“Follow your passion”, “discover your calling”, “listen to your inner voice" - you will hear cliched advices all the time. From the traditional business barons to the start-up scions, from literary giants to thought leaders and coaches, everyone seems to lap up the idea of “making a living out of your passion” like a fish taking to water. The concept has done the rounds of the famous and the influential.
Oprah Winfrey talked about moving past fear and following curiosity in her renowned “The Life You Want” weekend. From the stalwarts of time immemorial to the social media savvy youth of today, the channels of English fiction have imbibed and portrayed the “Follow your Passion” movement. “It is never too late to be what you might have been” – strong and powerful words penned by no other than George Eliot, famed author of the Victorian Era. One of the best sellers of today’s times, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love a story of a recently divorced woman finding herself as she embarked upon soul-finding journeys across 3 continents strums a soulful chord in our hearts. But how do we do it?
Here are a few key tenets of embarking on the path of passion and purpose
1) Know what you would die for - Knowing what truly eggs you on against all odds, those very actions that keep reigniting the spark within you is the first step towards the window of pursuing a choice of our calling. Easier said than done, for most of us this involves an intensive introspection deep within our motivations and aspirations. Penning them down, word by word, gives the human mind a clarity of thought that is essential if we were to embark upon a life driven b-y our passions. Giving a written structure to even the smallest of things that spark our curiosity and energize even through testing times is the key to unlock the hidden box of passions that we harbour deep within us.
2) What are you good at? Each of us is gifted with capabilities, sometimes which we fail to harness to our fullest potential. Reasons abound for letting your natural flair die – from societal expectations, commitments, our deeply writ fears or simply an unawareness of an unexplored domain. As social being, we are born as curious babies – remember the bubbly kids asking a dozen questions a minute, wonderfully open to the sights, sounds and offerings of the world around them? Somewhere around them the instinct to know died a slow death…leading to a murder of our ability to look into what we are truly good at! So get up and start noticing the occasional remarks, the letter of appreciation at work or a casual remark by friends and colleagues. For that shall fuel the fire to be better at your strength.
3) Observe and identify the world’s problems: While introspection works wonders for the inner motivators in you, we live in a practical world with oh-so-practical problems. Every person out there is battling problems of his own. The answer lies is helping him or her overcome them and bring them one step towards the life they want. So marry your strength and passion with what others truly need. Open your eyes and ears and observe, soak in, scrutinize the world around you!
4) A tiny step every day: Hoards of commitments, personal and professional seem to clutter the days of our lives. As we rush from fulfilling and pleasing in one role to another, days seem to blur into months and months into years. Most of us end up convincing ourselves with shallow justifications like – “Who has the time”, or “I am so tired I just want to flop by the day’s end”. And the clutter accumulates to unmanageable proportions! But wait! Surely you can take out 10 minutes a day for yourself? After all if you aren’t your own priority, whose is it? A small step towards your envisioned life goes a long way in inspiring the “I” within you. As rightly quoted in the Hitopadesha, "With the falling of just drops of water, the pot gradually gets filled up. So is the case with acquisition of all knowledge and all pursuits too". So go all out and make it a commitment to yourself to take those tiny steps towards your chosen life.
5) Crystallize the opportunity…Plan and Execute: What is a map without roads to tread? Similarly what is the unfettered actions and identified strengths without a plan to action upon? Our organizations do devise SMART professional goals for our professional development, why not pull out a leaf from there and do the same for your life? Make a plan which is Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time Bound and realise your start to executing it. If unsure of the detailing, reach out to people in the similar field for know how. Partner with people having similar passions. Share. Talk about your envisioned path. Monitor and track as you hold yourself accountable. After all, taking a jab at a second chance is like steering a plane in unchartered territories, with you in the pilot’s seat.
6) Envision your success: Grit and commitment go hand in hand with rekindling your life direction in line with your passion. As we put in sleepless hours to turn our dreams into reality, sometime reality bites. All may not go smooth on this path of realizing a life of passion and choice, and yet we need to “let go” and “hold on”. Let go of our fears and doubts, of being successful and being accepted. And hold on to our capabilities and self- belief. Envision the life you want to live – whatever it may be and conjuring up the very image of living that life shall propel you to rekindle yourself on the path towards passion and purpose.
And so why wait? Gather your wits and grit and take the plunge on this path of passion and purpose. It shall take effort. And making mistakes. And living with them. And carrying on despite them. There will be naysayers along the way, remember ultimately it’s Your Choice to seize the day. Bronnie Ware, an American nurse who serves dying people decided to record the top regrets of the dying and observed that common themes emerged centred around happiness, connections, courage of expression, work life and most importantly the courage of leading a life true to oneself and not by others’ expectations. So go all out and rediscover, rekindle and restore the life you truly want!
Fail at your own dreams than be successful at others