How to Find Passion In Life: Let Go of What Tires You & What Inspires You Will Take It’s Place!
If I had to give you one sentence on how to find passion in life; I would say this: Do More of What You Love, and Less of What You Don’t.
Finding your Passion isn’t an overnight event, however, it’s more of a journey that we are all on…and the reason we are all on this journey is because when we are children we naturally live our passions and do what we love; but as we get older then we become more socialized trying to fit in, trying to get approval from our family, friends, and the community and that is the beginning of what I call: Passion Amnesia. As we get older, we simply forget our true selves.
The majority of people these days spend their time doing things (tasks) they hate…especially when it comes to our work, our career and our jobs.
So the journey of finding your passion is a natural one. You are exactly where you are supposed to be…Waking Up!
I recently watched an interview with Oprah and John Mackey, Founder of Whole Foods and it was truly a story of following your heart and your passion!
At age 25, with no business experience whatsoever and a $45,000 loan from family and friends, John Mackey and his then girlfriend opened a vegetarian store called “SaferWay”. Later the Austin Texas store evolved into what is now known as “Whole Foods”.
The story, however, of what led John to open this vegetarian store is quite inspiring.
John was 19 years old and was a student of philosophy and religion at the University of Texas at Austin and Trinity University. One day John was reading a Philosophy book (required reading) and he said that he didn’t agree with anything in the book and he absolutely hated reading it. It was then and there that John made the decision to drop out of college (which wasn’t really his dream, but his parent’s dream); he also decided he would never again do anything he didn’t want to do in his life.
John later moved into a vegetarian co-op as he thought it would be a good experience and he would meet interesting people. He moved in and his “food consciousness” was awakened. He became the food buyer for the co-op. He fell in love with it! He felt drawn to it. The more he learned, the more interested he got and the more his passion awakened. John says “It was about selling healthy food to people, earning a living and having fun!”
In Mackey’s book, “Conscious Capitalism” John talks about “Spiritual Intelligence” which he says has to do with having a sense of higher purpose and recognizing that purpose. It also correlates with the values of truth, beauty and goodness. High Spiritual Intelligence recognizes those values in the world and has a strong sense of ethics.
I believe that waking up to your passion and purpose happens when we move into our spiritual intelligence as opposed to our “logical” intelligence. The reason is that our logical intelligence (the one that has Passion Amnesia) will try to convince you that you should be happy in your current circumstances while everything in your being is telling you that you are NOT happy!
So the first sign of “waking up” to your passion and purpose is that you have this deep feeling of “discontentment”, along with a lack of fulfillment and meaning in your life. And it honestly has nothing to do with how much money you make or how much “stuff” you own.
I love the story of the Founders of the popular Blog: “The Minimalists“, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who left their 6-Figure corporate jobs because their spiritual intelligence was waking up. Here’s an excerpt of their story from their website:
“It all started with a lingering discontent. A few years ago, while approaching age 30, we had achieved everything that was supposed to make us happy: great six-figure jobs, nice cars, big houses with more bedrooms than inhabitants, pointless masses of toys, and scads of superfluous stuff.
And yet with all that stuff, we weren’t satisfied with our lives. We weren’t happy. There was a gaping void. And working 70-80 hours a week for a corporation and buying even more stuff didn’t fill the void. In fact, it only brought more debt and stress and anxiety and fear and loneliness and guilt and overwhelm and depression.
What’s worse, we didn’t have control of our time and thus didn’t control our own lives. So in 2010 we took back control using the principles of minimalism to focus on what’s important. (Read about our 21-day journey into minimalism.)
In 2011 we left our corporate careers age 30 to become full-time authors and speakers. After publishing our bestselling book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, we embarked on an international book tour and eventually began contributing to people through our online writing classes and private mentoring sessions. The topics about which we write and speak cover a wide array, from simple living and pursuing your passion, to writing, publishing, entrepreneurship health, relationships, personal growth, and contribution.
Years ago I remember Cheryl Richardson (author, speaker, coach) say that “A high quality life has more to do with what you remove from it, than what you add to it.”
