Within all of us lies a deep internal desire to experience fulfillment, have destiny, and make an impact - whether that be in our family, our community, or within the organizations we work for or are a part of. 

Because of this deep desire, it’s easy to fall prey to culture’s picture of fulfillment, destiny, and impact. It paints fulfillment as wealth, destiny as status, and impact as self-serving. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way. True fulfillment, destiny, and impact should be measured by truth, integrity, and purpose. It’s an inward, upward, and outward process that isn’t measured by how much we have, but is measured by how healthy we are. As the age-old adage goes, health is wealth. But what does health actually look like and why is it important? 

Deep within us is a fire that burns awaiting nurturing, stewardship and the opportunity to ignite the lives of others around us. This, my friends, is what it means to live passionately and it is the health of the fire within us that impacts how we live and relate to others in the world.

While others consistently advise others to follow passion, I urge others to instead build passion. You see, passion is the soul set on fire. Depending on how or what we feed it with, determines how it burns. In sight, it may be tough to distinguish between a healthy and unhealthy passion, but the consequences of each are drastically different. 

A healthy passion is composed of healthy thoughts, feelings, and choices; while an unhealthy passion is composed of unhealthy thoughts, feelings, and choices. To put it simply, a healthy passion is a healthy soul and an unhealthy passion is an unhealthy soul.

A healthy soul is paramount to uncovering our purposes in life and in keeping healthy relationships with others. Living with an unhealthy soul risks toxifying the relationships around us while simultaneously blurring the vision of our destiny and calling. 

It’s for this reason that truly living a life of passion with purpose is predicated on how we discern and adapt our passion to meet the demands of life. Such an idea is what I call passional intelligence and it is the practice of this that I refer to as passioneering. 

While modern society continues to grow and make advancements and innovations in practicing proper emotional intelligence, I think it’s important to go even deeper. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability of assessing emotions within oneself and others and with this awareness, being socially adaptive for a variety of motives. Passional intelligence is about assessing both the spiritual and physical activities of life that affect our emotions. While emotional intelligence empowers one to be socially adaptive, passional intelligence empowers one to be spiritual adaptive. 

Passional intelligence answers the questions like why am I suffering and is this suffering going to be fruitful or unfruitful? It addresses the why and truth behind the human experience and behind the thoughts, words, and actions of people. 

When our soul is ignited, energized, and sustained by truth, integrity, & purpose, we are empowered to discern our many purposes in life and carry them out with a passion with purpose. 

To echo the words of the late Pope Benedict the 16th, “The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”

Don’t settle for a comfortable life. The world needs you. The world needs your passion! 

I’m so excited to share more about my theory of passional intelligence with you through The Passion With Purpose Show. If you would like to learn more or stay up to date, visit passionwithpurpose.org or subscribe below to be notified when new episodes are released weekly.

Let’s get started and let’s build passion together!