Ok, so what is your passion? You know, that one thing that gets you fired up, is going to be your legacy for this lifetime, that’s your purpose in life, that is going to make you all this money, that is going to give you the life you want to live? Come on! Tell me what it is. I mean, you know right? Deep down inside you know what that one thing is and you’re just too afraid to take the first step, right? Hahhahahahahaha….Ok, I just messing with you. Breath…please….do you need a bag? Or a glass of water? I didn’t mean to cause a panic attack. Sorry. 🙁
There is so much social pressure right now for everyone to have a passion that is the magic key to everything. It’s like the new Prince Charming. It’s going to ride in and cure everything that ails you, shower you in glad tidings and happiness, and once found you’ll live happily ever after. But, as so many find out, passion doesn’t respond well to pressure. In fact it can seem like an illusion. It’s beautiful, magical, and nourishing when it’s indulged, but when pressure is applied it becomes a dull and lifeless thing. In fact, it can become a grinding nightmare. The fastest way to kill a passion is to make a job out of it. Love cooking, take care of that by working as a cook. Love working with computers, kill that off by working with them in a corporate setting. Want to know why burn out for social workers, therapists, clergy, massage therapists, reiki practitioners and life coaches is so high? Well, they had a passion for helping people and then ran it into the ground by forcing themselves to help people even when they no longer felt a passion for it. Especially when they no longer felt a passion for it because the passion had been transformed into the means for making their living. 😛
So what can be done? I mean, there are people who find passion in their work or work at their passions right? Yup. And every single one of them will tell you that’s it’s not a Disney fun ride, that to do so required them to be responsible to their passions rather than dependant on them, and that they didn’t have just one, they had and have many, and they try to indulge as many as they can. They take the pressure off by being open to all of their passions. Passions aren’t like an old style career where you work at it for 40 years, get a pension and then retire to play golf. Passions are amazing things which ebb and flow, which need to be nurtured, which have wisdom which needs to be honored, and have an antipathy for any demands other than their own. (How one sided. LOL) Think of passions like a Phoenix rather than a mule. They can’t be tamed, but they can be befriended and if you are trustworthy and a good friend they will gift you with the most amazing experiences and a life of wonder.