On my Stanford Business School application, one of the questions they asked was “What matters to you most and why?” That one stopped everyone in their tracks. That was probably the hardest essay any one of us ever had to write. Of course the easy answers are family, life, but we all knew that those would be too generic.

Thinking long and hard about my answer helped me develop my philosophy about life. Ultimately, I just wanted people to reach their full potential so that the world could reach its. I simplified that into the equation Passions + Problems = Purpose.

I looked back at my own life and saw that I had always been using the things that I loved to do to change the things that I didn’t like. My passions are the things in the world that I love doing and that love is the strongest positive emotion/energy in the world. My problems are the things in the world that I hate and hate is the strongest negative emotion/energy in the world. You can see my problems and passions in the blog heading. I think that if I can find creative way to use my passions (synonymous with talents, strengths, or gifts) to positively impact my problems, I will maximize my life fulfillment. In a sense, I’m dually motivated by both love and hate and that’s a pretty powerful combination!

When I use the word hate, I am simply using it to draw out what I truely love. Oftentimes, it’s easier for us to say what we don’t like about a situation, a person, or a thing than it is to identify all the things that we love about it. For example, if I say that hate injustice, racism, and poverty, what I’m really saying is that I love justice, culture diversity, and economic equity. When it comes down to it, the PurposeFinder formula is just a framework that I use to direct my life. I try to live it every day and so far it has worked out nicely!

Live purposefully!