Finding Passion in Your Life

“Where do I find passion in my life?”

This is a subject that comes up quite often, usually under surprising circumstances. Perhaps it is one of my favorite topics, and it is a word, like enthusiasm, I tune into whenever I hear it or see it. It is one of the most important words in my vocabulary, and a subject I have spoken on at great lengths, whether I have been invited to speak or not.

Recently, in the past couple days, it came up in two conversations and then in a forum I recently joined for people interested in building websites. So this gives me a wonderful opportunity to share my thoughts once again.
I think there are times when we all question whether or not we will ever be capable of passion for anything, and even times when we question if we will be capable of feeling it for anyone, for that matter. (As I write this, for example, in the depths of winter, during the last week in January, when it is -30 and there is more snow to be shoveled!)

Passion is a quality we can develop within ourselves.

Certainly we are all capable of being passionate, but when the question arises, “What, exactly, are you passionate about?” and we find ourselves ­ even temporarily – without an answer, it is time to remember that this is not a condition we need to wait to come over us, like infatuation, or a cold, or the winter blues.

If you find yourself without any real enthusiasm for anything, the first thing to do is to step back and ask yourself what interests you.

At one time, I was interested in flying. Then I became more interested. I booked a lesson, and while I could have started with my first lesson that very afternoon, I asked to book it in six weeks time. During the course of those six weeks, I thought about it daily, I read about flying, I spoke with people I knew who had taken lessons, and as the weeks went by, my interest grew. I was not yet passionate about it. And when you look back, how could I possibly have been?

It wasn’t until I was actually in the air, learning the preflight checks, learning about the gauges and controls, then taking the controls in my hands, guiding a plane in the air and then down towards the runway, feeling the wind shift and challenging my control of the plane, that I became passionate about it!
Anyone who has ever created a painting, or written a poem, or fallen in love will be able to describe the same process.

Because when you really think about it, how can we become enthusiastic about anything until we have really submerged ourselves in it, explored it and explored the changes our interest has caused in us?

So the first step in developing a love or enthusiasm about anything is to start with your interests. Make a list of them, and then pick the subject that interests you most. Then challenge yourself to learn more about it. Speak to others who know more about that subject than you do. If you can, take a course. And as you explore it, watch for the aspects of that subject that really interest you the most. Then delve further into them.

Invite that interest openly and honestly into your thoughts, into your dreams, and into your heart. Let your interests become a part of you, a part of your identity.

If passion is the fire that burns within us, then our interests are the tinder awaiting the first sparks, and knowledge is the flint that will ignite it.

No related posts.

Tagged as: life path, passion