found an answer by now, congratulations. This blog post isn't necessarily geared towards you, but I encourage you to keep reading. If not, let's ask ourselves a few more questsions.

Have you found yourself feeling unmotivated (work, fitness, relationship, etc.) for more than 3 days in the past week? Do you find yourself comparing where you are at in life (money, career, relationship status, etc.) with your friends (virtual or real) or co-workers? Have you found yourself judging other people's choices and paths, especially those that seem "unconventional"?

If you mentally answered "yes" to any of those questions, I encourage you to read along, keep an open mind, and honestly examine yourself and your reactions.

I've been where you are. I've lived a life that, on paper, was perfect: ideal match of a boyfriend, lucrative career, healthy lifestyle. Yet, I looked at friends with "better" (i.e. higher paying) jobs and felt inadequate. I watched friends get engaged and married and felt pressure. I viewed friends focus on fitness and judged them as being extreme. I saw people deviate from a similar path to mine, pursue their passion, and called them irresponsible.

And then I realized something dark and scary: the problem was me, I was not happy. It took a long time, filled with many big personal and professional life changes, to come to a place where I believed what I currently do. We are put on this planet with a relatively short time to be here. Our purpose in life is to be happy and to enjoy that time, to find our passion, to share it, and to use it to improve the lives and happiness of those around us. Our main currency should not be money. Money will come and go. Yes, it can buy you things. But things don't last and it can't buy you happiness or time, which are our two most precious commodities.

I'm not saying that it's easy to make this shift in mentality and lifestyle, not by any means. But I believe it is vital. As you shift, as you change, you'll find yourself re-evaluating the ideas you once held as truths. Understanding that the "path" that is laid out to lead us to success is not the same for everyone. You'll see that there are far too many people in our world that are going down the wrong path. They are leading unhappy, unfufilling lives. They are dating that person or keeping that job or always struggling with that diet because that is what they believe they are supposed to do. They may be some of your closest friends and family, and they may not understand or support what you are doing. You have to remember that they are projecting their current state onto you.

And you'll probably find that there are far too few people who are actively pursuing self exploration, who are discovering what makes them thrive and how they can bring that passion to the world.

Which is the purpose of this little post. I'm imploring you to look a little deeper, look inward, and be honest with what you see. Yes, it might be scary, and it will almost definitely be uncomfortable, but it might save your life and it might change the people and the world around you.

How many days, months, years do you have here? I don't know. You don't know. But I do know that you have the power to make each minute of each of those days, months, or years happy, fufilling, enjoyable, and to share those feelings with the world.

And what about you that have found and are following your passion? How can you help others do the same?

Be brave. Be inspired.