“In all my research, the greatest leaders looked inward and were able to tell a good story with authenticity and passion.”
– Deepak Chopra
How do you define passion? It’s not something that can be touched, or held, or consumed. Passion must be felt. From the very core of your being, when you are passionate about something you constantly strive to pursue it, attain it. Passion is the difference between a great performance and an ordinary performance, between remarkable and average.
But isn’t it a bit naive to expect that everyone is always pursuing their passion every day, in everything they do?
Even the most successfully passionate people have to do things that aren’t exactly their favorite part of their job. And some days, we just seem to have less energy for our passion than others. Let’s face it, we all let ourselves slip into the doldrums every now and again. Most often, people tend to focus their passion on what they do. But what if you’re not always authentically passionate about what you do?
This is a great time to remember that there are four sources of passion. So, when passion for what you do wanes, look to your other three sources of passion.
1. Passion For How You Do What You Do
How often do you find yourself basically having the same day, over and over again? When was the last time you got curious about what you do and how you do it – the last time you thought to yourself ‘Is there a better way?’
They say that if we never stop learning, we never stop growing. If you’re not growing, then how can you possibly expect yourself to stay passionate about how you do what you do? If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, think about how you are doing it. Think outside the box that you’ve either been given or created yourself and get a little creative. Go out and see if your peers are doing what you do in a different way, with different results. Or branch out from your specific task or position and think about how you fit into the larger organization or process. What are some adjustments you could try to help improve the process as a whole?
Routine can certainly produce efficiencies, however, it can also promote complacency. Reignite your passion for how you do what you do by becoming curious and learning new ideas that can ultimately help improve performance for your organization.
2. Passion For Why You Do What You Do
Think about what you do in broader terms. Does your work help improve the efficiencies of other processes in your organization? Maybe you’re why is that you need to put food on the table or to improve your standard of living. Or maybe your why is so you can give to charity or help others in another way.
When you start putting your tasks into a big-picture perspective, you can start getting really excited about the impact that even the most remedial tasks have on the greater good of the whole.
3. Passion For Who You Do It For
I imagine that every parent reading this article can identify with the “who” of passion. But who comes from other sources as well. Whether that who is the customer, whether it’s the colleague, whether it’s your spouse, your son, your daughter or a friend. Once you focus on who you are passionate about helping, you’ll find that when you put a person into the mix, you’ll find passion that you didn’t know you had.
