What is your Passion?

Passion – according to dictionary.com is any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, such as love or hate; an instance of strong love or sexual desire; a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm or desire for anything; the object of such a fondness or desire. Passion is the power that compels us to seek that which we desire. Love – Success – Fame – Fortune. Defining your passion may seem overwhelming, especially when you have not thought about it for a long time or worse yet, never thought about it all. But once you begin to see it, feel it, taste it, breathe it – all the love, success, fame and fortune will follow.

Reality check: it is not easy to define your passion. It can be elusive, nebulous, blurred in a world of busy days and nights just trying to live life. This may make it even more difficult to pursue. But the rewards are so vast, so fulfilling, that not searching is akin to not trying. We all know you can’t succeed if you never try.

What holds most of us back from exploring and finding our passion? Is it fear, distractions, or possibly the fact that we just take things too seriously?

Fear: What are you so afraid of? Is it failure or maybe it is success? The difficulty of the work it takes to reach a goal? Did you know that 95% of the time, we fear things that will NEVER happen? For example, I am so scared to stand up and give this presentation because I might forget what I am saying and everyone is going to laugh. Well, 95% of the time you don’t forget what you are saying and no one laughs except at the corny joke you tell at the beginning. And so what if you forget what you are saying and look stupid? Most audience participants are very sympathetic because they have the same fear as you and pretty much forget it happened seconds after it occurred. You, on the other hand, are obsessing about it for days/weeks afterward.

Distractions: Let’s see, this one is kind of big. A huge portion of our lives is consumed by an obsession over possessions. Yeah…just things. Suze Orman has a great saying, “We buy things we can’t afford to impress people we don’t know and most likely we would not even like them”. The whole pursuit becomes about the money and what the money can buy. Sure it takes care of needs, but we are talking about the wants – the 8000 square foot house, the expensive luxury car, the 5 carat diamond ring, the Manolo Blahnik shoes and handbags, $300 dollar tees and $500 jeans. From a comfort perspective, the average family (4.5 persons) needs about 800 square feet per person for comfort – 3600 square feet – about 1000 square feet per person for luxury – 4500 square feet. What are we thinking? No wonder there is a real estate crisis. In the haste to achieve fortune, we miss all the fun; next thing you know, you are over 50 years old and completely miserable in your personal and professional life. No wonder we end up in a social crisis that leads us down the path to financial crisis.

Too serious: As an adult, we are told and constantly reminded that life is not all fun and games. Spontaneity has taken a backseat in our society. What happened to taking the family for a picnic, swimming, to the zoo, or ballgame, on a whim? In business, we become so stuck in our day to day schedule that we have no room to roam. Our grueling pace of back to back meetings leaves no opportunity for spontaneity. When we are not in the office, we are glued to our mobile devices. All of this is exhausting. It makes me think of JACK in The Shinning, “All work and no play make Jack a very dull boy”. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome. That is what most of us do on a daily basis. No wonder many people need pharmaceuticals just to keep going!

I am not a proponent of just throwing everything out and starting over, but you do have to start somewhere. The best place: you. Fear needs to be a thing of the past. Start thinking about what it is that you love to do, can’t wait to do, and forget all sense of time when you are doing it. Once you have some idea, think of ways to incorporate activities that you are passionate about into your everyday life, both social and professional. Distractions need to be minimized. Are you fed, sheltered, and clothed? Then stop spending money on stuff. Get your finances in order, debt paid down, and savings to carry you when your optimal opportunity presents itself. You don’t want to turn down the chance of a lifetime because you need the paycheck you are getting, do you? Seriousness should be saved for critical injury/illness and funerals. If no one is in serious crisis, dead or dying, then you should be laughing and celebrating the moment. Even when battling tough contractual negotiations, there is no comparison between signatures on a contract and the feeling of exuberance when you and your family see each other at the end of the day or after a long trip away from each other.

Stay tuned for more insight on how to find your passion.