Heart & Soul

Knowing your passion is a big step in transforming your life. Now “Passion .  . .Who Needs It?” author Shaunice Hawkins shares how to be passionate about anything and turn your innate skills into a fulfilling career in Part III of our series.

To turn your passion into professional success takes effort and requires a paradigm shift in the way you approach both passion and life.  Many professionals unconsciously begin to experience a change in their on-the-job goals, becoming less interested in accumulation (of money, promotions, titles, etc.) and more interested in contribution, seeking to give time, energy and effort to others.

When you recognize and accept that this shift has taken place, you can realign your focus accordingly, your passion will reignite effortlessly and you will be open to exploring new opportunities that will lead you to success.

Consider the senior executive who found her work increasingly unfulfilling in the latter stages of her career, despite ongoing accomplishment and recognition. She changed her focus from personal excellence to developing people. She created a new challenge for herself and decided that if even one person’s career or life was better for having worked with her, then she would have accomplished her goal. This change in focus revitalized her and reenergized her work environment, creating a win-win situation.

There’s a myth in our culture about passion…that it can only be spontaneous. You either love your job or you don’t. You either enjoy exercising or hate it.  We’re taught that passion can’t be forced or created. That’s not entirely true. Passion can be created, even for things you don’t currently enjoy.  By tweaking your attitude along with the activities and pursuits you engage in, you can find a passion for anything but it takes patience and an open mind.

Life tends to present moments when we must do something that we don’t love. And when you’ve mastered the ‘passion skill,’ you end up loving the things you have to do almost as much as the things you were born to do.

And if you know how to do it, existing passions can be turned from mildly interesting to exciting. Here are a few ways to do it:

• Curb Your Appetite – When someone is starving, they don’t really have a chance to savor or enjoy the taste of their food. This works the same way with passion. The more you crave a goal (instead of the process containing the goal) the less likely you are to develop a passion for it. Goal-setting is good. Goal-obsession is not.
• Get Curious – Curiosity is the basis of passion. Whatever the subject matter, shake off your current understandings and begin from the view that you are almost completely ignorant on the subject. Then look for novelty to boost your interest.
• Express Who You Are – Find hidden opportunities for self-expression in every task. This could mean changing the format you write code in or altering the style of your presentation. View each activity as an act of expression and originality.
• Bring Your Talents Into Play – One way to enjoy anything you’re doing is to apply your existing talents. Find ways to use skills you have and enjoy using them in a new endeavor. For example, an artistic person could draw pictures to help herself study. An athlete might be able to use her strength and endurance as an advocate.
• Hurdle the Frustration Barrier – If an activity is too difficult for you to become enthusiastic about it, worry less about results and more about experimenting until you build up skill. This keeps you from getting frustrated and ensures the process is fun.
• Break the Chains That Bind – Feeling forced into an activity is a sure way to kill any passion. Instead of flowing with the task, you rebel against your entrapment and that makes you miserable. You always have a choice. Find the win-win in it for you.
• Re-Modulate the Challenge – For boring tasks, make them more difficult. For frustrating tasks, make them easier. This can be done by varying the speed or constraints you need to complete a task.

“Passion .  . .Who Needs It?” is on sale at Amazon.

Read previous posts:
Get In Touch With Your Passion
7 Steps to Transforming Your Life

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