What is your passion?

How do I find my passion?

Through my workshops I have heard a common thread of concern that as adults, we often lose sight of activities that bring us delight in the blur of day-to-day responsibilities. Busy with our schedules and long to-do lists, it is tough for us to experience the rich, soulful emotion of passion -- those moments when we feel inspired, awestruck, brought to tears or utterly moved.

Instead, we go through the motions of life.

What was the last time you sensed this void?

Samantha raised her hand and commented, “it was in my search for meaningful employment that lead me to wonder where my passions lie.”

That’s right!

Passion is a key ingredient in a satisfying job. Its scope extends far beyond work. It's about finding what speaks to your soul, whether it results in a paycheck or not.

Discovering your passion takes a willingness to embark on a treasure hunt of sorts -- a journey of self-revelation. This process can help reveal those things that will bring you back to that state of childhood bliss we see as we watch our children igniting their imaginations, fueling their sensory, heart-centered desires -lost in the moment, thinking of nothing else.
Whether you wind up finding your passion in empowering teens, saving the rain forests, or teaching yoga, your engagement in the activities you love will enhance every aspect of your life.

Four steps in your journey of self-revelation

Stop One: Make Space
The first stop in identifying your passion requires you to make room in your life for the journey. Adding this process to an already full plate won't work. You'll need to become passionate about your self-care, slowing down and creating space in your calendar for inward focus. If you can, leave work at a reasonable hour and limit social engagements for a while. Passion originates in the heart. By focusing on yourself, you'll restore the connection between head and heart, thereby improving your ability to feel -- a necessary ingredient for experiencing your joy.

Stop Two: Explore
Hidden throughout your daily life lie the clues to those ideas, activities, and dreams that matter most to your soul. These exercises will help identify activities that make you feel excited, enthusiastic, or moved. As you go through the process, keep detailed notes of your discoveries in a journal or notebook. Commit to completing one exercise each week. See your reflection in others. Our interactions with others provide us with valuable insight into those things we may feel passionate about. In addition to your circle of friends, families, and coworkers, consider respected authors, teachers, and public officials. What about them do you admire or envy? Are they engaged in something you'd like to be doing? Make a list of five people and, for each one, write down what they're doing that you'd like to do.
Explore. Inside your home you'll find symbols of your passion. Note the stone you saved from a camping trip, or the ceramic pot you made with a dear friend. Schedule some alone time to catalog the treasured keepsakes. Check drawers, the basement, and boxes in the garage. List important items in your journal along with a line about why each is important.
Start looking for clues, beginning with your bookcase. What kind of books are you stocked with? Make a list of your favorite genres and titles.
As you continue the process, pay attention to those activities you do every day, the ones that come naturally without much thought. Remember, sometimes what we love the most lives right under our nose.

Stop Three: Find the Gem
It's time to pull it all together to see what you've learned about yourself. This will prepare you to take steps to express your passion in daily life. Set aside an afternoon to read through your journal entries. You'll find the process quite revealing. Ask yourself: What themes or patterns do I notice? What topics am I consistently drawn to? You might be surprised by what you will find.

Stop Four: Take Action
You can NOW bring your passions to life. Pick one area of interest from your various discoveries above and develop an action plan to explore it further. You may find yourself going back to a long-lost interest you shelved years ago as you got busy with other things. Or your area of passion may bring you to unexplored territory. Don't be afraid to try something new. If this is truly your passion, the risk will be worth it. Remember, it's more important to act now than to plot out a "perfect" course. Perfection doesn't exist when it comes to passion. Just choose one thing that makes you feel special and act on it, whether you think you'll be good at it or not.
The idea is to get started so you can see where this next phase of the journey leads you.

As you begin to express those things that stimulate and inspire you, keep in mind that it doesn't just serve your best interests to engage in passionate activity. Your efforts ultimately affect us all. By living your joy, you bring your greatest self to the world.