Finding Your Passion - How To Live Your Dreams

A lot of different self-help resources and finding passion sites will recommend that reflecting on positive experiences is a sure fire way to help in finding your passion.

But in reality, are we only getting half of the picture?

Sure, make a list of things that you like, and then keep doing the things on that list. That's a good tip.

But what about the reverse?

If we have a list of bad experiences, and stop doing the things on that list, that should also help right?

Well, hang on Passion Seeker!

If you support a football team, winning a semi-final might be a good experience on your list. Ok - keep supporting football team. Check.

But then if your team goes on to lose the grand-final, it might appear on your negative list. Ok - STOP supporting football team.

WAIT.

See what I mean there?

You can't simply choose to follow your passions based on things that appear only on the positive list.

If you think back to some of the most intense NEGATIVE experiences in your life, you can actually also find a clue to your passion there.

Why is this so? A true passion will usually appear on BOTH sides of the list.

Here's what I mean by that.

If you feel deeply enough about something to remember it as a deep hurt... then that thing might well be your passion. Why? Well, maybe the experience hurt you so badly because you actually care about the subject!

The opposite of passion is not hate. The opposite of Passion is APATHY.

So, things that don't appear on either of your lists won't be a passion. Because you don't care enough about them to have been impacted by them, positively or negatively. You certainly didn't care enough about them to write them down.

So that leaves us with the discovery that anything that has made it onto one of the lists involves something you are passionate about. Something with the power to make you happy AND sad.

Some items on your negative list still not making sense as a passion?

There's another way you might learn something about your passion here.

You might have a hurt on your negative list because of an experience that involved an opportunity you missed out on.

If you are still feeling it (the hurt) very intensely years later, maybe you need to take another run at that passion!

So - remember that finding your passion involves finding the things you care about. The Good AND the Bad are the places to start looking.

Hope this helps you find your passion!

It's been said of men that they die at 40 and get buried at 75 and some time in between those two periods of time they have just been 'existing' - ie, they never find their passion. Does this sound like you?

If so, you need to keep asking yourself questions. Does this sound like a good life? Simply, 'existing'? No passion, not living your dreams? I think we can all answer, no it does not sound like a good or satisfying life. So do you need to find your passion? Would it make a difference?

Let's look at a system Karl Faase has devised to answer this question, using clues from Buckingham's famous workplace study. Karl's approach will allow us to look at 4 ways to know if you need to find your passion, and then think about the difference it would make to your life if you took the steps to change it.

1. BOREDOM
Does a life of constant boredom sound like a fulfilling life, or merely an 'existence'? The answer is obvious. Boredom is the 1st way to identify that you are not doing something you are passionate about. If you were passionate about it, you wouldn't be bored right?

2. LACK OF FULFILLMENT
Feeling unfulfilled? Is your daily routine dominated by activities that are a mismatch to your values? A value mis-match might involve doing an honourable job that doesn't interest you, or working somewhere that straight up asks you to compromise your own values on a regular basis. Living like this wears you down, like you're constantly rubbing against the grain, and it is a fast track to an unfulfilled existence. Therefore, not living your values is the 2nd way to tell that you need to find your passion, fast! Why? Because if you're doing something that you value, that you're passionate about, you will be fulfilled! In other words, You're Alive!

3. CONSTANT FRUSTRATION
Living in peace with your situation and those around you is a key to living a good life. A living dream! Constant frustration is surely the opposite to this, and logically becomes something that traps a life into being merely an existence. What frustrates you? Are you spending too much time on things you are weak at? Does this make daily tasks into roadblocks you keep running into? Sounds frustrating to me. If you find your passion, you can work to your strengths and remove frustration from your life. Frustration is the 3rd way to know you should find your passion and get that peace. Start living!

4. DRAINED
A good existence, a good life, is one filled with energy. Enthusiasm for facing every day, the strength to get up in the morning! The 4th way to know you need to find your passion is if you feel opposite to this - flat and drained - like getting out of bed or performing simple tasks is too hard. Imagine the transformation your 'existence' makes into a wonderful life once you find your passion! You will LEAP out of bed excitedly, knowing that you care about what you will do today, and champing at the bit to tear into it!

So, what has Karl discovered? He has found, (with a nod to Buckingaham's workplace research) that although there might be lots of things that contribute to living a good life, to breaking out of the boundaries of a mere 'existence', there are 4 ways to know if your life is being held back by one problem in particular -- not finding your passion. If the 4 signs listed above are present in your life, sounds like you might need to find your passion too!