At some stage in most people lives they will ask the question "what's life all about?" There are many different possible answers to this question but I firmly believe that life is about developing yourself toward becoming all you can be as a person.

You can achieve this by setting a purpose for your life and then working to achieve this purpose. By developing the skills you need, and overcoming the obstacles in your path, you will grow as a person and part of this growth is happiness with life and your role in it.

We as human beings require challenge and adventure in order to bring out our full potential. A person who sets no challenges and no purpose for their life is not really living they are only existing; marking time until life runs out. The person who sets an inspiring purpose and then throws themselves headlong into the pursuit of that purpose will discover what being alive really is.

Kids learn the joy of a challenge at an early age. Soon after they have reached the level of physical development required for them to be able to run they instinctively discover the concept of racing. I think we have probably all played those simple running games with our kids, pretending that we can't catch them.

Kids are also natural explorers. When a baby begins to crawl the first thing she will do is explore her world. She will open cupboards and pull things out, she will look for new things to touch and taste. Exploration and adventure are part of human nature.

Unfortunately the majority of adults forget this most of the time. They live conservative lives avoiding adventure and challenge as much as possible, but that sense of adventure is still there deep inside, it just needs a little encouragement to show itself.

If a person develops a hobby or interest that they become passionate about then that sense of adventure and discovery will resurface. Passion is the bridge to our inner potential, our true humanity.

People tend to be happiest when they are engaged in an activity that they are passionate about. They feel more alive because they are becoming more focused in the present moment. Passion is really just the process of being fully absorbed in something and being fully absorbed is another way of saying that you are totally focused in the present moment.

Most people are scattered between past present and future for most of their time. They worry about what happened yesterday and whether they should have done things differently. They think about what they have to do tomorrow or what their life may be like at some future moment. And only occasionally they think about what they are doing now.

When you are passionately involved in something you forget to think about the past or future; all you are thinking about is the experience of being involved in your passion. This fully absorbing focus on the present moment is the greatest source of happiness possible.

This is the only time when you are fully alive because the present moment is all that really exists. The past is only a memory and the future is only a possibility but the present moment is reality. If you are spreading your focus across past and future then you are missing the present moment and are not fully alive. But when you are totally absorbed in the present moment you are living life to its maximum.

The real power of having and inspiring purpose in your life is that you can experience passion every day as you work toward achieving that purpose. It gives your life a direction and with that direction comes a reason to reactivate your natural, innate sense of discovery and adventure. Passionately following a purpose will unlock the love of life that most people have left behind in childhood.