Deep shit we’re getting into today. Passions, life purpose. And everything in between.
I recently read an article on the Blue Zones Website called “The Napkin Test: 9 Questions to Unlock Your Passions and Purpose”. And I thought it was super interesting and helpful, especially as someone who constantly contemplates whether or not I’m doing the “right thing”. With my career, school, and all other aspects of life that affect my future. And I think it’s very normal in your twenties to not know if you’re doing the right thing or on the right path. And that can be scary and not at all reassuring.
Life’s a mess. Or at least it can feel that way when you don’t know what you’re passionate about or how to pursue your life’s purpose. What will your life’s work be? What will you amount to? It’s hard to say. No one knows. And that’s the terrifying part. But this article I read is a good roadmap. It offered some really helpful questions to consider if you feel at all lost or confused about work, life, or just your future in general.
How does purpose relate to wellness?
First and foremost, before I dive into the bulk of the content on how to uncover your specific purpose and passions, let’s understand how this concept relates to our well-being.
The second tenet of the Blue Zones Power 9 is Purpose. Or as the Okinawans and Nicoyans would say, “Why do I wake up in the morning?”. And this is important because knowing your purpose can add up to seven years to your life. Longevity and health are influenced by the extent to which one feels like they have a purpose and that their life has a sense of meaning.
Knowing your purpose, or at least having an idea, is beneficial for our health in more ways than one. For example, having a sense of purpose in life reduces the risk of mortality, improves health outcomes, leads to better stress management, has a positive impact on aging, and increases life engagement. We can once again see that the spiritual and emotional dimensions of health affect physical health outcomes and vice versa.
With this little bit of background knowledge, let’s now learn about the napkin test.
The Napkin Test
You can do this test right now if you wish, but essentially it’s a little exercise created by Richard J. Leider, where you can explore your calling in just a few short moments by answering some questions on a napkin or a small piece of paper. This activity uses the simple formula G+P+V=C (gifts + passions + values = calling). And it really is that simple. It just requires you to do a little digging.
Gifts
To uncover your calling, you should first identify your natural gifts. Ask yourself, “What am I good at?”. What comes naturally to you? When you know these gifts and apply them to the things you’re passionate about in an environment that aligns with your values, that’s how you know you’ve found your calling. Your purpose.
The Passion Part
Once you contemplate your natural gifts and talents, it’s time to explore those passions of yours. What moves you? What are you genuinely enthusiastic about? What makes you excited to wake up? Are there any causes, issues, curiosities, or ideas that never fail to capture your attention? What lights you up? These questions will help you identify your passions. And that’s important because the things we’re curious about and care deeply about deserve our attention.
When it comes to passions, you just know. You feel it. You never have to force yourself to care or give a shit. Our passions move us to take action in the world. It’s recurring. It’s always in the back of our minds, no matter how often we try to push it aside and tread down the “traditional path”.
When we make career and life choices based on our gifts, passions, and values, we can live a better life. Therefore, it is essential to examine the problems, issues, and concerns we feel most curious about. And take that and run. Because you have something to offer the world. And that’s better off put to use than wasted.
So what in this world needs doing? What issues do you feel that someone ought to do something about? Because you can help do something about it.
Questions to ask yourself to uncover your passions
Here are several questions you can ask yourself if you’re unsure about what your passions are. Feel free to jot the answers down or just think about it.
- What issue would you like to write (or read) a best-selling book about?
- Is there any need or problem you believe in so strongly you’d love to work at it full-time if you were paid to do it?
- What would I do if time and money weren’t factors?
- What childhood activities did I love?
- What problems do I want to solve?
- What would I do if I couldn’t fail?
- What do I enjoy learning about?
- What topics am I naturally drawn to?
- What’s my dream job?
- How do I spend my free time?
- What would I do if I didn’t have to work?
- What makes me lose track of time?
Answering these questions can help uncover your passions, which in turn can help reveal your purpose. Knowing your passions is the key to knowing your purpose.
Values
Values are the fundamental beliefs that guide our decisions. Our values shape our actions and determine what’s important to us. Values are principles we live by and have a strong influence on our attitude and behavior. The way we interact with the world is also influenced by our values.
Values can be personal, cultural, organizational, or specific to certain settings. Living a life aligned with our values increases happiness, confidence, and overall well-being.
A few examples of values include integrity, leadership, family, health, honesty, fun, accountability, humor, patience, inclusion, empathy, achievement, happiness, justice, learning, equality, and hard work. For a complete list of common core values, check out this link and pick out a couple that stand out to you or align with how you’d like to live your life.
Calling
So now that we’ve explored the factors that lead us to our calling— gifts, passions, and values, let’s discuss the calling and how we can figure this out for ourselves.
Our calling, otherwise referred to as our purpose, is a strong impulse towards a particular course of action, typically regarding a career or vocation.
And know that you’ve done some thinking, and hopefully some writing too— you have a good idea of your gifts, passions, and values. Now you just need to find where those overlap. Is there a career in which you can work on something you’re passionate about while using your gifts?
If you’re having difficulty thinking of different paths, here’s a great blog post that discusses some of the best career tests of 2025, which could help you brainstorm a bit.
As a last note, I’d just like to mention that purpose is a huge part of life. It’s complex, and we most likely won’t figure this out overnight. I don’t think we’re really supposed to either. I mean, as cliche as it sounds, life is meant to be a journey. But I hope this post has given you some helpful tools that push your thoughts in the right direction. I hope you’ve discovered more about yourself from asking and answering the questions. Because once we do this work— explore our gifts, passions, and values, we will set ourselves up for a better and more fulfilling future.
Thanks for reading!!!
Thanks so much to all of you for reading. Once again, I hope this was helpful. I’ll be back next week to talk about something else. I’m sure it’ll be awesome.
If you’re interested in reading about more wellness-related topics, check those out here. Also, a good starting point for wellness is my post “What are the Dimensions of Wellness”.