We’ve all heard it, “In order to achieve true happiness in life, find and follow your passion.”
So, many of us go on an exhausting journey, searching for that one passion that will bring us eternal happiness. Sometimes, what begins with a flare of excitement, ends up taking us right where we started; on another search. Going from one idea to another, one job to another, one relationship to another, one place to another and so on.
Sounds familiar?
While trying and exploring different things reinvigorates your life, and can definitely let you discover things you didn’t know about yourself, if you put off your happiness, waiting for that one big thing to come along, you might limit yourself to experience everything that’s already around you, creating your own misery.
What if, maybe, just maybe, we’ve misunderstood this whole concept of finding and following your passion?
Have we been deceived, and in turn, deceived ourselves about the source of happiness? Are we really interested in the actual thing we’re doing, or more interested in what the thing we’re doing will give us; money, power, popularity, etc.?
I, for one, have had, and still have many interests; music, dancing, certain sports, food, travelling and my list goes on.
The thing is, I didn’t have a natural talent for any of those things and wasn’t interested in putting the time, energy and effort required to turn them into my life’s vocation. I just enjoyed listening to music, savoring different dishes, doing outdoor activities, travelling and so on.
Because of this, I am immensely grateful to all the artists and experts in their respective fields for putting their unique talents out into the world. I’ve always admired their passion for putting the time, energy, effort, and their tenacity despite the many challenges, difficulties and obstacles they overcame to make it happen.
Their life’s work has touched my life with so many beautiful, magical moments, and at times, even given me answers when faced with difficult situations.
But I had my own calling; one that needed my attention, my effort and energy in order to strengthen it and put it out into the world. One that came to life the day I decided to be honest with myself about myself.
It took me a while to realize and comprehend the profoundness of this thing called passion.
- That it does not lie in one thing, but in the whole of life itself.
- That it wasn’t something I needed to seek. That it ignites in the way I did everything, even as small as making my bed.
- That through being passionate first, even in the small things, I’d come to recognize and follow my own calling, without getting caught up in what others considered meaningful.
- That even though there’d be times when I’d want to pull my hair out, or taken a really bad fall, or faced rejection and ridicule, in the depths of my gut, my passion for the process would keep me going and give me the patience and tenacity to achieve it, no matter how long it’d take.
As the old Zen saying goes;
The way a person does one thing, is the way they do everything.
Don’t cut corners
In today’s fast paced society, it’s like “fast at any cost” has become a mantra.
If you start cutting corners and don’t do things to the best of your ability, even as small as whatever daily tasks you do in a day, your passion begins to extinguish.
Now, I’m talking about those sporadic moments when you just want to do nothing or are having an off day. We deserve to give ourselves a break or a breather whenever we need it.
But, if it becomes a way of doing things and an approach to life as a whole, chances are that you’ll have the same approach when it comes to putting the effort needed, even for the thing you’re passionate about. You’ll most probably end up with the expectation that it’ll happen for you overnight, and when it doesn’t, you might start cutting important corners when faced with challenges or give up all together. And, set unrealistic expectations that you should have everything figured out, and be successful—whatever that means—at a snap of a finger.
Letting go of perfectionism
It also doesn’t mean becoming obsessed with perfectionism. Then, the very thing you loved doing becomes your prison, stripping away your happiness. You become so focused in every tiny detail, going round and round, and getting nowhere, that you forget the purpose in what you’re doing.
It just means that you start from where you are and strive to do your best.
It may start with having to take a step back and taking an honest look at your activity inventory, and get rid of the stuff that’s been keeping you in a rut, and that you’ve been using as an escape.
Then, as you get off the rat race, and pause the instant gratification button, you’ll have the space to see and put your time and energy in the things that matter most for a passionate lifestyle.
Having the passion to put the work in learning from every step. Practicing skills and abilities, and looking for new opportunities and new challenges as part of the process to getting better and better at doing what you love to do, without focusing on the end result.
There’s something energizing and gratifying about enjoying the process of getting good at something. Because when your focus is on the process, you slowly remove the need for others’ approval, comparison and competition.
Just like every plant has their own requirements to grow, so do people, including you. When you realize and accept this, you no longer wallow in complaining about your circumstances, or your lack of knowledge and resources. You no longer become a victim, feeling sorrow for yourself. You become the person in charge of making the decisions and taking the actions towards making it happen. You stay focused on the day at hand. If something doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, that’s it! You won’t freak out over the uncertainty of what your next big move will be. You stay with the small step in front of you, making adjustments, tweaking and fine tuning until it feels right for you.
Letting go of the search
And, you won’t get caught up in trying to do everything, experience it all, accomplish more, meet all the awesome people, just to add to a checklist, that you don’t fully enjoy the thing, experience or person you have in the moment.
You’ll learn to enjoy every slice—however small—of life you experience, especially your own company, without thinking about all the stuff you should be doing in order to accomplish more, accumulate more, be more popular, make more money and so on.
It’s in indulging in every slice, that passion ignites and the whole of life turns out to be wonderful.
Passion and happiness are not to be found out there, reduced to searching for just one thing. Because when you deposit your happiness on the outside, you already lost it. Remember, the outside world may change its mind, that’s ok, life is not static, it’s in constant movement. So are YOU!
So, go ahead and do more of the things you love to do. Go ahead and try doing new things, even if there’s no motive, no goal and reward attached to it.
It’s ok if you feel you don’t know your calling yet. Live a passionate lifestyle now, and your calling will come to you. When it does, your passion will guide you in putting the work needed to achieve it, effortlessly. Because you’ll learn that every good and bad, every wrong and right, every pain and glory, are all part of the process that give meaning to this thing called life, and that without them, you can never grow into doing all you were meant to do.
hen you approach and respond to each experience this way, that is, stop complaining about the bad and stop dismissing the good, passion ignites and spills over into changing your mindset and into the actions you take to living a meaningful, joyful life. Most importantly, it’ll spill over into being of service to others’ needs, even in the smallest acts of kindness, which is the main source of fuel in keeping your passion alive.
You’ll come to know that this one and only life you’ve been given, is truly an amazing gift!
Living a passionate life goes beyond just your pleasure in one thing or topic of interest. It’s passionately living it to the fullest, and loving it with all its ups and downs.
