Personal GROWTH involves discovering what makes YOU tick; What makes YOU happy; What makes YOU feel fulfilled; What makes YOU excited to get up the next day! A “passion” is a combination of something you love, and something that you feel fulfilled doing. Some of those passions may become an avenue through which you can make a lot of money, and some of them may simply be the way you choose to leave a legacy to the world, that says, “I WAS HERE.” But what if you don’t yet know what your passions are? How will you find them?
How can you discover them?
There are six stages of discovery toward finding your passions:
1) Identify the things you are doing/believing ONLY because the “tribal energy” in which you were raised supported those things/beliefs. The term “tribal energy” is a reference to the group environment in which you were raised, or in other words, in which your parents found their fulfillment.
2) Examine if some of the things you believe you “must do” are only tribal, and are not flowing from your heart. Ask yourself if you really enjoy doing/believing those “tribal things”. Sometimes people fail to discern what they love because they are trapped in living the tribally accepted ways, and yet those tribally accepted ways aren’t fulfilling to that person. This is YOUR life, and you are here to create YOUR OWN joy. Tribal energies can be very strong, and pondering whether they are fulfilling to you will help you open up your mind to other possibilities. Sometimes, people discover they their passion was not supported by the tribe in which they were raised, and so they never would have found their passion had they not questioned themselves in this way!
3) Curiosity. Curiosity is the natural attraction you feel toward a particular activity. You may not even know much at all about an activity, and you certainly havn’t decided that you like it, but you may have wondered IF you would like it! THIS is the curiosity that potentially leads to discovering a previously undiscovered interest that could ignite into a passion!!
Allow yourself to write a list of everything you have ever thought you might like to try. No matter how small an interest you feel, put it on that list! After taking the first step toward investigating that interest (which is usually just googleing it to see if that is done in your area, or to learn what other people are doing in that arena.), you’ll discern if you have enough continued curiosity to move to the next phase of talent development, which is INTEREST.
From my own personal experience, I can tell you that putting items on the list just because you think you might enjoy the company of the type of PEOPLE who are interested in that activity is also a great reason to explore that activity further. For example, I had no interest in riding horses, but I’ve always found equestrian type people fascinating. They seem more connected to the land, and intuitive, with an almost sixth sense, which enables them to read the horses. THAT fascinated me, so I joined an equestrian club! Even though I didn’t ride, I enjoyed the people that I met and I helped them raise money for their endeavors. I’ve learned many things from them that have influenced my personal growth! They increased my sphere of influence, and many are still my fiends, after several years!
4) Interest. After your initial curiosity is investigated, you may discover that you want to continue to investigate this new arena of endeavor. This stage is called “INTEREST”. Once you’ve discovered that you are interested, the more you’ll come alive! If we cease to be interested in learning new things, we are becoming less and less alive! As we explore new things, we become MORE ALIVE!
5) Fascination. Upon further investigation of your new found interest, you may find you’re now fascinated with the new subject of endeavor! THIS, fascination, is the third stage of discovering an untapped talent! Fascination brings with it enthusiasm for the new subject of your attention. Once you’re fascinated- YOU”RE HOOKED! If you never find yourself fascinated with the new endeavor, you won’t find enough energy to continue in it’s endeavor, and you’ll likely drop the activity. This isn’t a bad thing, though; It’s part of the process of discovery!
6) Commitment. From fascination, you can move into COMMITMENT to the mastery of it! Now, this doesn’t mean that you want to become the very best anyone has ever been at the activity; It does mean that you intend to become the best YOU can be at that activity! Compete only with yourself. Be the best YOU can be at any chosen activity. Allow yourself to grow into the mastery of it, realizing that it’s new to you, so you may not be great at it at first!
Somewhere along the way between interest and fascination, you may begin to think of ways in which the new endeavor can MAKE YOU MONEY! Take action on those ideas, realizing that you only have to know how to take the first step; You don’t have to have mastered it yet! After having taken the first step, the second step will be come to you! Just keep moving it forward, as you become more and more proficient at the activity.
Isn’t it nice to know that your passions can be discovered? Accept that you’re not BORN KNOWING everything. That’s why it’s called “personal development”; You are developing!! You are in a process of discovering who you are, what makes you tick and what ignites enthusiasm within you! That which ignites enthusiasm within you IS YOUR PASSION! What if you only feel mild enthusiasm for “it”? Offering gratitude for everything will increase your vibration so that even your passions will become more involved in “being”, state of being, present tense, so your awareness of how great it feels to be alive!
Now….Go write that list, and take the first step toward learning what YOUR passions are!!
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