Living every day with passion

[Tuumble]

The evocative phrase: ‘Living every day with passion’ conjures up wildly different images for many people. Living is life, pure and simple, and your perception or definition of life is determined by your past experiences and your current thought patterns.

What does the word passion mean to you? Apart from the obvious sexual reference or lust, it can be about a very different kind of desire - the drive to succeed. It is an emotional term that can be positive or negative but it a powerful driving force. It could be for a political cause or just a hobby but ultimately it’s about doing what you love to do.

Life can be of heaven for some or hell for others. Then there are those who seem to view life purely as existence whereby they move from day-to-day without any inclination that there could be something more. Where do you fit in?

Take a moment to think about where you are this moment in time. Are you contented, stressed, angry, thrilled, eager or sad? None of the above? Express to yourself now your emotional state and say it out loud.

Well? Did telling yourself outright have any physiological effect on you and your body? Did you slouch, stand up, smile, jump around or nervously chew your nails? When you spoke was it vibrant, quiet, excited or angry?

What does this tell you? The sound of your voice and your posture is giving you an obvious sign of whether you are truly contented or not and you should treat the message being fed to you with respect.

I’m sure some of you will have noticed that I have asked a great number of questions in this article. The writing style may seem cumbersome but I have deliberately been using it to get across the importance of asking questions of yourself.

There is a rule that many life coaches use that says that you should never give direct advice if at all possible. This is because the coach’s viewpoint is mostly based on their own personal circumstances, morals and viewpoints; what would be right for them is not necessarily right for the client.

If you have a success coach of your own or witness a session taking place on TV, listen to how they speak to the coachee. It’s questions, questions, questions. This surprises many people as they often expect that they will be dispensed with some words of wisdom that will suddenly cure all their problems. Not true.

We all have it within us to solve our own problems because let’s face it, who knows you better than yourself? Keep asking yourself questions and couple your answers with consistent action and you should begin to see some changes. If these changes don’t have the desired response try again, do it differently, until you have results that you are happy with.

Remember that we have options to choose from and decisions to make every moment of every day and we decide how we react to any one of them.

This may all seem to be off-topic but it isn’t really. Passion is an evocative word as we’ve said and when we attach it to the way we live we instantly become more positive and excited about life.

Do you feel passionate about our job? If the answer is no what does that mean? Apart from telling you that you probably shouldn’t even be doing it in the first place it also asks you to consider your motives for being there at all. If it’s purely because of money are you able to accept that financial gain justifies any unhappiness on a longer term basis?

What activity gives you the greatest satisfaction and fulfillment? Think back now to the last time you experienced the high of doing exactly what you wanted to do, purely for the love of it. Grasp that memory and relive the feeling and do whatever you can to make it part of you.

Living every day with passion is about waking up in the morning excited about the day and the possibilities and opportunities that lay ahead of you. What will I learn, what will I experience, who will I meet?

Ask yourself again: “What is my passion?”. Decide now, take action and make it real.

[smartile]

Hi Tuumble,

What does the word passion mean to you?

In my experience passions means a lot of things but to put it simply,

"I am continuously increasing in health, wealth and happiness."

[SonoranBob]

I think "passion" is a word that's bandied about without much thought.

Many "passionate" people I've known are better described as driven, obsessed, frantic, volatile, unrealistic and unstable. But they call themselves "passionate". It's sort of a lame excuse for the messy swath they cut through life.

I think in the context we're talking "passionate" means "that which I care deeply about and want to spend most of my time and energy on in life".

It's not just some vague quality of joi de vivre. A person may in fact be very quiet and methodical about their passion, depending on their personality.

Nor is it necessarily just one thing ... although by definition if it's more than 2 or 3 things it's not passion, but unfocused enthusiasm.

In my experience, it's also a trap to think that one's passion has to be some kind of world-changing, earth shattering thing that makes yourself and everyone around you go -- WOW. That is usually an ego trap and a common error of youthful hubris. Your passion can be something entirely un-sexy and un-noticed by anyone but you. It can be something that a million other people do. But it's your place, your thing, and it fulfills you, even gives you joy. That's okay. If everyone tended to their particular passions, even the ones that seem unimportant in a world that needs so much -- then everything that needs doing, globally speaking, would in fact get done. Ultimately everything is important -- even ditch digging.

[Jonathan Mead]

I strive to live every day of my life with passion. Otherwise, what's the point, if I'm not really in it anyway.

Life is a game, Play It. =D

[Ivan]

I see passion as being a burning desire to immerse myself in something. When I say "burning desire" what I mean is absolute, inordinate amount of desire, not just a passing interest.

[norbert]

I like Curt Rosengren's definition of passion very much:

Passion is the energy that comes from bringing more of YOU into what you do.

[Zwynd]

Originally Posted by Tuumble

Take a moment to think about where you are this moment in time. Are you contented, stressed, angry, thrilled, eager or sad? None of the above? Express to yourself now your emotional state and say it out loud.

Well? Did telling yourself outright have any physiological effect on you and your body? Did you slouch, stand up, smile, jump around or nervously chew your nails? When you spoke was it vibrant, quiet, excited or angry?

What does this tell you? The sound of your voice and your posture is giving you an obvious sign of whether you are truly contented or not and you should treat the message being fed to you with respect.

Interesting. The first thing I said was "Bored." I said it in a very yawnsome voice and even rested my chin on my hand in a "I'm very bored" pose.

I had things I would have done today but people changed their plans with me at a short notice and I did not adjust anything for myself.

Now that I realize this on a conscious level I'm going to work on something fun tonight.

Thanks, Tuumble. =)

[ar81]

What about those of us who were born asleep??

[Dannyboy1]

I'm trying to see if this can go along with living in the now and without attachments. You're saying passion means caring deeply. Isn't that increasing your attachment and setting yourself up for disappointment? Or, is passion a different thing?