The Subtle Flame You Didn’t Know You Were Ignoring

For the longest time, my life goal was to find my passion—that one thing that moved me, gave my life meaning and made me stand out. I wanted to find the thing that made me valuable.

One day, my therapist asked, “Why does your job have to be your passion?”

We talked about how the idea that your work should be your passion is overrated and only adds unnecessary pressure.

I let go. I started enjoying all my hobbies—every single one of them—and began seeing my job simply as a means to earn money, so I could keep doing what I knew I loved in my free time.

I let go of the pressure to “be good at something, excel at something, find a passion, to be valuable, to be someone in life, to achieve something” (don’t even ask me what I thought I had to achieve).

I gave myself space to explore, to enjoy my many hobbies, and to discover countless new ones. I started changing my perspective on life and those things I thought “had to be a certain way.” I turned down the volume of the outside world and turned up the sound of my intuition.

I let go. Deeply. Genuinely. I let myself just be. I surrendered control and allowed myself to be guided.

And then, it happened.

Like a room in a house waiting to be illuminated, like a precious object from childhood I thought I had lost forever.

A subtle flame right in the center of my chest. Amidst the nothingness. Amidst the darkness. Lighting everything up.

It was something I had always known but had never given the space or possibility to exist, to grow into something more.

That passion I had been searching for—that Ikigai the Japanese talk about—had been with me all along, long before I was even aware of it. It had been patiently waiting for me to wake up, to flip the switch, or to hand it the match.

Nothing truly profound can happen in our lives without clarity. Without a deep understanding of our inherent worth simply because we exist. Without realizing, there is no ultimate goal or final destination.

Only when we understand that the purpose of life is simply to be, can we unlock our greatest potential.