Finding Your Passion

Have you found your passion? Do you leap out of bed in the mornings so turned on by something that sleeping-in and that warm bed seems just such a waste of time? Are you so motivated and inspired by something in life that the very thought it gives you ‘goose bumps of the mind’?

What will you put up with discomfort for? What will you willingly expend huge amounts of time, energy, money and effort on... just because it gives you massive amounts of pleasure?

For a person who lives their passion ‘work’ doesn’t exist; ‘effort’ doesn’t exist. Everything they do is a unique expression of their true self. Sounds nice, huh?

And if you’ve found your passion, great! But do you get enough of it? Is it just one activity? Does it frustrate you a bit ‘cos you can’t get enough of it? What if you could actually get paid to live it!? Would that be good?

The majority of people to go through life with a sense that they are not completely fulfilled. They are never completely satisfied; they are in a constant state of mild frustration and talk about life as being a “drag” or a “battle”. They feel that there “must be something more to life” but never quite find it. Why is that? Would it be useful to start living a rich, meaningful existence instead?

The thing with our passions is that people think they are an activity, a hobby or a particular way of living. That’s fine but what happens when they can’t do that activity or something interrupts that lifestyle? They get dejected, resigned to ‘the grind of life’. Upset and frustration set in... or even anger or resentment. Sound familiar? Not much fun is it? Well, that’s because you’ve mistaken the activity for your real passion.

‘Challenge’, ‘engagement’, enjoyment’, ‘pleasure’, ‘fulfilment’ etc. are the real passions! These are the states or feelings you get from the activity or lifestyle. Ask yourself or anyone who has a hobby or activity they get lost in; “why do you do that”? and you’ll hear, “because it makes me feel... X” or “because it gives me a sense of... Y”. You’ll hear that they are talking about an internal reward – and that is the real passion; they’re ‘hooked on a feeling’. When you realise that the activity itself isn’t actually the passion, you can take that sense of passion and spread it around your life even more. You can connect the feeling – the real passion – to almost every aspect of life... imagine that!

So passions are actually High Positive Values – unconscious, multi-layered, unique combinations of internal states. It’s great when by chance we find or grow into an activity that gives us these passionate states of reward, but the activity itself is just an activity.

Here’s an example; if someone says “I love freshwater fishing, it’s my absolute passion”. And I ask the question, “Why?” After some mental searching the person may say something like, “It’s just so peaceful. It’s a break from responsibility; I’ve always loved it, my Dad used to take me fishing. It reminds me of the carefree days of being a kid and having fun like we did on family holidays.” From this description we can find multi-layered states of high personal value; ‘family togetherness’; ‘child-like care-freeness’; ‘fraternal care’; ‘nostalgia’ (positive memories); ‘love’; all wrapped up in ‘inner-peace’. Wow, with all these positive states attached to it, is it any surprise that the simple activity of freshwater fishing is so compelling? It’s so compelling that they’ll spend loads of money on it, get up at the crack of dawn or stay out late at night in the cold and rain, devote hours of their spare time to it… not for the activity, but for the pleasurable states they get from the activity.

Now the great thing is that if this is an internal state that’s been linked to and external activity, we can also link that state to other activities.

So if you’ve found your passion, identify the states behind it – and spread them to other areas of life. Or if you’ve not found an activity that really grabs you yet, identify the unique sets of states and feelings that would really get you going; access them by thinking-and-feeling yourself fully into that state and connect them to activities in your life or invent activities through which you can express them.

How? Learn some basic Neuro-Semantics or NLP, either at a training or I’m happy to recommend some good books. Or find a certified Meta-Coach© who can help you unlock your inner genius and passions... or book a Skype or face to face coaching session with me if you like? Email: talktoalan@optimum-mind.com or phone: (+64) 021 260 5486

Now, what gives you immense pleasure? Initially you’ll think of an activity, but what are the unique combination of states that you get from it? Leave a comment below, you might just be an inspiration to others.