Often people end up not being able to connect with other people simply because what they hold dear to them is not the “hot topic”. Whatever drives you in life may not be taken seriously at times and overtime you’ve just learned to keep to yourself. Still, there are moments where you find someone else equally as passionate about that thing you love to do and you two hit it off. You can spend hours upon hours talking about what you love and how you’ve explored whatever it is to its depths. Both of you will share your experiences because you’ve found what you want to do in life. A passion that gives you ‘purpose’.
However, the same can’t be said for just about everyone. If you’re a Thoreau fan, you’ll remember the quote, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation”. It is true minus the part where it only speaks about men. People spend their lives expecting great things but never really attaining them because they put all their energy into something they don’t feel for. Something that makes you wake up every day and give your best all year round just because you feel happy when you do it. It’s what you’re made for, your passion and something that needs to be found and sustained before it’s too late.
How do you find what you’re Passionate About?
We won’t lie. Finding the right passion for yourself is like feeding a needle in a haystack. People nowadays open flaunt the idea of passion because it has become a popular keyword that helps someone understand what kind of person you are. Anyone can fit you into a stereotypical box just by knowing your passion. However, before that happens, you must detect and analyze what you’re good at.
Nature, however, has pre-designed you in such a way that you have both, the tools and the means of finding that out. Think of your pulse and your smile like they were detectors. Wherever you feel most comfortable and happy, you will know that you love doing that.
Alternatively, whatever bores you the most, your yawn is the sign that tells you, you don’t care for that subject or activity. You see, you yawn when your body enters the default mode. This is when you can end up doing something repetitively and not care or think about it. That does not happen when something sparks an interest in you.
Once you know the ways of detecting your talent when you see it, you can now move on to finding what it is. For that, you need to go back in time. Think about a moment that made you feel really good. Something that helped form the words, “I would love to do this” on your lips without you even asking for them. You see, oftentimes we assume that the routine we follow is the best way to keep ourselves safe regardless of how much potential we possess. That’s when something like a theater play or a visit to an NGO or simply having the chance to become a teacher for a day happens and you end up getting fascinated.
That fascination is the sign that tells you, “you’re made for this”. Don’t be blind to the signs around you. If you’re bad at something but you’re going with it anyway just because, it will show in your results. If you’re good at something even if you’re giving it the least amount of time, it still shows in your results.
Someone who ignores this reality is someone who is denying themselves the chance to outshine their peers and everyone around them because your passion is derived from the fact that you are different. It is the manifestation of your uniqueness in the form of a skill that only you can do justice to and no one else.
If you happen to come across something like that. Stop. Go back and grab it right there. You will have given yourself a chance to become someone who you’ve always wished to be.
How to Develop and Sustain your Passion?
Just like it is with any sport or game you play; you need the practice to make it perfect. If you’re passionate about painting, paint on as many canvases as you can. If you’re passionate about running a child daycare center, start by becoming a babysitter and understanding the responsibility. If you’re passionate about designing an app, learn to code well. The idea will come on its own as you go.
Everything you ever touch requires you to practice it through and through. Once you’re done finding out what your passion is, you need to find out ways in which you can help improve it. Improving your talent means investing both your time and effort in researching ways that can help make it better. Depending on the type of passion you have, you will be able to find plenty of resources on the internet to guide you. You will also find people who have gone through the process before and have come out successful. Try contacting these people for advice because they will tell you some easy ways of doing things.
You can also develop your passion by becoming an apprentice to someone who is in that field or industry. They can take you under their wing and help shape you into who you wish to be. You also have YouTube nowadays that helps to provide a bridge between the coach and the student. These vloggers range from professionals in particular instruments to college professors explaining key concepts.
What we’re trying to say from all this is that learn to work your way towards your passion and achieving your goal. Some people face consequences for investing in their passion too much. You may even get ridiculed from time to time for having such a passion in the first place but that’s where you don’t give up. If you become the best at what you do, no one will ever question you otherwise.
Set milestones along the way as well. Give yourself goals to follow and specific milestones to stop at and appreciate how far you’ve come. Once you’ve reached the first few milestones, re-evaluate yourself. There is a chance that your interests may now align somewhere else and if that is then you might end up chasing after the wrong goals. You see, it is important to know yourself in all this because only then you can decide what’s best for you so you can follow it.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for help. It is true that when you’re out there trying to discover and re-discover yourself, you end up forgetting the people closest to you. You might even start believing that you’re alone and that only you understand yourself. But, even though all that if your friends are with you, they get how important your passion is to you and will also contribute to help developing it as much as possible. Whoever said that you have to go at it all alone?
Conclusion
Life isn’t easy and as cliché, as these words are, they’re true at the end of the day. If you were given a chance to live the life of the richest people in the world, you will find that they are also one of the most miserable people. These individuals work hard to achieve what they thought was going to provide the fulfillment, but it only hinders them from doing what they’re meant to. Compared to someone who has become rich doing what they love, people who follow an idle path like they were sheep often don’t like what they do and end up creating problems for themselves.
Don’t be scared to try it out. If the whole idea of giving it your all and it still not working scares you at the start, you won’t even try it. In a world that makes you fear each day, the individual who dreams is performing a daring act. Keep at it. Keep your passion alive and hold on to it. There are various ways to practice mindfulness and meditation which will give you meaning and, in a way, improve the quality of your life tenfold.