Are You Passionate? Do You Know What Your Passion Is?

By Jonathan Timar
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Passion is what makes the world go around. Passion is the driving force behind every aspect of humanity, the good, the bad and the ugly. Passion is the driving force behind art, and the driving force behind war. Passion is what leads to love, and passion is what leads to hate. Passion is the lifeblood of creation, and nothing of any significance, whether positive or negative, is ever accomplished without passion.

“Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself!”

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD – 180 AD)

Take a moment and think of someone who’s accomplishments you truly admire. Pick anyone you want, it could be a celebrity, a historic figure or your own parent. Would you say they were passionate? Now pick someone who’s accomplishments you truly despise and ask yourself the same question. Did you get the same answer? Most likely you did, because passion does not discriminate, it only motivates.

It was passion that allowed Lance Armstrong to win the Tour de France seven times. It was passion that drove Howard Stern to become the (self-proclaimed) King of All Media. Oprah Winfrey? Passion. Gandhi? Passion. Mother Theresa? Passion. Martin Luther King? Passion. Hitler? Yes, that was passion too.

“The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.”

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    Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 – 1892)

    Passion is the ultimate fuel for accomplishment. The opposite of passion is apathy, and the apathetic rarely accomplish anything of any significance. While the apathetic are busy complaining about the state of the world, the passionate or dreaming up ways to change it, and taking action. The apathetic will go through life with no direction or purpose, buy a sports car when they turn fifty, and die asking “what was it all for?”. The passionate will discover early on what make them tick, and strive to achieve greatness.

    If you already know what your passion is then you owe it to yourself to follow it. Start now. Don’t wait for the right time, because there is no right time. Don’t wait for a big change that may never come, start taking small steps now. Small steps lead to big steps, action is rewarded with results, which provides fuel for more action.

    If you don’t know what your passion is, then strive to discover it immediately. What did you dream of being when you were a child? Who are you jealous of? Who do you admire? When you are passionate about something, it is easy for you, and you never have to force yourself to do it. What comes easily for you? Is there a job you would even do for free? Asking questions like these can help you discover what you are passionate about. Ask them every day.

    “A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.”

    William Hazlit