Have You Lost Your Passion?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 18, 2009
In the past week or so I seem to keep hearing about this word called "passion." Basically, the talk has centered around one of two things. One asks the question what is your passion. The other says that people should try to figure out their passion, and if they can then that's the business they should be in, and they'll make more money because they're passionate about it.
My wife and I were talking about it this week, and she asked me what my passion was. I said I didn't have one right now, and she said that's a problem. I then said she was my passion, and I asked her if I were her passion; she said no. Never ask a question you're not sure you want to hear the answer for. 🙂
Then my friend John Dilbeck wrote this post based on his series of answering questions based on Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich book. His question was Do you have an aim in life and a plan for achieving it? I had to answer that I really don't have a passion at this point in time, but I used to have one, so I'm going to work on figuring out what another one is.
It's an interesting thing, this question of passion. Passion is what helps get the blood flowing. Passion is what helps to make you feel like you're a part of something special. Passion gives you the energy needed to do whatever it is you need or want to do. When you don't have passion, sometimes you feel like you're just going through the motions. It can keep some people from doing anything at all.
Luckily, I'm not in that boat. But I will admit that over the past 8 or 9 months I've wondered about this thing called passion. I know I had it; I'm betting, if I sit down and think about it long enough, I'll also figure out where it went. I also know that if I had it once I'll have it again.
And when I do find it again... watch out world!
Mitch,
I don’t believe that you ever lose your passion. It may lay dormant for a while, but I don’t believe you ever lose it.
I am also learning that a lot of time what we think of as passion is not really passion, but merely enthusiasm for something, that is caused by our passion.
For example, there was a time in my life, I thought I was passionate about photography, and people around me at the time thought that I had lost my mind with my obsession with photography. But they all agreed that ,y photography was exceptional and that I should become a professional photographer. It never appealed to me, this business of becoming a pro.
Now, I still love photography, and I can still get lost in it whenever I grab my camera and go out, but it is not the same. the enthusiasm is not there.
What I have learned, and am learning through continuous introspection is that I am passionate about living life with passion and helping others do the same. This was true for me when I had “lost” my mind in photography and it is true today.
As I started living with passion for life, doing every activity with purpose and conscious awareness, or not doing it at all, I am finding out that sharing this enthusiasm for life is what I am really passionate about. I am passionate about helping everyone experience this being alive feeling.
Check out my post on my 77 days of Passionate Pursuit.
Rasheed
.-= Rasheed Hooda´s last blog ..77 Days of Passionate Pursuit =-.
Hi Rasheed,
Thanks for your comment. You know, I’ve been thinking about this “passion” thing for a week, and maybe today I’m starting to be ready for addressing the issue somewhat. I’ve taken a quick look at your post, and I’ll be commenting on it after I read it again. The photography story was really interesting; gives me somewhat of a different perspective on things.
Passion is a dirty, awful word. Almost as dirty and bad a word as LOVE, DREAMS and HOPE.
Whenever I hear any of the above words coming out of someone’s mouth I immediately run away from them. These people are delusional losers who don’t understand that the whole point of life is that you get out what you put in, sometimes less, but rarely more. Here’s some better terms: Deadline, Goal, Partnership. These are the things that will actually help you define what you want in life. The rest of it is absolute trash. Be realistic about what you want in life and put ‘passion’ in the garbage can.
Chris, I had to go back and read the post because I’d written it so long ago. lol
Obviously I’m going to disagree with you. The way you’re stating things, it almost sounds like you’ve had some bad things happen to you and that you’ve lost faith in those terms you used and the one I used. That’s a shame because your words, deadline, goal and partnership don’t have any real joy in them; those are “job” words, “duty” words. Those are things you do because you have to do them, not because you want to do them. However, if that’s what drives you to success, then so be it. For me, I work on finding a passion, then I use what you’ve laid out to help get me there.
I’m sorry that passion and love aren’t a part of your life; I guess it’s not for everybody.
I heard a great thing the other week: The only DREAM you should have in life is the DREAM of a happy, healthy family. If you’re doing things that do not support this then you shouldn’t be doing them.
You might consider divorcing your wife if you are not her priority. But only if you get $$$ in the settlement. Otherwise, might as well keep her.