"Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things."
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Question
How do I identify my one true passion? Passion is difficult to see in yourself, but can be easily seen in others.
In order for us to identify it within ourselves, it may require us to step back, and take a more perspective look at what we do, and how we act…
Know that the one ingredient that we need to be truly successful hinges on something that is so hard for us to see. It’s frustrating hearing people talk about the power of passion, when we can’t even find out what that looks like for us.
This post will walk you step-by-step through the process of discovering your one true passion. From there, it’s up to you to make something great out of it.
Get Started with the Right Perspective
Like so many other things in life, everything starts with having the right mindset. To find your one true passion, having the right mental perspective is vitally important. In other words, your thoughts about discovering your passion can determine whether you will find it or not.
If you subconsciously hold the thought that it is impossible to live your true passion, no matter how hard you look for it, you will never find it. The negative thought will always sabotage your actions.
It’s the principle of the the self-fulfilling prophecy in effect. A self-fulfilling prophecy is merely a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true. So, if you thing you can never live your dream life, then you won’t.
Decide today that you can discover and live a life of true passion, and this mental thought will carry you through to the end. This is the mindset you must have to begin this self-discovery process to find your life’s true passion.
With your head in the right place and a determination live our best life, let’s begin.
Revisit Those Special Moments
The next step to pinpointing your true passions is to take a quick exam. The first question on the exam is what moments in your life were really special to you? Meaning what have you done that made you feel so gratified that you rate it as one of the best moments in your life.
Moments like that are hard to forget. These are the times where you say to yourself, if I could, I would do this for the rest of my life. It could be anything from a hobby to doing something that really helps someone else.
Those moments don’t necessarily have to be related to work or making money. They could just be something that you do for fun. The important thing is how you feel while doing it. As you think of moments like that, write them down.
Question number two is “What particular part of that moment made it so special?” Answering this question takes a little bit of dissecting. Identifying the various components of such events may not be readily apparent. But taking a closer look may help.
When you think about it, everything has elements that are fun and easy to do. Even though every task may not be as fun as others, there is usually some aspect that you really enjoy doing. What was it, and what made it so much fun?
Start pinpointing the specific element that appealed to you the most. Knowing these pieces gives us some hints to your real passion. You may not see it at first, but piece by piece, it will become more apparent.
The last step is to figure out what parts of the activity were not as exciting. It may not be the most fun part, but you will gladly do it anyway. These things are not necessarily a negative, but it’s just that some activities in any undertaking are more pleasurable to perform than others.
Either way, when dissecting any activity, it is best to take note of all aspects. The key to finding your true passion is making sure that the majority of the tasks involved are a pleasure to perform.
Finding Some New Possibilities
By now you will have a list of ingredients that make for some great experiences.
These ingredients are just like the ingredients we find looking in to a kitchen cabinet. They have the potential of making a great meal, but what kind of meal can we make?
To answer this questions, we must first take a broad perspective to see just what are some possibilities. Look at these past experiences in perspective. Do they have similar patterns that stand out? Or are there certain skills that you tend to use more often than others.
Does a reoccurring theme develop around a person or a group of people. Are you better working with children instead of adults? Or are you great when you are addressing large groups of adults?
Examine the roles you play in the your finest moments. Are you an active participant or do you work better in the background the logistical work? Try to look at the ingredients of each, and see if these pieces can fit into some sort of a category.
The goal here is to decide what you can make from the ingredients on your list. If you can narrow down the components of your best experiences into one broad category, you are on your way to discovering where your true passion lies.
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Increasing Your Best Experiences
Now that we are identifying the broad category of activities that make our hearts sings, we are faced with another challenge. How can we bring more of these pleasurable moment into our lives?
In line with the mindset that it is entirely possible to find your true passion, and experience it in everything we do, it’s time to see how we can actually live every day experiencing true passion.
Our next decision point comes by examining the question, “ Do we want to make a living doing our passion, or do we want to make a hobby out of it?” There is no right or wrong answer to this. Each choice has it’s pros and cons. It just boils down to your personal preference.
If the hobby route is one you want to take, then figuring our how you can bring more of that hobby into your day-to-day life. A hobby won’t force you to depend on it for you livelihood, which can keep it strictly a fun producing activity.
If you want to build a career around your passion, there are many factors to consider.
They say if your passion is your job, then you’ll never work a day in your life. And that people who follow their passion will find success in whatever they do. This may be true, but there is another side to consider before jumping in.
Sometime, turning a hobby into a career may also turn a fun activity into drudgery. You may find that doing a hobby for money may take all the fun out of it. When your livelihood is on the line, your hobby might turn into something you now hate. This may not happen, but beware that the possibility does exist.
Another consideration is that there may not be a market big enough to support your hobby as a business. There are many factors involved in market research, and I would recommend that you do a thorough job before you make your move.
The last danger that you should be aware of is the trap of total immersion into you passion, the kind that causes you to neglect other things in your life that are extremely important. This is a syndrome that can envelop you just because you love your passion so much that you spend all your time working. Doing this can be harmful to relationships, your mental and physical health.
A good balance of work and play is important to keep your life successful in all areas.
Quieting The Voices of Fear and Negativity
As soon as you begin the quest to move your life in line with your passions, the two naysayers that show up to haunt you are fear and negativity. This may be a natural reaction to anything that threatens to change any aspect of our lives. But when it comes to following your passion, these are tough contenders to fight.
Fear happens at all levels of this discovery process, warning us of impending dangers of unknown territory ahead. It fills our mind with thoughts like, it’s too scary to go after your true passion. What if you fail? That’s one of the first thoughts that hit you. The fear of failure is a scary one.
When this happens, we have to figure out a way to silence those thoughts. One quick way is to find others who are successfully living out their dreams, and talk to them. The act of interacting with them is a way to counteract those fearful thoughts of failure. If they can made it, so can you.
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The other evil twin to fear is negativity. Negative thoughts can come into make you doubt your ability to succeed.
And these negative thoughts might not be your’s alone.
They can come from those close to you, like from teachers, colleagues, friends, and even family.
The negative voices are hard to silence sometimes, but work hard to counter them by reinforcing all the positive aspects of your venture that will positively affect others and even yourself.
For every negative thought that surfaces, drown it out by over powering with a multitude of positive ones.
Everything we do in life has an element of fear and negativity, but we find a way to keep moving forward anyway.
Time To Fly
The final step in the process is deciding to fly. It’s not easy discovering your true passion, but it takes even more courage to actually go for it. For what ever reason, it will muster the courage of a soldier marching into battle. Because people who go after their dreams have to be brave.
One battle to fight is the strength to get out of your comfort zone. We are creatures of habit, and it gets easy to accept our current lifestyle as the norm. And anything that threatens that existence is hard to sustain. So, be prepared to get familiar with being uncomfortable. It’s a very essential part of the journey.
You may need to develop your own strong motivator to keep you engaged, but one thing is for sure, the world needs more people who will accept the challenge of living their true passion. When you do, your life will never be filled with regret.