Passion in Life: we all deserve to thrive
Passion is our Energy, our Fuel to wake up every morning excited to do the work with satisfaction and contentment. Passion is what gives to our tiny steps a global meaning, it is driving our way of living and bringing effortlessly more sparkle to our deliverables. It is liberating our talent, boosting our creativity and giving us a sense of purpose.
Maya Angelou says “My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style”. Passion is definitely a key ingredient to live your full potential and create meaningful impacts that will last for years. Passion is also a good factor to protect your mental health.
Throughout the article, we will dig more into the power of passion in life and shed light on the following:
- Passion in the Workplace
- Passion value for mental health
- Cultivate Passion in Life: Focus on yourself, Develop your skills and always Dare to try
Passion in the workplace
Passion at work is vital to success, bringing passion to your path will be definitely a good asset to stand out. It is also contagious. When you are in touch with a passionate colleague, you can feel the enthusiasm and the magnetism around. However, we should be careful to adapt it to the right audience and context.
In the work life, passion is not usually reflected by common employees. They are usually more focused on following the instructions, respecting the rules and filling the gaps. The sentence “thank God it’s Friday” is reflecting the state of mind when you are struggling and counting down the hours to be free. Here comes the value of passion, it will serve you giving you a sense of fulfilment and connecting you on a daily basis to a bigger purpose. It will also get you relieved from stress, a routine that may end up draining your energy.
Either you are lucky to find a job matching your passion or you should take the responsibility to transmit your passion to your work as advised by Seth Godin in his book Linchpin “I’ve argued repeatedly that your product should match your marketing, not the other way around, and the same inversion is true here. Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion”. Having passion inculcated in your work life will make you love what you do and impact your well-being. It should never be seen as a privilege, it is a right.
It is also part of leaders responsibility to build healthy workplace where the vast majority can say “I love my job” as Simon Sinek says “ It is the responsibility of leaders to build the environment in which people feel like they belong, in which they feel like they are working to advance something bigger than themselves. This is how love begins to grow”. Actually employees working for entrepreneurs who express a high degree of entrepreneurial passion are more likely to express passion themselves. This might be linked to the fact that entrepreneurial passion can serve as a social contagion.
Spreading the passion sparkle at work will improve people’s accountability and will definitely turn into incredible business results.
Passion Value for Mental Health
The passion ingredient is playing a key role to protect your mental health and feed your soul. Doing something you love will lower the stress level, improve your self-esteem and sustain your well-being. It will also lower your anxiety as you will see the purpose behind your tiny actions.
Practicing your passion will ease your way to build consistency for your habit and establishing those positive habits will turn into good mental vibes thanks to the sense of accomplishment.
It’s important to keep in mind that Passions can change over time so it is totally okay to stop one activity and kick-off another over the course of time. This will be even more rewarding as you will discover yourself through different facets.
Along the way you should not forget to keep your life balanced, obsessive practice of your passion can generate negative feelings, conflict with other life activities and turn into ill-being
Cultivate Passion in Life
As a matter of fact, Passion is not supposed to be limited to work hours, you can have passion for charity, sport, hobbies,…… All you need is to focus on cultivating the spirit. It is not all the time about finding your passion, sometimes it is about developing one.
The idea that interests are fully formed and need simply be “found” can be impeding people to pursue new fields and simply give up when the process gets difficult. According to a new Stanford study Link, the idea that passions are found fully formed implies that the number of interests a person has is limited. That can cause people to narrow their focus and neglect other areas.
It is actually related to adopting a growth mindset where intelligence, passion or talents can be developed instead of a fixed mindset where you tend to believe that they are fixed traits to be discovered. In life, we all evolve and our interests should follow the same path. Everyone can grow.
Here are some tips that can help you uncover your passions:
Focus on yourself
it stands to reason that before exploring the world you should start by exploring your inner self. This exercise will have rewarding benefits in different areas of your life, it will help you learn about your weaknesses, strengths and priorities. It will also drive your life choices to fulfill the truest, highest expression of yourself.
In this path, It is compulsory to avoid being trapped in the comparison dilemma or waiting for other people’s approval, author Neale Donald Walsch says, “So long as you’re still worried about what others think of you, you are owned by them. Only when you require no approval from outside yourself can you own yourself”.
Develop your skills
It is needless to say that stretching yourself beyond where you are comfortable is the key element for improvement. Skills are like muscles, they need to be trained in order to build force and reliability.
Cal Newport, Georgetown professor and author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You, recommends developing your inherent skill set as your main capital. “As you get better at things that are valuable, you acquire more career capital,” he said. “It is this career capital that you can then turn around and invest into your career, to get things that make it a deeper source of meaning, passion, or satisfaction”.
Dare to try
Sometimes moving on, exploring new horizons might be terrifying but as said by Oprah Winfrey in her Book What I know for sure, “The true meaning of courage is to be afraid, and then, with your knees knocking, to step out anyway”. Making a bold move is the only way to advance toward a bigger vision the universe has for you.
Fear could immobilize you, trigger self-doubt and hamper your progress towards your best self. It’s important to ask yourself frequently, “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?” and determine carefully whether you do not care to pursue something or whether you’re simply afraid to pursue it.
In a nutshell, our life is a miracle and you should always remember you are unique, you deserve all the best and you have the ability to achieve whatever you want. Make your passion your ally, your biggest asset and your fuel. Don’t settle for less than what you deserve. Spread the passion sparkle in every aspect of your life: at work, with your family and friends.
If there is one thing you should remember from this article, it is that as long as you grow, make sure to protect your passion, it is your winning card! It will provide you the necessary capital required to make marvellous progress and create incredible value for yourself and people around you.
