What Truly Is Your Passion?
June 5th, 2008 by Elliott Roberts
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Life holds us by the horns and tell us that our lives need to be run a certain way. The stresses of every day life are the ones that we give the most attention to leaving our aspirations and dreams to fall by the way side. It is our responsibilities, expectations and perceived obligations that are the reason we move in and out of our created world every day. But, there was once passion in our lives and that passion can still be reborn in our newer, more adult lifestyles.
In order to attempt a self-help method of reintroducing happiness and passion into our lives, we must first ask ourselves a few questions. What made us happy as children? What life goals did we have when we were young? What did we want to be?
The first step to finding happiness is realizing what it is that makes you want to get up and start moving in the morning. Those aspects of life that leave you whistling are the ones that hold the key to the passions of life.
As we grow up and grow older, we often take the more traveled road to adulthood. We attend college and achieve degree status in order to obtain a “real” job. This conformation to societal ideals about living often leave the passions that once gave us fire and hope dead in the water. Women give up their dreams to raise children, men leave the their true callings behind for fear of not being what their families would hope they would become. When we leave our passions behind, who are we really becoming and is that person the true person we always wanted to be?
Discovering your passion may actually be difficult if it’s been dormant for an extended period of time. It may have even changed. To answer the question, what are you passionate about, may require that you spend time and energy seriously considering your likes and dislikes. Think back to your youth and the things that interested you as a child or teenager. Think about projects or hobbies you worked on that left you exhilarated. Write in your journal or look through past journal entries and find the pattern of things that leave you feeling better about your day. If you listen to your heart, the answer will reveal itself rivaled by little else.
Once you discover your passion, pursue it! For some, it may be scary to step outside of the norm and onto a path less traveled. But personal growth only happens when we extend ourselves beyond our usual boundaries. You don’t have to neglect your responsibilities to pursue your passion. It may simply be to take an art class at a local community center or you may find that you wish to switch careers and become a graphic designer. Determine what you are passionate about and then find ways to embrace it.
No amount of money or praise at work can compare to the feeling you will get from reintroducing that long lost passion back into your life. There is a euphoria that surrounds a passion, a healing nature that makes all the wrongs of the world disappear and the work entailed in making that passion a part of your aging life, is key to living a fulfilled life.
No one more moment should pass in your life without the time being taken to realize that passion that once drove your youth. Take that time back, leave the guilt at the door and reintroduce yourself to the person you always wanted to be and more. There is nothing better than reliving youth to bring back the happiness you once knew.
