When we have questions about what to do next, especially around jobs, or careers, who else is tired of hearing that we should “follow [y]our passion?” What passion? How is it defined? How do we find it? What if our passion is something that we want to keep for off-the-job time? If you’re like me, the best way to kill my passion for reading is to require me to read, especially when I’d rather be doing something else.

Seriously, what do we look for in order to follow our passions, whether for our free time, our job, or our gift to the world?

There are several ways to look for this. Ask yourself:

- what are you really good at?

- what do you do that, when you start and then finish it, you have no idea how much time passed between the time you started and you ended…it simply flowed and felt like three minutes?

- what would you get red in the face defending if you talked to someone who was attacking that idea/activity/belief/behavior?

- what activity involves all, or most, of your senses and makes you break out in goosebumps whenever you get to do it?

Admittedly, passion is an intense state of being, and we may not be able to sustain it for long periods of time. Yet, isn’t it wonderful to have, as a grace note in our lives, as a palate cleanser to ordinary day-to-day living, a fillip of delight.

What keeps us from pursuing our passion?

There is the aforementioned intensity, of course, that might have us burn out on the very thing we’re passionate about. But say our passion is a 4 on a scale of 10 (10 being the flaming out version of intensity), what stops us then? Do we fear others’ judgement of the passion we are pursuing? Are we afraid we can’t afford it, either financially or emotionally or physically? Are we worried that it will overtake or overcome us and we won’t be able to do anything else? Is it just too much effort?

How could you pursue your passion and have it be a healthy, life-enhancing part of your life?

Try sipping a little at a time. And if you haven’t yet discovered your passion, what fun you could have, trying out many things with great intensity, in order to discover the flavor that lights up your whole life!

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