A burning sense of passion is the most potent fuel for your dreams. In our society we seem to have lost our passion. We do things not because we love them, we do them because we feel we have to. This is simply a formula for misery.
Why versus what
Why do we always ask people what they do but seldom do we ask them why they do it? As Simon Sinek stresses, people lose their way when they lose their why.
When we ask children what they want to become when they get older, how often do we ask why? Or are we simply too busy advising on what they should become, unintentionally wiring them to believe that the what is far more important than the why. Maybe as adults we remain conditioned that the what is what matters and the why is only for those strange outcasts living on the fringes of society.
True completeness encompasses not only what you are but also what you are here to experience; not only what you are doing but also who you are being.
So you may not know exactly what your purpose is. Don’t stress – what are you passionate about? What sets your soul on fire? Often your passion and your purpose are closely aligned. Passion and purpose are after all two sides of the same coin.
The biggest obstacle to achieving your dreams and the one thing guaranteed to erode passion is indecision.
Always be aware of exchanging the beauty and risk of your heart’s desire for comfort and convenience.
imagination, passion and dreams
Imagination fuels passion, and passion ignites energy. Imagining your future, however, requires forward looking through that large windscreen of life, not spending all your time looking back through the small rearview mirror of the past. It requires the willingness to imagine a future in which your passion is your purpose; a future in which your imagined life is your reality.
In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth states that success comes when we devote ourselves to endeavours that give us joy and purpose. What we eventually accomplish depends far more on our passion and perseverance than on our innate talent.
Often you feel that you are working for an income, that what you are passionate about will not pay the bills. Is this really true or only true because you have told yourself this for so long just to avoid the risk associated too following your dream, or perhaps the fear of what people, your family, your peer group will say?
taking action
If it is really true, can you find any aspect at work that ignites your passion? Simply talking to a colleague who is down or getting involved in an exciting project even if it’s not part of your job? Can you volunteer, get involved in supporting an old age home or a pet shelter, a children’s home? Start photography after hours? Paint over weekends, write that poetry, make a difference? There is always something that you can do. What is it for you?
You say your dream is to travel. How much of South Africa have you seen? Often travel automatically means international travel to you and if you cannot do that you do nothing. If you say you love to travel, start putting that dream into action by travelling locally. Plan a monthly trip even if its a day trip.
Have a travel board on which you map your destinations, get excited about your first international trip and allow each local trip to be a step in this direction. You want to ski in the Alps. Start by skiing in Lesotho. This will show your intentions and your intentions supported by action will attract similar energy into your world. It will certainly create movement and movement is always better than stagnation.
Once you have made a decision, act quickly before you find all the reasons not to act. Move towards your dream one step at a time, never be found wanting when it comes to taking action towards your dream. Do not stand still merely because you cannot immediately achieve your end game. Take action where you can and show up passionately even when you are busy with things that do not align 100% to your dream, knowing that these are merely steps in your journey towards that dream. If you show up passionately you will soon realise what sets your soul on fire.
Doing the same thing with a renewed passion will change the experience for you and those around you.
Who are you serving when you allow the fire of your passion to be sedated or extinguished by the false lure and promise of a secure pay check? Is anything ever really that secure, secure enough to sell your soul for?
Remember that a lot of your happiness about what you do is really linked to how you view it. Wherever you may find yourself, passion is what will differentiate you, passion will sustain you and be the light leading you towards your end goal. Passion opens doors, passion attracts people, passion raises you above your circumstances. There is no substitute for passion and perseverance.
What you are and what you become depends on how you choose to spend your time. We all have the same 24 hours. Decide how you wish to spend your time. STOP living on autopilot and make some decisions. Even if it is a little thing such as not pushing that snooze button in the morning. Get up when the alarm goes off, take a minute to express gratitude for all you have, take charge of the day.
Until you have crafted your dream in totality, live as if your dream is already yours. Each step towards your dream is yours alone to take. Just take that first step. The smallest step matters, don’t measure the size of the step, just keep moving.
Do you wake up each day to a job or a calling? If life is calling you, you must go towards it.