Have you ever taken stock of the things that you are passionate about? And, have you ever thought about how you actually define a passion? It seems to me that passions are like interests on steroids! I feel a new definition of compound interest coming on…
Last week, I wrote about the effective use of time. Basically, if we can free up time or if we suddenly have access to a lot more time, how do we go about using it? I wanted to inspire readers to try something new or to change-up the way they’re doing things. I even included a (very) short-list of things that people could try with their new-found freedom… but, for some people that list would have been pretty uninspiring.
So, this week, I’m going to be expanding on the idea of ‘inspiration’ by writing about identifying and finding your passions. Essentially, the idea is to encourage people to work out what they want to do and feel inspired to do something about it!
Disclaimer: I think it’s important to state that I am not buying into the idea that people MUST use ‘lockdown time’ effectively. I’m very aware that these are stressful times for many people who are just trying to survive which makes it very difficult to thrive. Just do your best – that’s what I’m saying.
What am I passionate about?
Passions are distinctly different from interests. As an example, I’m interested in baking bread but I’m passionate about the environment.
Over the past few years, I have done a lot of thinking about what I’m passionate about. I’m an extremely values-driven person and my ultimate goal in life is to live in complete alignment. You might be wondering how I measure that goal? Very subjectively haha.
(I figure values and passions are pretty closely aligned too since your underlying values are a big driver of what you do and how you act.)
Anyway, enough of the waffle 🧇, here’s what I’m passionate about:
- Protecting the environment & veganism 🌱
- Self-employment
- Social enterprise & business
- Exercise
- Investing & Personal Budgeting/Finance
Owing to the fact that I’ve identified these passions, I’ve been able to act on them. My consumption habits are influenced by my passion for the environment (and my penchant for budgeting!) and my livelihood revolves around self-employment and social enterprise. I’m sure that you get the idea.
Side note: My example about baking bread before wasn’t just a throw-away comment – there has been a massive surge in search engine results for ‘baking bread’, check out the graph below!
What are you passionate about?
This is quite-literally the million-dollar question. I think the sky is the limit if you can successfully identify your passions. Once you’ve done the identifying, all you have to do is make the plans and take action. Easy-peasy. Not! …
Believe me, I know there’s definitely more to it than that. At the very least, if you know the approach then you can make the plan to fill in the blanks. If you don’t know the approach then there’s no plan and no blanks to fill-in – you’ll just be flying blind.
So, have you been through the exercise of identifying your passions? Have you mapped out where the cross-sections of where your passions and your livelihoods lie?
I don’t think there is one way for people to do this but the logical way to me is to start by separating your interests from what you’re truly passionate about. Your passions are the things that you just can’t get enough of. You know, the things that you’re utterly addicted to.
Then move to the next step, are there parts of your life that move you further away from these passions. If so, why do you put up with that? You may have a really good reason OR you might not.
If you don’t have a good reason then you should make a plan for how you’re going to change things up. I’d love to hear your plans and help you on your way if I can. Hit me up!
If all of your actions are already pushing you in the direction of your passions then congrats, you’ve cracked it. I’d love to hear from you!
#Pupdate!
I’m so so happy that Billie is going to be getting her final round of vaccines on Friday 17th April (two days away at the time of writing). As a result, we will finally be able to take her out for walks – it’s going to be life-changing! I’m totally excited 🙌
S.
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