Finding your Passion

It can be so frustrating when people advise you, “Just follow your passion!” Yeah, sure, you’d love to—if only you knew what your passion was.

Remember when we were kids? We would just do things, not sitting to weigh the pros and cons. Did we think to ourselves “What are the benefits of playing basketball versus football versus cricket?” We just ran onto the playground and played! We built sandcastles on the beach, played hide and seek with friends, asked silly questions, played pranks on our cousins, looked for bugs and insects, opened up broken radios or broke the ones that were working!

Nobody told us to do it, we just did it. We were led merely by our curiosity and excitement.

And the beautiful thing was, if you hated cricket, you just stopped playing it. There was no guilt involved. There was no arguing or debate. You either liked it or you didn’t.

And if you loved looking for bugs, you just did that. There was no second-level analysis of, “Well, is looking for bugs really what I should be doing with my time as a child? Nobody else wants to look for bugs, does that mean there’s something wrong with me? How will looking for bugs affect my future prospects?”

If you liked something you just did it!

We’re now so habituated to use our minds to analyze, rationalize and figure things out. It’s natural yet so very torturous!

Here’s the problem: Passion can’t be found in your head because it lives in your heart!

And the flames of passion are fanned by engagement, not thought. Right?

No matter how hard you try, you cannot figure out your passion by thinking about it. You need to take action and feel your way to your truth, from the inside out.

For example, for years, I have been wanting to actually learn ballroom dancing.

But most of my thoughts sounded like this: “Wow…dancing would be awesome, but you’re too old to get started. Most start training or enroll when they’re in their teens. You’ve had zero professional training, and you’re already in your 30s. Get real.”

Or, “It sounds exciting, but dance is a waste of time, it is crazy and irresponsible. And a waste of money”

The endless and debilitating chatter in our minds often tries to talk us out of what our hearts are yearning to explore.

I still have to make it for my first dance class and I am going to ensure it happens this year!

I had the same thoughts about having a blog and putting my thoughts for the world to read. No matter how much I wondered about it before, it wasn’t until I physically took action that my real passion (and gift) fully emerged. Magic really does start to happen when you follow your heart. 

Embrace this key idea and it will change your life: Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.

But taking action on something you suspect to be your passion is just part of the story. There’s another important (and rarely discussed) piece to the passion puzzle.

Proactively bring passion to everything you touch, to everything you do. No matter what task is in front of you, bring as much enthusiasm and energy to it as you possibly can. Bring your full attention, your full presence, the Godlike quality that each of us has within, to every task in your day.

Passion is contagious. When you’re fully present and passionately engaged with your life, people around you take notice and want in on whatever you’re doing. 

Another side benefit to proactive passion is kicking life-sucking habits like procrastination, resistance and complaining straight to the curb. 

So here are 4 simple steps to find your passion

1. Love everything you do.

In any given moment, if you can’t change what you’re doing, you can always change how you’re doing it.

2. Look at your book collection, magazines and credit card statements. Notice any themes?

What subjects are you constantly gravitating toward? What are you already spending your time, money and energy on? Your heart and physical body contain wisdom far beyond the capacity of your mind.

3. What do you love to talk about, learn about and/or teach others about?

You may not need a total overhaul in what you’re doing. Maybe you simply need to inject more of what you LOVE into your life right now. 

4. Quit talking and start doing.

Now that you’ve gotten this far, the next step is to begin taking consistent passion-based action each day.

Building your life around what you love is something you’ll never regret.

It’s your passion for what you do that will give you the drive, commitment and energy necessary to create any amount of success and fulfillment you desire, and you’ll have an extraordinary time while you do it.

That’s everything you need to know about finding your passion and probably a little more because I just can’t help myself, I’m passionate about sharing this work with you. Now go ahead and get started and don’t forget to let me know how it goes!