We live in a world where most men are completely devoid of any purpose. Most men stumble through life without ever really waking up—they’re in a haze, drifting from day to day, and they never realize their full potential.
Rather than learning to monetize your passion, you simply relinquish your masculine purpose and spend your life furthering your boss’s goals. I want to change this. We need more men to wake up from the matrix.
We need men to realize that they can change reality. We don’t have to accept the bullshit system that is thrust upon us, we have the power to create our own destinies, and I’m going to teach you how. Before I begin, however, I want to define just what a”masculine purpose,” really is.
A “masculine purpose,” is having a clear, distinct goal in life, that is reflective of what you’re passionate about, and taking action to turn this purpose into a reality.
Purpose = Lifestyle
For example, the musician who hustles his ass off writing new material every day and networks like crazy to perform at the coolest venues has a very strong masculine purpose: to share his music with the world.
The man who wants to open a garage gym, and who spends hours every day working out, finding new clients, and reading up on anatomy, has a very strong masculine purpose: to help others grow stronger.
A masculine purpose, when fully realized, is something that will bring you money. Not because that’s the goal, but because money is the end result of helping others improve their lives in some way. If you sell a great physical product or great informational product, you will get money; plain and simple. The more people whose lives you improve, the more money you will get.
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As a primer to this article, I recommend reading my article on masculine energy. It talks about how it is in man’s nature to have a purpose. Masculine energy is assertive, decisive, and it takes action—this is, fundamentally, why having a firm sense of purpose is a masculine characteristic.
Unfortunately, many men (and women) lack this nowadays. Men in particular have it crushed out of them at a young age, so it’s on us to rekindle this passion and sense of purpose.
3 Steps to Your Purpose
A large portion of this article will deal with the things that you’ve repressed and various dreams that have been forgotten. Finding your masculine purpose consists of 3 steps:
- Discover Your Passion
- Discover Your Strengths and Weaknesses
- Discover Your Outlet
Although finding your masculine purpose can be done in these three steps, it will not be easy.
In reality, it will consist of an enormous amount of soul searching and will probably take several years to get it to the point where you can make a living with your passion, but it’s worth it. Trust me on that.
Discovering your passion is simple; we want to discover what really makes you feel good. We want to discover what would make you happiest in life. For me, it’s helping others. For some people it might be relaxing and taking it easy. Others have a passion for artisan graphic T-shirts or computer programming.
Once you discover your passion, you must discover your strong and weak areas; this will dictate your outlet. For instance if you’re very strong with logistical and analytical thinking, this will create a different outcome than if you’re a people person and interpret reality through an emotional lens more often than a logical lens.
From there, it will actually be fairly easy to discover your outlet. Once you know your passions and what you’re suited towards, it’s easy to find where you can make a living by doing what you’re passionate about.
Step #1 – Discover Your Passion
Most men have their passions crushed out of them at such a young age; it is truly a tragedy. In fact, more and more young boys nowadays don’t even get a chance to discover what they’re passionate about, due to our society.
We baby children and don’t let them grow as human beings—we don’t let young boys explore, fight, and experience adventure. We encourage them to stay inside, souped up on adderall, playing the latest first person shooter, all the while crushing their joy of life.
The first order of business is to discover what you’re passionate about—for many men, this will be the most difficult thing to do. Most men are so out of touch with themselves that they don’t even know what they feel at any given moment.
3 Questions to Ask Yourself
Ask yourself the following questions. Take the exercise seriously—I would even recommend writing down the answers. Don’t filter the results, just answer in a way that feels natural. Nobody will judge you. It’s time to discover what you’re really passionate about.
- If you died today, what would you want to be remembered for? Would you want to be remembered for changing the lives of others? For creating an empire that you can pass down to your children? For starting a non-profit, or maybe for conquering vast, unknown lands?
- If you were going to get paid 50 million dollars a year to do any job in the world, what would you choose to do? Be a personal trainer? Be an author? A psychologist? A dog trainer? Or maybe a blogger, a musician, or a professional boxer?
- What makes you the happiest? What do you dream about? Do you dream about exploring? Or helping others? Maybe seducing women?
Ask yourself those three questions, and then continue reading.
Analyzing The Results
If you’re in touch with yourself, there should be a general theme to your questions. Most people, due to childhood imprinting, have a particular thing that want to share with the world or do to the world.
Here are a few examples of “themes”:
- Sharing emotions, ideas, or wisdom with the world
- Authors
- Poets
- Musicians
- Actors
- Etc.
- Helping other people
- Doctors
- Personal trainers
- Life coaches
- Psychologists
- Etc.
- Conquering others
- Competitive sports
- Bodybuilders
- CEO’s
- Day Traders
- MMA Fighters
- Etc.
