We all have a passion for something in life. It goes under default to want something, to dream and desire, to strive towards that more and more. But somewhere along the way it happens for us to lose that grip, to forget that feeling once the momentum is gone.
Some would say it’s natural, and there is not much to argue about that. We live a life full with distractions, settle ourselves from time to time with the mediocre, and forget the passion on the expense of living the painful reality.
But what it actually means to be passionate? How can passion be described, if we are so reluctant about it?
I bet you’ve heard something like “passionate for life”. And this explains everything. To have the passion for life, for experiencing, for learning, for always staying true to your dreams.
To be passionate about passion itself. To seek that feeling, to build that momentum for yourself. Once you have that, you have everything. Then it’s easy to hold to your dreams, easier still to bring them to surface again.
But how to ignite that passion again, and how to tighten your grip on the dreams, and reestablish them once again?
9 steps that can help you achieve that:
- Forget about everything that surrounds you. Forget the cluster, distance yourself from the noise. Give it a time to think and drift away from reality a little bit. The algorithms of society kill the imagination, ergo your passion and your dream. Distance yourself even for a moment, and see what happens.
- Find time to reignite your passion. To reinvent yourself. Write in the solitude of night, play some chords on the guitar in the attic. Give it a time. If you make whatever you love a part of your daily routine, it will emerge and grow beyond expectation. Soon enough you will feel the passion again, invest in yourself truly and completely.
- Start reading. Read every single web page that comes along the way that is closely connected to the thing you feel passionate about. After that start reading some books. And funny thing is that the more you read, the more you will feel the hunger for that passion. So you will read even more, and be even more passionate.
- Try. As simple as that. You have the passion for learning languages, and you have read countless of articles describing the best approach? Or maybe you like physical exercise and already have read and talked hours with your friends about the best way to do this or that workout plan? Or maybe you find blogging and SEO interesting as hell (don’t judge, there are in fact some of us out there). Start doing. As simple as that. Try learning that language even if that means writing down one word per day; try that new abs exercise and see whether it gives you what you expected, and try and optimize it; start that blog you’re planning, or try to rank high for some silly word and see SEO in action. Really, all you need to do is try. And you will feel a totally new and different kind of passion growing.
- Forget about your passion paying off. It’s always great if what you like and what you do for living are the same thing, but not everything is about instant pay off. We all want to enjoy life, so don’t procrastinate on your dream simply because it doesn’t pay off financially. There are bigger gratifications than that, and there is more to life than the mere material world. If you are passionate about something, then doing that will make you happy, plain simple as that. The question now is whether you want to be fulfilled or not.
- Get rid of people who are not passionate about anything in life.Ask yourself whether you would want to have people around you that are not passionate about anything in life. Would you? I know I wouldn’t. So knowing that, I expect nothing less from me either. Being passionate about something makes you a better person to hang out with. Talking about your dream with passion, doing something you enjoy, simply makes people inspired, happy to be a part of that. No one wants the ones that do not have passion for anything in life. Once you have passion for something, your whole life is more interesting, ergo you are more interesting as a person.
- Find people who, like yourself, share the same passion for something, or are passionate about something with the same intensity. This will give you the boost needed to once again start to dream, and reconnect with your passion. And nowadays it’s easy to find such people if you know where to look. Once you get rid of all the ones who are extinguishing you passion, then you are open to find the ones who will support you in it.
- Talk about it with them. Find someone who will likely love to listen to what you have learned, and how do you feel about the thing you are reading about. Search among your friends, your family, even in some other circles as social networks and blogs. Once you get the discussion going you will feel the passion growing more quickly.
- Share your results or experience. This is a totally different kind of passion boost, and gives a pleasure in its own way. For example I feel totally different trying to talk about how I deal with some things I feel passionate about, than just doing them. I have passion for organizing stuff for example, but writing here about organization gives me a different kind of pleasure, and in a way it boosts my passion even more for the same matter. Share as much as you can, and you will be hooked more than ever. Why do you think people invented forums and places where runners can share their experiences, as well as their results? Think about it.
And here I’d like to share a bonus strategy – which is to reverse engineer. Simply find passionate people and read about their goals and achievements. I remember when I was starting with fitness, trying to motivate myself by following an example. With the movie Troy playing in nearby theaters, I started to read a lot about Brad Pitt’s workout routine. Experts say that the Brad Pitt Troy workout is one of the hardest programs available in the world, and just reading about it you want to get off your chair and do some push-ups.
So if you want to model success and energetic people who are passionate about what they do, try reverse engineering, by following their dreams, goals, and past achievements.
Having passion about something can change your life, and make you a better person in general. It’s one of the cornerstones of living a healthy lifestyle in many ways, and something that will help you define yourself. And if you find yourself losing the passion you once got, remember that you can always reignite it, or find something else that you will start to adore. Life is all about exploring, and enjoying along the way. Stay passionate.