Passions – What Fires You Up?

Have you found your passion yet? That is, of course, quite a loaded question. Most people will answer no to that. Others will tell you that they are passionate about a thing they have never tried before but, deep down, they wish they had. And there are as many answers as there are people because passion is a tough concept to grasp.

In modern culture, we are all constantly pushed to look for our passion, as if passion lies dormant somewhere inside our bodies for us to find. I’m here to tell you that this is a load of crap. Passion is not a thing, place, activity, or even a person; it’s how something makes you feel, so long as the feeling is positive and empowering. So, in your pursuit of passion, you are looking for those things in life that excite you the most. The things that fire you up.

So herein lies the conundrum—how can you know how something makes you feel if you haven’t tried it? For example, I’d like to think I’d be very passionate about being a rock star. But until I step onto a stage in front of fifty thousand people and rock my guitar, I have no idea how that would make me feel. I can infer and have some ideas because it looks like it’s working pretty well for others, but I can never know for sure.

Therefore, this is the first thing you must keep in mind when you think about passion: it’s an experience-driven feeling. Much like action must come before motivation and not the other way around, the experience must come before passion. Personal experiences are those that will fuel your passions.

But a mere experience is not enough. You might get a glimpse of something and feel great about it, but until you put it through the grinder, you still won’t know for sure. There’s a vast gap between enjoying a game of tennis and dedicating your life to becoming a master tennis player.

So, taking this further: experience plus hard work and practice gives birth to passion.

And Then There Are The Lucky Ones

Now, I don’t want to paint an overly bleak picture of passion. There are passionate people all around you. Maybe you are one of them. It’s possible; people are passionate about many things, and most of those things most likely don’t even sound like a passion to you. That’s because passion is personal and subjective. There is no one thing that we all must embrace as a passion for becoming fulfilled human beings.

Don’t shake your head. Even generally accepted good deeds such as caring for the sick, helping the poor, and protecting the environment do not have to become everyone’s passion. It simply doesn’t play out like that. It would make for a beautiful world, but reality doesn’t work that way.

Passion is personal, and it blooms from your experience. You see this happening all the time. Perhaps a child touches the keys of a piano for the first time and feels something. Or maybe they don’t feel a thing, but their parents insist that they stick with the classes. Twenty years and thousands of hours of practice later, that person is playing the piano on stage, and her heart fills with joy with every single note.

My point is, passion requires experience, but also pain and struggle. If you assume that you will find your passion and it will be the most rewarding experience from day one, here I am to shatter those dreams. Passion takes work. Hard work.

Michelangelo had passion. Leonardo had passion. Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela had passion. The mechanic who fixes my car has a boatload of passion. Their passions are all different, but what makes them similar is that they all pursued it with blood and tears until it turned into their whole life. They became the passion. Passion was no longer something vague that they strove for. Instead, they are one and the same.

How Do You Find Your Passion?

Then, you might ask, what is this exercise all about? The purpose of this step is to help you pinpoint an existing passion in your life or perhaps the tiniest seed of it. From there on, the rest of your journey will be a trip toward either nurturing that passion (or passions) or working toward creating one.

That is why, in this Discovery Voyage, you will only touch the surface of your passion. In later chapters, you will begin its design, followed by massive action, which will lead to making that passion grow and develop over time. Remember that passion takes experience and practice. That’s why you can’t be too theoretical about it.

So, in this exercise, you will answer several questions that will sketch a picture of your passion or your potential for passion. Don’t be disappointed if it reveals nothing for you just yet. That’s normal for most people. If you are at the beginning of the journey, don’t despair. There’s plenty of time!

What Is Your Passion?

To arrive at your passion, your road must start with something you are interested in. It works this way:

1. You observe, listen, learn, and become interested in something.
2. You dig more into it, research, read about it, try, experiment, fail, win, and soon grow to love it.
3. Once you love it and the joy of pursuing it deeper keeps you going, it becomes your passion.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you look at that nugget of passion you’ve been nurturing, perhaps subconsciously:

Structure this process like a brainstorming session, where you reflect on your past. Depending on where you are in your life, you may have gone through a multitude of experiences. In some cases, you’ll realize that you stopped too soon, and now you regret it. In other situations, maybe you didn’t even attempt because of fear or other limiting beliefs.

By doing a few sessions around passion, you will lay the foundation for future action. Soon you will learn how to create a lifetime learning plan that taps into that passion and helps it grow. But be aware that this will involve you going outside your comfort zone and tiptoeing into unfamiliar areas. But in the end, it will all be worth it.

How To Create More Passion In Your Life

Of course, there is no right or wrong amount of passion in your life. As a matter of fact, our entire life should be passionate as a whole. On the other hand, not every single part of your life can be full of passion, just by the nature of life itself.

You don’t have to be passionate about grocery shopping to live a fulfilled life or eat good food. It’s all about passion in the areas of your life that matter the most to you as a person and deeply connect with your purpose, vision, and mission in life.

From that perspective, I believe we should continuously look for potential passions in our lives. You don’t have to make finding passion your life’s goal, but the journey of seeking passion is what I believe is essential. By trying to generate passion, you enrich your existence. You open up your horizons and expand your reach. You don’t even have to find passion in the end; just being on that journey is a passion all of its own.

Here are some simple methods you can incorporate into your life to find more areas where passion might arise:

1. Try to work on replacing consumption with creation in all areas of your life. Consumption creates addiction, whilst creation can lead to passion. You don’t have to be an artist or consider yourself a creative person; you can still create. Even the simple act of sharing your thoughts on a blog about a subject you love qualifies as creation. You don’t have to create for anyone or any particular reason; you can simply create for the love of creating.
2. Expose yourself to various forms of creation, especially those in which you believe you have no natural talent. Think about painting, sculpture, musical instruments, dancing, writing, or sports. Tapping into these vast unknowns will open your mind to new possibilities. Maybe don’t invest in classes right away; instead, start going to museums, concerts, and other events. Get yourself exposed to these activities and talk to people who are already passionate about them.
3. Help others. Channeling your energy toward contributing will not only enhance your overall life mission but will also reveal potential passions in your life. Perhaps you can look for things you’ve struggled with in the past and search for people who might need help in those same areas.
4. Recall your childhood. Remember the things you enjoyed as a child and then dropped from your mind as you grew older. Back then, you had no fear or shame. Revive some of that joyfulness and openness. Embrace your inner child!

Your Passion Exercise

Click the download link below to get the Passion Worksheet and work through it. This exercise is probably one of the hardest, together with weaknesses, but do your best. You might not get it right from the start, or you might never get it right, but the process is what matters.

After you finish the passion exercise, move on to the last part of the Discovery Voyage, Your Personal Time Audit.