Passion – any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, such as love or hate

So when asked, “What are you passionate about?”  Why do so many people look away, ponder and then find it difficult to verbalize what in their life they are doing that is motivated by their passion? (I know my 8th grade English teacher would say that sentence is a mess grammatically)  I believe it is not because they have no passion, but because it is locked away in their heart in a closet.  If they will take the time to “look for it” they will find it… and with it a renewed enthusiasm and energy for living!

Here are a few reasons many of us have a hard time identifying our passion:

• We define ourselves (to ourselves) by our shortcomings and insecurities more than our hidden, forgotten, and suppressed dreams.
• We feel insignificant or overwhelmed in contrast to the vastness of the world and believe we cannot make a difference.
• We are too busy maintaining an overbooked life and therefore don’t have time to consider why we’re working ourselves to death.
• We are afraid if we identify it (our passion), we’ll have to do something, act on it (and that means risking failure).
• We believe that our life is OK now, dreaming is for children and not for us living in the real world… we are satisfied (not necessarily happy) with the status quo.

Do any of these excuses fit you?

The slave/abolitionist Harriet Tubman said “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

Here are 5 exercises for you to work through finding for the first time, or rediscovering your passion for life.

*Ask others about your “one thing”… Take the time to email, post on your Facebook wall, even call some friends and ask them the following question.  “What is my one thing?  If you had to describe to someone else my one thing, what would it be”  We are often to close to ourselves to be able to identify it without the input of others who know us.  You may be surprised how similar the responses are and this will aid you by letting others aid you in the discovery process.

*Name your 3 favorite movies…  Without thinking too much list you three favorite movies.  Mine are below;

1. Back to the Future
2. Star Trek
3. The Jerk

Now, examine the 3 movies and look for the common thread that runs through each.  Hmmm… 1) the future holds an adventure that is better than the past and 2) a misfit (or group of them) are able to overcome their past to make a better life for themselves and others.  You will be surprised how closely your threads hints at your passion.

What do you like to talk about?   The topics of our conversations can definitely tell others what we are interested in and may give us some insight into our passions. One very good way to figure this out properly, is to ask your friends.  Ask them what they believe you like to talk about the most, and what topic makes your eyes brighten up, and changes your entire behavior.

What makes you angry?   What kind of situations and circumstances make your blood boil?  What behaviors do you see in society, your church, your work, your school that you feel in your heart is wrong (and makes you angry) and needs to be made right?  These may hint to an area to explore for your passion.

What makes you unafraid of failure?   When we are doing what we are passionate about, we have total confidence in our abilities.  This makes us not worry about failing, because in our mind, how can we fail when we do what we love?  We can only feel like a failure if we don’t at least try.  Something that you do not have second thoughts about. Think about something that you feel you must do and that failure is not even a concern of yours, because the mere act of doing it is like the journey and the destination all wrapped up in one.  This may indicate an area to look for your passion.

Now, you’ve identified your passion, so what next?  A couple ideas:

• Begin to reorient your life around your passions.  It is time to switch out of a life of Survivor into a life of Transformer.
• Make the difficult decisions (financially, vocationally, emotionally, educationally) in order to do the thing God has uniquely created you to do.

Just think of how this world and the Kingdom of God would explode if we dared to live from our passion!

Dave

* Thanks to Mary DeMuth for these questions.