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Tip 41 - Finding and Engaging our Passion
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Would you like to bound out of bed each morning because you are so excited about what you are doing each day? There is something about that kind of enthusiasm! Nothing great was ever accomplished without it.
That enthusiasm needs a passion to drive it. How do we find that passion or that guiding vision if it is absent? Here are some ways to find what it is that creates a feeling of deep and abiding satisfaction for us.
Many people take a logical and considered approach to finding out what they want. Listing their skills, preferences, needs, limitations, the things they love and are good at, and the life they dream about. This can enable them to arrive at perfectly formed conclusions about their options and what they want to do. More often however, they're surprised when something just doesn’t feel right or that something is missing.
This approach is a good first step, it’s the left brain approach and it's useful to know these things about ourselves. However, in seeking to discover our passion, we are searching for ways to engage ourselves in a manner that is still unknown to us. We are seeking to create something entirely new, and that perhaps contributes to something larger than we can currently imagine. That something usually has to do with meaning and purpose, and with relationship. It’s not yet in our awareness.
The interesting thing is that we live in a quantum universe full of profound inter-connectedness and creativity, where discovery happens through complex processes and where linear (left brain) thinking can’t provide the whole picture. However, we can activate the right side of our brain by asking questions like the following:
- What is your greatest barrier to following your dream?
- How do you label yourself and how does that restrict you?
- What drives you?
- What interest or passion are you most afraid of admitting?
- What hidden clues does your home reveal?
- What did you want to become as a child?
- What are your strengths?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- What do you secretly love about yourself?
- What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?
- How would you like to make the world a better place for yourself and others?
- What would you do if money was no barrier?
- What would you regret on your deathbed if you hadn’t already done it?
- What would be the smallest step towards your following your passion?
- Who will be your support people?
Answering these questions in depth can reveal a passion, sometimes indicated by a rush of energy and more often by tears or even sobbing.
It’s important to find the best way of activating the right side of our brain, which stores the images, vision, creativity, self-image and dreams that move and motivate us. When we can access and take a look at these, by bringing them into awareness, we can find a whole new picture. This will include important values and, just as importantly, how we feel about them. What they mean then becomes apparent - unleashing new purposefulness and passion.
Here is a quote from Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel laureate physicist who studied complex systems:
"...In the study of global phenomenon you have to allow the aspects to emerge... you can't go in with a specialised intention of finding out something. If you want to understand a system you have to stand back and take a crude look. You are looking for the relationship of one thing with another... then you discover certain principles. The principles give you possibilities ... you come up with correlations... with relationships that let you know what is going on. Einstein said that he only wanted beautiful theories... because intuitively you know it is right... because it is harmonious..."
As well as the different kinds of question above, there are a number of purposeful activities that can help uncover the passions already stored within us, like: walking, running, writing a journal, drawing, painting, singing, meditating, staring out of a window, digging in the dirt, visiting a gallery, listening to music, washing your car, having a hot bath. If you stay alert to your feelings as they arise during these activities, you'll find that your right brain is just waiting to reveal the answers to you.
This journey of exploration is rarely obvious and we can expect to correct our course often. So what is it we need to do that will help us navigate? Along the way we can choose to engage in and learn from every experience, paying special attention at all times to the following:
- What puts a smile on our face
- What we find easy
- What sparks our creativity
- What we do for free
- What we like to talk about
- What makes us unafraid of failure
As a result we will get a strong indication of where our passions lie and a clear pointer to our life’s purpose.
A coach can help you uncover your passions and in many other ways.