Pretty much any passion can be categorized under these three categories. In fact, sometimes they overlap between all three.
For example, let’s take me; I’m a blogger. Not only do I want to share emotions, ideas, and wisdom with the world, but I also want to help other people. I help other people by sharing my own experience and ideas.
I would actually argue that the drive to conquer others occurs early on in masculine development—ideally, a boy feels the desire to conquer others when he is in his late teens up to around the age of 35; this is what pushes him to improve and what serves as the foundation for his masculine drive.
Over time, however, he will realize that he has nothing to prove…to anyone, not even himself. He’ll become satisfied with himself and others, and will embark on a journey to improve the lives of others, whether it be through helping them in some way or sharing something in some way.
Step #2 – Strengths and Weaknesses
Okay, so you’ve got your passion—now what? Now, you have to figure out where you’re strong and weak. If you don’t know where your strengths and weaknesses lie, you might as well not even try to make a career out of your passion. Knowing yourself is of the utmost importance; I cannot stress this enough.
There are several tools that I would recommend using to discover your strengths and weaknesses:
- Meditation
- This will show you the predictable thought patterns that you have.
- It will also show you where your ego is misleading you. This is crucial for self-knowledge.
- Timothy Leary’s 8 Circuits of Consciousness Model
- This is one of the most in-depth psychological models that I’m aware of.
- It will literally help you to wake up from your childhood conditioning (as it did for me).
- Carl Jung’s 16 Personality Types (more on this later)
In addition to this, there are several other methods of understanding your strengths and weaknesses, which I will address later. Ultimately these are all road maps to the same destination: knowing yourself. Anyone who is successful is very keenly aware of how they function.
And I really fucking mean that. Most guys that are successful know exactly what food they run best on, the ideal workout routine for them, their style of learning, and their preferred way to get work done. Self-knowledge equates to power.
Meditation
Meditation is one of the most important habits that any man could have. The benefits that you will get from meditation are literally incalculable. At times, it will be painful—you will bring up repressed emotions, negative thought patterns, and will sometimes have panic attacks, or long bouts of depression, but it will all be worth it.
Meditation trains your brain to stay focused on the present moment, which is perhaps the biggest determinant of your happiness. It trains you to stop worrying about the future and dwelling in the past; it teaches you to embrace the present moment.
It gets rid of your ego—something that is a problem for very many people. It trains you to stop identifying with external things (“I’m a doctor, and this determines my worth as a human being”) and to accept who you are. Start here before you do anything else.
8 Circuits of Consciousness
This is perhaps one of the most in depth models for understanding the human mind that I have ever known. I first encountered this theory after stumbling across a book called Prometheus Rising (which is no longer in print, unfortunately).
The premise of the book was simple: learn how your mind works so that you can hack it. Learn to believe any belief, learn to undo negative imprinting, and learn how to unlock “super-conscious” states of mind.
No book has taught me more about my own mind, and the minds of others, than this one.
There are dozens of other books that have been written on this theory (started by Dr. Timothy Leary in the 1960’s), but I recommend reading Prometheus Rising as a primer. It’s one of my favorite books of all time, because of its sheer ability to help unlock the keys to your mind.
Carl Jung’s Personalities
Carl Jung, another one of my favorite psychologists, did amazing things for the world of psychology. He was a pupil of Freud’s, and in many ways his polar opposite. Where Freud viewed human beings in a very materialist and reductionist sense, Jung viewed us as more of holistic, free beings.
Among many other things, Jung developed a series of “personalities,” that can be used to better understand yourself. You can take a free test here to determine which type you are, and what your strengths and weaknesses are.
3 Questions To Ask Yourself
In general, there’s a few key questions that will determine your “style of work,” or the best way to manifest your passion. I recommend that you seriously consider these questions, and write them down on a piece of paper to cement the answers in your mind.
- Do you prefer to pay attention to little details, or the overall big picture?
- Do you like to work in long spurts, or in little bits every day?
- Do you prefer to work one on one, or via a medium (the internet, phone, email, etc.).
These three questions will determine the medium through which you can monetize your passion, so take them seriously. Do you have the answers written down? Okay good, move onto the next section.
Step #3 – Discover Your Outlet
If you did the previous two sections correctly, this one should be a breeze. Once you know what your passion is, and your strengths and weaknesses, it will be extremely easy to figure out your outlet. Generally speaking, you want to design your outlet around your strengths.
So, for example, if you’re a strong extrovert, and enjoy talking to people, you’d be best suited to an outlet that allows you to do that. If you’re an introvert, and prefer to get work done alone (like me), you should design your life around that, instead. Let me use a few examples to clarify:
Passion Example #1
Say that you’re passionate about music, and you want to make a living in this world. Well, what are your strengths and weaknesses?
