Passion is such a buzzword right now. So many times I have people come and say to me, ‘if I only knew what my passions are I could change my job and be happy‘. It is like they are some big secret, something that is hidden from them and that if they could only see everything would be great.
Having specifically worked with passions for a while now I have to reveal a secret – your passions are not something that are hidden away from you, something to be discovered that you haven’t previously allowed yourself to see. One person I was talking with said that when she wrote down her passions nothing new came to mind. How could it? We can only be passionate about what we know, or think we know, we want. You can’t be passionate about something you don’t know. But you can (and many people do) lack focus on your passions or even dismiss them because they are so obvious.
When I work with clients who want to change their career we do look at passions because they hold great clues as to what the next step could be. And, yes you do want to be passionate about what you do. But there is a fundamental difference between feeling passionate about what you do and your actual passions.
Why is that? Well your passions are not just related to your work. They will most likely include your work, and they will also be over the whole broad spectrum of your life. And this is important as when you decide on a new career you need to take everything into consideration. And your passions are not just one thing that can be translated into a career. Living a passionate life is far more than that.
What I have seen is that many people think that passions have to have bells and whistles attached, or have to be something lofty to be achieved. One of my clients had problems trying to think of what he might put on his list of passions. At the end he quickly scribbled down two things to complete his list. He thought them rather mundane and that they wouldn’t feature in his passion list – however they turned out to be his top two passions! Truth be told – your passions are the things that are important to you right now.
Why is that important in a career-shift? Because right now is when you are looking for the next thing and your passions are elements of that new direction for you. As I work with clients we identify many different elements that will eventually comprise a lot, if not all, of the new career direction. Passions are just one part these elements.
I want to make this point because I have found that some people get so hung up on discovering the ONE THING that they can be passionate about that their true passions never actually get a look in. I had a client who, once she discovered her top five passions, was very surprised to see ‘organising’ as one of her top five. She said that if I had asked her to write her top five passions off the top of her head, ‘organising’ wouldn’t have been on the list. However as she looked at her passion list, she saw that in actual facet ’organising’ is a huge part of who she is, and what she loves. This then gave her a new direction to look in regarding a career move.
Why else is it so important to understand our true passions? Because even though we obviously know these things we are not focused on them, we are not giving them airtime. It is the giving of airtime that makes all the difference in the world. What I have found happens is that by making them my top focus, and by choosing in favour of them every time, my life has shifted. If you know where you are going, even if you don’t have all the answers as to how it’s going to happen, you are 100 times more likely to achieve it.
Your passions are right there with you now; they are not some elusive mist. All you need to do is allow yourself to see them and then choose to let them lead the way.
Jessica works internationally as an Empowerment Coach, Passion Test Facilitator and Business Consultant and is also the author of Remembering Perfection.
She helps people discover their true passions, and live them, whether it be in their work or personal life. She works individually with people and runs workshops in the UK and Spain.
She offers a free ebook: Feel Better Right Now! accompanied by a free 30-day Video course. You can sign up for it at http://tinyurl.com/25mecjv
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