#Passiontheory
What’s your why?
What are you passionate about?
Maybe you have thought about this before. Maybe you haven’t. Maybe you are in the middle of chasing your passion, or maybe you have no clue what your passion is yet. What really matters is what you are going to do from here.
Searching for the answer to this helps you create clarity. As you gain more clarity, you’ll begin making better decisions that will help improve your quality of life.
Connect with your purpose
Most people’s passion lies in something they love doing. Keyword, doing. Having a deeper look at what the word passion really means can greatly improve your connection with your actions. The charged emotion that true passion gives you in energy, drive, and resilience is one of the most valuable qualities you can ever develop.
The latin root of the word passion is pati-. The translation of pati- to English means to suffer. You might be thinking ‘But isn’t passion often described as something that you enjoy doing or something you really love?’ That’s all I thought passion was too. Once I learned that suffering is at the root of passion, it changed my life. It helped me dictate my actions more clearly and it also helped me communicate better not only with myself, but with the world.
Finding and understanding your passion is a balancing act of 3 main ideas.
1) Finding something you desire
2) Finding something you are willing to “suffer” for
3) Creating harmony between the two.
Where does your desire come from?
Mine comes from wanting see people continue to wake up everyday and improve some aspect of their life to the best of their ability. The desire of accomplishment or a particular goal can spark a lifestyle. Within this lifestyle, there are necessary actions that have to be carried out to get what you desire. The more fuel you add to a flame, the stronger and longer it will burn. Understanding how to tend to this flame will help with not getting “burnt out” or unmotivated. Your emotional connection to this desire will have a huge impact on the quality of your thoughts. And the quality of your thoughts will have a direct impact on the quality of your life.
Why would I want to suffer if I don’t have to?
Oh the power of delayed gratification. Controlled suffering is something I’ve learned to thrive off of. The idea of delayed gratification has been studied very closely(Stanford Marshmallow experiment) and is highly correlated with success. Some days you are going to wake up and not want to practice. Sometimes you are going to face difficult challenges. When you train your mind and body to endure challenges and overcome them, it creates confidence and self worth, qualities that can empower you like nothing else. These challenges, I will refer to them as “storms”, test how much you desire what you say you are passionate about. The “storm” will pass, but how you endure it will dictate a lot of your future. It is easy to do things when it’s smooth sailing, but how you deal with it when it’s not will be a deciding factor in how much you can accomplish.
The idea of suffering is very powerful, yet scary because it is associated with hardship. It is something that tests your will power, patience, resilience, and faith in your abilities. The good news is when you learn to improve your thoughts, it can shift your perspective in your favor. When you realize this, you will turn these challenges into opportunities of growth instead of moments of doubt.
Balance and Harmony
This might be the most important part.
It is a constant battle to learn how to balance how much time you spend on each side. If you are in a constant state of suffering, you are going to end up hating what you do. If you are in a constant state of pleasure, when there is an obstacle(and there will be many), you might stop yourself from moving forward because you convince yourself you can’t. The balance in this idea is where fulfillment lies.
Once you do some practice and gather some experience, you will soon realize that this balance can and will turn into harmony. This is in your control. Working with the concept of true passion will give you a stronger foundation. When things get difficult, you will have the strength to overcome any obstacle. You will create the work ethic, the patience, and the emotional resilience that will subconsciously drive you towards your dreams.
So…What’s your why?