Passion

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What is passion?

If you look at passion in the dictionary, you find a technical description – a deep, overwhelming emotion, or with religious connotations…  However, there is another, far more important way to understand #passion.

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton

Passion is fuel!

When you set a goal, without the fuel for the journey the achievement of that goal requires, you will fail!  Passion provides the fuel.  No passion?  Don’t waste your time.

Passion creates commitment.

Why do we commit to something?  Commitment is a dedication to a course of action for a particular reason.  There are only two reasons, the base emotions of fear and desire.

If you are in fear for your life and running will save you, then you will run!  Fear is an incredible motivator.  However, once you are clear of the danger, most likely you will run another few metres and STOP!  However, the passion, the fear, the overwhelming desire to save your life gave you the commitment to run, to get you out of the danger.

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Fear motivation!

The flip side of passion is the desire you can have.  It can be an incredible motivator and empower you to perform amazing feats, many which may have seemed impossible beforehand.  The passion of love has inspired so many stories, from Romeo and Juliet and tales of love and heroism down the centuries, to current real life stories of what people will do for love.  That is a passion that provides an undying source of energy to continue the struggle, the journey, no matter what the cost.

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Eros Love and Passion

There is the passion of greed.  That passion the fuels the gambling industries, a hunger for money, the willingness to gamble everything on the belief that they know which way the dice will roll.  Losing doesn’t stop them either, unless they lose it all.  Sometimes though, they are so passionate in their hunger and greed, that their addiction overwhelms common sense and reason.  They borrow to continue gambling, even though they know the odds are stacked against them.  No obstacle will shift them from their journey, they are committed.

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Mother Theresa and friend

There is the passion for a cause.  Mother Theresa had this level of passion.  In the streets of Calcutta in India for half a century, Mother Theresa battled poverty, cultural beliefs, politicians, greed, corruption and natural disasters to feed hundreds of thousands of the Indian underprivileged and to raise them from their poverty.  Not for personal gain, but because she believed in what she was doing.

There is the passion for the feeling of success, of achievement against odds.  The feeling that only comes when incredible obstacles have been achieved.  Experiences that mountain climbers and other elite athletes are almost addicted to.  They regularly do what most people would consider foolhardy or outright suicidal, just for that feeling of success, elation, of achievement, at completing the challenge and winning.

The passion for a life, a rounded, complete and happy life, with family, friends and the security of knowing that life is good in your own little circle of friends, family, loved ones, with money, food, shelter and all the necessities and some of the luxuries that you believe makes life worthwhile.  This is where ordinary folk are to be found, going to work each week for 5 or 6 days, to earn money to pay the bills that the cost of a life such as this generates.  The rewards for their toil are the family and community they create.

There are other people who are touched by an inspirational unrest, who set higher personal goals to raise themselves from the ordinary to extraordinary levels.  These people have a passion for a particular something of their own.  Perhaps it is art – hence we find many struggling artists creating masterpieces that no-one yet appreciates.  Writers often fall into this category, so many struggling and unknown authors.  Inventors, free thinkers, entrepreneurs.  So many people are affected by this inspirational unrest.

The goals are not always critical to the survival of the person, though they complete and satisfy that person.  They feel whole because of their goal, or the journey towards it.  Perhaps it’s a study of ancestry where you dedicate hours per week searching ancient texts and documents looking for clues to your own family history.  It may be a savings goal to purchase something you really desire, a car, engagement ring, your own home, or a yacht, motorcycle or a dream to travel and explore the world.

The goal itself doesn’t matter.  What matters is your passion for it.  No passion, no drive, no commitment; no success is possible.

Passion is not a crazed race to the end. 

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Until forever…..!

Passion can be a slow burning fuel that smoulders and provides energy from deep within for many years, as well as the passion of the honeymoon.  Young newlyweds exhibit the passion of “Eros” love, wild, romantic and fervent lust for satisfaction.  However, it’s called a honeymoon because it doesn’t last.  The passion must transmute to the “Agape” form of passionate love for it to last the distance of the vows “Until death do us part”…  And so it is with all goals.  The initial excitement gives way to a deep and powerful drive, fuelled by the passion for the goal.

If your goal bores you, it’s not a goal, it’s a chore!  If what you do excites you, it drives you and inspires you to look forward to it each and every time you are there; you have passion and a life of excitement and challenge!  With passion such as this, failure will never be an issue for you.  From time to time you will have setbacks, you will rethink your strategies but you will never consider quitting.

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Bit of an obstacle!

When working towards your goal, if an obstacle occurs and you cease striving for it, there are only a couple of reasons why you stopped.  The obstacle has little to do with it.

Firstly, you were not passionate enough.  If you had the passion, you would continue to try, to the extent you might go crazy, broke or worse in your attempts to succeed and to look for other ways to get there.

Second possible reason for failure is that you either tried to do it alone, uneducated, unresourced and/or without a plan.  You may not have known how to clarify your goal, so that you were actually setting the goal of your passion, not just a step towards it.

Goals must be clear, well-defined, tested to be certain they are what you need, then put into a structured plan for their achievement.  This process ensures you have the right goal, the resources and the passion for it.  You just need to turn up for it then with your passion, and with your plan, the goal will be yours sooner than you ever thought possible.

What if you don’t feel passion for anything?

You just haven’t discovered your passion yet.  Some people never do.  However, if you really want to live your life, not just be there when it happens, set a goal to experience enough diversity within your life to discover what you do feel passion for.  Whether that passion you discover is for another person, a cause, a craft or any of the multitudes of things people do that excites them.  There will be something – find it; feel the passion that makes life worthwhile.

If you have no other goals, no other passions, make your goal the goal to discover your passion.  In doing so, you will discover the reason, the answer to the eternal question, of why you are here!

“The saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last.” ― Nicholas Sparks

If you have gained value from this post and feel others would benefit also, please share or reblog it for them.   Let’s add some more value to this world!  Passion should be available to everyone!  Get yours here NOW!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray

“Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping… waiting… and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir… open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us… guides us. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love… the clarity of hatred… the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we’d know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we’d be truly dead.”
― Joss Whedon