Passion is the essence of living your best life. What does it take to find passion?
What is passion?
Passion is what drives you to wake up everyday. It’s that sparkle in your eyes. It’s the reason behind your sound sleep or ferocious nightmares. But, in order to dig a little deeper, it is crucial to understand the meaning behind passion. By the dictionary, passion is an intense desire for something. To me, passion is what you are willing to pour your heart into. Simple right? No, it isn’t. For many individuals, it takes lifetimes to understand his/her drive.
Why do people look for passion?
People, teens especially, do not understand where they want to go with life. They feel as if they aren’t on the driving wheel, controlling their life. Instead, they seem to be in the backseat, watching time pass by. Everyone yearns for their thirst of passion to be quenched, but they don’t know where to search.
What makes people passionate?
For some people, it’s the overwhelming necessity to be unique. For others, it might be the desire to be the best. But, passion comes from inside of you what you fell in love with as a child. It might not be that straightforward. You might find passion because your parents are nagging you about it, or it might be the competition next door. Essentially, you found a calling that you are willing to spend thousands of hours on.
How does the 10,000 hour rule fit into this?
For those of you who don’t know about Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, it proposes that “talent” is a myth and one who wants to become an “outlier” in a subject has to spend at least 10,000 hours in mastering it. Gladwell gives many examples of whom the world considered to be “prodigies” including the Beatles and Bill Gates and the work put in to achieve this prestigious title. Coming back to the question, how does the 10,000 hour rule fit into passion? I’m sure you’ve seen a little toddler try to walk. They get up, fall down, trip, get up again, and repeat the process millions of times before they can walk effortlessly. At that young age, those babies found the motivation to rise up even when they were face-down on the floor. In your journey to become an outlier, you will sink and plateau, but passion will keep you afloat through the worst times.
The real question: how DO you find passion?
Many coaches and teachers will tell you to explore, that exploration of many hobbies will aid you in discovering your passion. I will tell you this now: that will take centuries.
Be fearless.
“Once you become fearless life becomes limitless.”
Unknown
It’s human nature to be fearful. Being fearless doesn’t mean that you aren’t scared, you might even be petrified. It means that you just do it. Let me give you an example of this. When going skydiving, many people chicken out, refusing to get out of the plane. Yet, there are a hand-ful of people who jump. Now, they might have been shivering and scared out of their wits, but they jumped, and that made all the difference. Just like in the plane, the majority of people chicken out on discovering their passion. They are scared of pursuing it because of the amount of time and raw effort it will take. Eliminating this self doubt and becoming fearless will set the stage for not only passion but success as well.
Admire the best
Micheal Jordan might be the best in basketball, but he is not the “best” you should be looking for. Admiring someone like Cade Cunningham, a basketball teenage superstar, would make you yearn to be that good, and give you a small shimmer of passion. Why? Looking at the ultimate best will, of course, give you motivation and a drive, but looking at someone who achieved greatness at a young age is far more inspirational. It’s that difference between watching the Olympics and watching the Paralympics.
Develop idols
This is taking admiration to the next level. Idols are not just intellectuals, math wizes, or sports stars. They are honorable people who hold their values and respect for others first. There are two types of people at the highest level. One: the exemplary people and two: the unhonorable people. The exemplary people are the perfect idols. The unhonorable, on the contrary, are the crooks who are self-centered and amoral.
Interests
Interests are necessary, of course. Just discovering interests will not get you there. Again, it will take centuries. Pursuing interests and what makes your day brighter will get you there faster than the speed of light. If you truly want to find your passion, you have to look inside of yourself. Ask yourself the basic questions:
Are you willing to pour your heart into your passion?
Are you willing to search every nook and corner for a mentor to teach you about your passion?
Are you ready to take risks and fall down?
Are you willing to put 10,000 hours or more into your dream?
Your passion may not be as perfect as you envisioned it to be. It might be simple or very complex. Remember this: you do not need to sacrifice any fun for your passion, it will only make life more “interesting”.