5 Ways to Live Your Passion

December 15 2014

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Does it bug you year in and year out that you start off the year with high hopes for “this is the year I live my passion,” only to the end the year with “I still have no idea what I want to do with my life?” If so, rest easier knowing that you’re far from being alone. Books and workshops promise to help you uncover your passion and yet, it seems almost impossible to find that “aha” moment where the clouds part and the light of clarity shines brightly on you (and you live happily ever after). Living your passion is not necessarily about finding that great “aha” moment. It doesn’t mean that those of us who don’t have that moment are out of luck. The process and experience are different for each individual, and it’s about understanding and embracing your own path towards living your passion.

Five Minutes

Adam Leipzig shows how one can uncover one of life’s greatest mystery: what our passions are in five minutes. Sounds too good to be true, but he breaks it down simply with a powerful message.

It’s more than just having the “aha” moment. It’s why you do what you do to learn, grow, and impact.

1. Get over yourself
Our own feelings of inadequacies and incompleteness – that feeling of not living our dreams – often come from an internally-focused mentality. Why am I unfulfilled? What will make me happy? The most fulfilled and inspirational figures who live with passion aren’t that into themselves. Rather, they look beyond their own woes and consider what other people need, how society could benefit from their actions, and what impact they can have, however small.
2. Work on the little things

Focus on the little things that bring you and others joy. Is it waking up early to hear the birds sing? Is it delighting a client by calling her on the phone rather than an email? It it the smile on the child’s face when you spend 15 minutes hearing about their day at school? Living with passion is not just about the big moments – it’s about savoring the small moments that make a big difference.

3. Stop waiting
We are procrastinators. When it comes to anything that might shake our stability or our ways of doing things – even if they are no longer effective or healthy or productive – we find a million and one excuses to delay. Not the right time, not 100% clear, not while I am X, Y, or Z. Those who live with passion just go for it (not blindly, but with a bit of faith and optimistic ignorance). There isn’t going to a chorale of angels telling you it’s the right time. You make it happen or it just doesn’t happen.
4. Be present
It sounds so simple, being present, yet most of us are never truly present. Whether we are exercising, talking to our kids, or commuting in our car, we are always distracted by what was or what will be. We escape through our iPads and music and mindless celebrity news. We don’t allow ourselves to just be because it’s uncomfortable and oftentimes, scary. Living with passion is about returning to yourself to be engaged in every moment – to draw every bit possible from each experience. Doing so helps us to be more mindful of how we can be present for others.
5. Don’t be satisfiedIt seems counter-intuitive to want to be dissatisfied, but it’s really an important part of living. Being content in the moment and not comparing ourselves to others is important. Yet being passively satisfied with a life-half-lived prevents us from living with passion. We oftentimes resign ourselves to “I’m-no-Oprah-I’m-just-me-poor-me” thinking. Being productivity dissatisfied is not about woe-is-me or I-want-more, but about being hungry enough to want to change the world for the better, impact another person’s life for the better, and to leverage our natural talents to make a difference for the better. It is the way we continue to challenge, grow, and flourish.

 

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5 Ways to... (2013)