One Step to Finding Your Passion

I often count myself among the lucky ones that actually look forward to work in the mornings.

I work at a flooring store.  And while it's hard to be passionate about flooring, I work with a company that does their best to find your strengths and then tailor your job to them.  Happy, productive employee - happy productive business.  I enjoy the challenges and subsequent rewards of my job.  And a challenging, rewarding job is a close second to a job you're passionate about, right?

Challenge and reward are different than passion.  Picture water in a dam.  Challenge and reward are the gates that let the water through.  You can open them up a little or a lot.  Passion is the water behind the dam.  And there comes a point where, if the water reservoir is dried up, it just doesn't matter how wide you open the gates.

Without passion, there's simply no reason to get up in the morning.  But there are so many people out there who have kind of given up on it.  It doesn't really fit into their career.  Family demands can be really demanding.  Who has time to figure out something to be passionate about?  Passion is for artists and lazy people.  Hard working business people (men feel this way a lot, I think), don't have time for passion.  Or emotion. How long can you be soft-hearted when it's your job to be the guy who fires people?

Au contraire.  The most successful people in ANY field - business, humanitarianism, parenting, you name it - are FIRED UP about what they do.

But passion?  How do you just come up with a reason to get up in the morning?

So here it is - the one step program to finding out what your passion is: what makes you more angry than anything else in the world?  Identify that.  Now find the most positive expression of it.  Use that righteous rage to power you to find ways to make a difference on that problem.  Maybe it's irresponsible young men (douchebags).  Maybe they bug you so much because you feel like it's important for men to be MEN - to take responsibility for their actions and be people of integrity - strength of character.  Maybe you need to be a mentor...  That might be a little more proactive than tailgating the next set of truck nuts you see.

Passion is kind of like a magnetic force. Stay close to the things that fire you up.  Let that indignation stay on fire in your heart.  Life is hard, and the repetition of it can be enough to dry up your passion.  Keeping your heart soft in this world is an extremely hard thing.  If you're a guy, it's downright frowned upon!  But if you are willing to do it, it will guide you - influence your decisions, and lead you to the right places. It'll put a little extra spring in your mattress in the mornings.

If you have a job that maximizes your skills and abilities, good on you.  But, if you are willing to do the hard work and find your PASSION?  Nothing can stop you.  And who knows?  You might stay right where you are, but with different priorities.  But maybe you'll change everything, as it changes you right back.

So, who's with me?  Anyone out there know what their passion is?  Tell us - what is it?  How did you find it?