Can you play an instrument? Okay, then ask yourself if you want to perform locally, or through a different medium. Maybe you want to record songs on YouTube and make a living off of YouTube ads, or maybe you want to record your songs and sell them through iTunes or Amazon.
If you’re not a people person (weakness), but are very detail oriented (strength), consider going it solo as a singer songwriter. Plenty of musicians have done this in the past. If you are a people person (strength), but are not very detail oriented (weakness), then maybe you should start a band and get a manager to handle the details for you.
Do you see the point here? Once you know where you’re strong all you have to do is designate your weak points to others who can do them better than you.
If you can’t play any instruments or sing, but still want to make a living through music, then consider investing in a recording studio. Can’t find the money? Figure out a way—use crowd sourcing, or start small (home recording studio) and scale as you get more customers (professional recording studio).
Maybe consider being an agent or a band manager—are you a people person? Then this would be great for you. Are you more detail oriented? Then you should consider being a professional mixer (help musicians record/fine-tune audio).
Passion Example #2
If you’re passionate about fitness, then figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, and design your life around it. For example, I’m very knowledgeable about health and fitness, and I love training. But, I’m not a big fan of training others, because it’s too time consuming and doesn’t pay much unless you own your own gym.
So what did I do instead? I just wrote a fitness eBook with all of my knowledge from years of experience, and then I just sell it through my blog. That way, I can help other men improve their lives and their health, and every time they buy a copy of Body of an Alpha, I get some dough.
If you prefer to work in spurts, and hate to work every day for several hours, consider setting aside a couple of weeks to launch a product. Take a paid vacation from work, and work your ass off launching an eBook on how to get a six pack or launching a YouTube channel that you can monetize.
Do you prefer to work every day, and want to work in person with people? Okay, then create a garage gym so that you can train people on a daily basis. It’s a very small investment and can pay off big time if you know what you’re doing.
Passion Example #3
If you’re passionate about knowledge, there’s a lot of ways you can monetize it. Just find a niche that wants an answer, and give them that answer in the form of an eBook, a video course, or a blog. Most of the time when guys tell me they have some “weird passion,” that they can’t monetize, I just shake my head.
If you’re passionate about it, I can guarantee that there’s other people who are passionate about it, too. And, as any entrepreneur knows, where there’s a group of men who are passionate about something, you can easily make a product that they will love.
Ask yourself: do you prefer to work in spurts? Then consider launching an eBook, a blog, a YouTube channel, or a video course. Do you prefer to work every day? Then start networking (online and in person) with people to consult in whatever area of expertise you have.
It really isn’t that hard—none of it is. It just takes some knowledge, some willpower, and some action.
Final Thoughts
We’re starting to see a shift in the way that our culture is operating. In the words of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanion: “The 21st century will be made, not managed.” In other words, the people will design the next century. We won’t be told what to fucking do, we’ll just do it ourselves.
More and more people are gaining access to the tools they need to monetize their passion. In no other time period has there been so much abundance; 15 year olds are literally getting rich off of day trading and creating apps. If they’re doing it, you can too.
Find your masculine purpose, and it will begin to serve as a solid foundation which you can build your life upon.
You’ll find that the more you follow your passions, the more alive you become and the more everything in your life seems to magically fall into place. When you follow your passions, you’re happy, you’re motivated and determined.
You’ll find that you’ll start to build a social circle comprised of other successful, like-minded individuals, and girls will naturally flock to you, because they sense that you’re doing something important and following your dreams. The key is to take action, though—if you don’t take action, nothing will ever happen. Find your passions. Find your strengths and weaknesses. Find your outlet.
As always, if you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to leave a comment below. And, as always, I’ll see you next time.
I want to become a high rank cop to both help others and also to have a high status. In which category would that fall? Would that still be a good purpose? I wanna lead the charge and make the world a better place
Jon, thanks for the article as always. Do you have insights (or a separate Blog Post) on how to deal with approaching women (or people in general) as an introvert?
I think I now realize that I have been living with no masculine purpose and I only now realize it at 22 and I feel like it’s to late to start over.
Mr. Jon, what’s your MBTI type? I’m ENTJ
Unfortunately, the link to Timothy Leary’s 8 Circuits of Consciousness Model no longer works.
Just fixed it!
many men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still inside them
By the way, the same is true for feminine women. Do you agree? Mr. Jon.
Mr. Jon,
Can’t women monetise their passions?
Janice
Mr. Jon,
How do you know that you are an introvert?
Janice
Here’s the general question to ask: when you’re tired and need to “recharge,” what do you like to do?
If meeting people, extrovert. If reading or something non-social, introvert.
