How to Find your Passion

You already know what your passion is... It’s within you. Burning brightly. Furiously.

— Anonymous proverb

Everyone wants to live a life filled with passion... But not everyone knows what that means. Is it being surrounded by love? A life where the adventures never end? Or could it simply mean doing what makes you the happiest every day, like repairing old cars, going to the cinema, or taking pictures of exotic birds in foreign lands?

If you’re reading this right now, you’re probably looking for a bit of direction in life. This article will help you find it, by re-discovering what your biggest passion is, so that you can then harness it into a superpower for your everyday life, and career.

Ready to dive into what FUELS you… And turn it into a powerful force for good?

1. Powerful emotions — let your feelings guide you.

The first step is to identify what brings up the most powerful emotions in you. For many this will be a challenging step, as you seek to identify your biggest passions.  Anger, fear, guilt, and other similar emotions are often felt when dealing with past trauma, as well as with those things that matter the most to you. They may or may not be the same, so be mindful of the source of such deep, raw emotions.

Once you’ve figured that out, take note of how intense these emotions feel. Just like anger can be channelled into sports to play more intensely, so can other “negative emotions” be used to fuel your path, as you strive to bring a better life to yourself and others. Activists do this by harnessing their anger towards greedy institutions. Similarly, many straight A students fearful of living in poverty do it too.

Pay attention to what makes you feel really sad, as well. Like kids starving in Africa, or watching a badly written play... There is zero judgment here. Your emotions are your own, and it is up to you to identify them, so you can harness them for your own benefit. Repressing them will not help. Millennia of psychology, philosophy and ancient sage advice can tell you that. This step is just about identifying them.

More positive emotions like joy and anticipation are also helpful in finding your passions, yet this step focuses more on the low end of the ‘feelings spectrum’. This is because so-called negative emotions — which are not negative, they’re just on a lower vibration, but still fundamental to the human experience — can empower you from the inside out. Once you learn how to leverage them to your advantage.

2. If you had a trillion dollars — just do what you like.

This step is definitely more fun than the first. Thinking about what you would do if you had a trillion dollars is a surefire way to make you think about what you most enjoy doing in life. Yes, the first few months or years you may just party hard, buy a larger-than-life yacht to take you to your private island and live a lush life. But sooner or later, you will seek fulfillment. So the question is, what is it?

The reason why it’s a trillion dollars — and not a million, or a billion — is because you really could run out of that money, if spent in a crazy way. A trillion is an almost surreal amount of money. Not only could you easily live off the interest (a billion dollars a week is near impossible to spend), but you reach a point in which the biggest luxuries in life are nothing to you. It’s not about being rich anymore.

A lot of people “wish” to be rich because they think it will solve all their problems. And it’s partially true — it will solve some of their problems. Financial problems. Medical problems (up to a point, of course). Legal problems (which are unfortunately almost always solved by throwing money at the problem). And so on. But what about that which makes you feel fulfilled. Or makes you feel loved?

Some highly successful individuals have rather surprising hobbies, like Angelina Jolie’s knives collection. Or Mike Tysons’s predilection for pigeon pageants, where the former heavyweight champion spends lots of time training pigeons to be “the best racers they can be''. Another example is Metallica’s James Hetfield, who is known to indulge in a variety of hobbies, such as beekeeping, and building tables.

All of these hobbies wouldn’t exist if the persons pursuing them weren’t passionate about them. Try stamp collecting for a week. Chances are you will not enjoy it. There needs to be a deep desire — a strong passion — for pursuing such hobbies. So just imagine what you would do, if you had your needs taken care of.

3. If there was only one thing you could do — this is it, your biggest passion.

It seems simple. And it should be. What would you do if there was nothing else in the world for you to do, except this one thing. We’ve already been through an emotional, challenging journey on step 1. Followed by a more fun brainstorm on step 2. But what about if you could only choose one thing to do in your whole life?

For many, they would jump straight into food. Alcohol. Or sex. And yes, life would certainly be less interesting without any of these. But this is about doing something over and over again. Devoting your life to the pursuit of this one thing. 

Let’s pretend, like in step 2, that all your needs are met. Food, shelter, companionship. Whatever luxuries you wish to have. So if you could only choose one activity to do during your entire life — every day, for hours — what would it be? 

It could really be anything. Playing music. Building websites. Hanging out with your cat. There is no end to the possibilities. Yes, you can change your mind as time goes on. But this is about looking into your life right now, and choosing just one.

Do you have it? It doesn’t matter if it’s utterly simple, crazy or (seemingly) stupid. Johnny Depp is known to collect Barbie Dolls, so yours is likely to be quite okay... Your passion could be a sport, an art, your job. Or it could be about having new experiences, like meeting new people, discovering new places or new activities.

Your passion should fill you with joy, when you accomplish it. This is why it’s also helpful to think about what gives you the opposite of joy, like in step 1. Since channeling your fears and anger towards a positive goal will give you a real sense of accomplishment. Similarly, diving deeper into what you already love doing is a proven way to discover what your passion is. And living a life that is more fulfilled.

To turn your Passion into a Superpower so you can live The Big Life, find me here.