So if you are truly committed to finding your passion and living a life of intention and purpose, then here are some of my heart-felt recommendations:
- Create a “Must List”: What MUST happen in your life for a fundamental change to happen? Your actions must be congruent with your desires if you ever want to experience contentment, fulfillment and more meaning in your life. The war that is going on inside of you is your intellect vs. your emotions. Your intellect will keep you stuck and try to convince you that you “should” be happy while your “emotions” are telling you otherwise. In order to be happy, you must live in alignment with your true self. This is the essence of Spiritual Intelligence that John Mackey speaks of: truth, beauty and goodness. Your soul is crying out for Congruence!
- Remove What Tires You So What Inspires You Can Take It’s Place: One of my favorite authors, Tama Kieves, says that “No salary ever pays enough for us to leave our truth behind.” Typically the more bills you have to PAY, then the less time you have to PLAY! Once my kids grew up and moved out, I sold the 5,000 square foot home I owned and downsized to a 1200 square foot 2-bedroom loft apartment that I absolutely love! I have no maintenance, I can come and go as I want, it’s an uplifting environment and I don’t have the stress of a million dollar mortgage and expenses that I had at the mansion! We must to be willing to leave everything that leaves us empty, hungry, and haunted for more! What is tiring you? If it’s your job, then you must reduce expenses, so that you can one day soon leave that job. I promise you that when you reduce things that tire you, what inspires you begins to fill your life!
- Take a Time Out: We typically associate “time outs” with a punishment for young children when they are mis-behaving, however, I’ve discovered, it’s a great tool for adults to create a space in their lives so they can re-examine their lives and see what’s working and what’s not. Tama Kieves says that we have to ‘leave our prisons to find the keys to our freedom.’ So plan a “time-out” and give that time to your exhausted and denied self to gain a fresh perspective on what you want out of life.
- Adventure-ize Your Life – You always hear about ADD — Attention Deficit Disorder — but I believe the world is suffering from a different kind of ADD — ADVENTURE DEFICIT DISORDER! When your life consists of going to work for 8-14 hours a day, paying bills, taking care of the house and kids, and sleeping just to do it all over again 5-7 days a week, then you are probably suffering from Adventure Deficit Disorder. You need to add more adventures in your life. The world is suffering and that’s why we hear so many stories these days of folks who “left it all to have it all.” Stories like Richard Bode, author of “Beachcombing at Miramar” who left an unfulfilling career and an unhappy marriage to seek the truth about his life on a California beach called “Miramar”. When he walked away from his 6-figure job at a advertising agency one of his colleagues said “I always saw that as an act of tremendous courage” to which Bode says “...he was wrong, although I didn’t tell him so. I can no more say I acted with courage when I quit that job than I can say a man who is suffocating acts with courage when he tries to breathe.” I know for me that I left my 17 year career in the legal field because I couldn’t breathe any more. I felt like I was in a cubicle prison and I had to get out for my sanity and my life. Start adding more adventures in your life every week. Do what inspirational author, Seth Godin recommends, “If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.”
- Stalk Your Dreams: Stalking literally means to “pursue or approach stealthily.” And “stealthily” means “slow, deliberate, and secret in action”. You don’t have to announce to the world that you are pursuing your dreams or even just making the decision to do more of what you love, and less of what you don’t. You simply take one step in the direction of your dreams…and maybe you don’t even know exactly what that looks like…but what you do know is that the life you are currently living is NOT it! Maybe you just want more time freedom or money freedom or you want a new career. Start with where you are and quietly begin to move in the direction of your dreams. Our dreams don’t happen over night; they happen when we do more of what we love and less of what we don’t!
- Follow Your Design Clues: I love when John Mackey, creator of Whole Foods, talked about joining the vegetarian co-op when he was 23. It wasn’t his “dream” or “passion” at that time, he simply thought it would be fun and he would meet new and interesting people. But what happened was that this passion was dormant inside of him and it was ignited as he engaged in this vegetarian co-op. If you have an interest in something — yoga, feng shui, writing, speaking, teaching, an online business, art, poetry, music — whatever it is, explore those interests. They are your design clues that will lead you to discover your passion and your purpose! Remember, do more of what you LOVE!
I hope that you will honor and accept the sacred invitation to living your passions and creating an inspired life. In order to life a life of passion you have to be willing to live “unreasonably”! Decide to live your dreams before you can see the “how” and the “means” to doing so. Live your life with intention. It’s time for you and the world to wake up to our spiritual intelligence that is guiding us to our heart’s path!
The world is waiting for YOU…the real YOU!