Mr. Jon,
What’s your MBTI type?
Janice
I’d guess he’s an ENTJ ENFJ, or ESTP.
Actually, I’d imagine he would be an INTJ (or a closely associated type), rather than a E-NTJ/NFJ/STP
Take it from an older man(65), finding my passion when I was 18, leaded glass, and sticking with it through both lean and abundant times has provided me with not only a rock to build my life on but adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything. Lord the places it’s taken me, the things I have seen & learned and the 1,000s of creations I’ll leave behind are amazing.
I started working alone, grew my business to a dozen employees working on huge art glass projects for casinos, hotels, multi million dollar homes, even a lot of work for Disney. By 2001 I grew wary of the lack of creativity as these huge jobs became little more then working out the logistics of designing, fabricating and installing them. I closed the business and again began working alone and my productivity, inventiveness, originality and innovation exploded. I was an unleashed animal.
It’s still the fuel that fires my life. It’s my passion to almost the exclusion of all else.
Hell yes, brother! This is what I love to hear 🙂
P.S. – If I ever need some custom glass designed for my soon-to-be mansion in Vegas, I’ll hit you up 😉
Thanks dude-great site-tremendous insight and a solid reaffirmation of my path.
Hit me up anytime for jaw dropping art glass, it’d be a honor!
Mr. Jon,
Before reading your blogs, I thought masculinity is all about sports and it was impossible for me to be masculine! Thanks for telling me to focus on my passion! Due to childhood imprinting, my only hobby is singing. I realise that I need to SING MORE to be more MASCULINE! Yang is anaggressive masculine energy that dwells within me despite I am a woman. I think that’s why I was more active than my sisters.
Janice
Glad to hear that you’re getting in touch with your masculine side, Janice.
Except, I identify too much with “masculinity”. I need to meditate to experience ego death.
Except, I need to meditate to experience ego death.
I am EXTROVERTED. I enjoy recording songs, creating my solo album and performing the songs in my solo album. However, I am also DETAIL-ORIENTED.
What should I do?
Be glad that you have both, because you can choose whatever you want now. Sounds like you want to make a living from music, though 🙂
I thought that detail-oriented people must be introverted!
There is no “must,” – there’s only correlations. Generally they are, but that doesn’t mean they’re bound by it.
Why Glad? I am female.
Hey man. Great article… I find that I have four or five things I would class as ‘passions’ I don’t have one overriding one like some people seem to. I can’t see my life working without any of them, is it a case of picking just one or two to monetise and keeping the others ‘personal’?
What are they? I guarantee there’s a way.
Broadly speaking:
music/guitar (classical, flamenco, jazz, folk, rock),
knowledge/education (reading and writing about philosophy, literature, history etc)
psychology/relating (therapy and relationship quality)
exploration (travelling, learning new things compulsively, etc)
I pretty much spend my time exclusively on these things (as well as weight training and nutrition, but those are more personal)
In terms of vocations I would think writer, musician, clinical psychologist etc., however I’ve never wanted to be shoehorned into a particular career, hierarchy or system.
Dude, there’s so many options. I’ll stick with one though to keep things simple.
1. Do some keyword research and discover a common, extremely annoying problem that people are searching for (in any field you mentioned).
2. Figure out a simple solution you could sell them, and write an eBook about it.
3. Buy a domain name, create a landing page, and set it up so that you can sell your product from your website.
4. SEO optimize your landing page so that you’re getting 50-100 views per day, which assuming a $27 product and a 5% conversion ratio will get you around $100/day on average.
I honestly need to make a product just for guys trying to monetize their passion. It’s so simple when you know what to do!
Also don’t ever feel like you’re going to get “stuck.” There’s always a way out. The only time you ever get stuck is if you become too afraid to leave.
Wow okay, will see what I can come up with.
Haha if you write an ebook I’ll be first in line for a copy!
Thanks so much for your time dude.
Hey Jon, what are we supposed to do when we honestly don’t have any passions? I’ve been trying to find passion for years and honestly can’t come up with even 1 thing in life that I can say I’m passionate about
This is a really big issue for a lot of men, it’s actually one of the more common questions that I get asked. Shoot me an email with a little bit more information and I’ll help you out 🙂
Try singing, playing guitar, playing basketball, soccer, golf etc. and you will find you passion.
Due to childhood imprinting, my only hobby is singing. So I have to sing more to be more masculine.
Don’t get too caught up in your childhood imprinting. Just the fact that you’re aware of it makes it weaker
What’s the meaning of “it” here? Does “it” mean childhood imprinting?
If Yes, I need to meditate to experience ego death.
Just the fact that you’re aware of your childhood imprinting makes it weaker. It doesn’t determine who you are.
Thanks! I understand now!