Where is the Passion in Your Life?
Today’s world is more focused on the fast paced style that we have set for ourselves than the dreams and hopes that once fueled our aspirations. We get so very caught up in our responsibilities that the obligations and expectations of our lives makes for a more important goals than our true passions. Many people feel that if they focus on themselves they are being selfish and cutting the attention to the other aspects of their lives that they have deemed more important, thus leaving room for those inner most desires lacking.
The book shelves are full of self-help publications that aim at offering insight into the best ways to improve overall happiness and fulfillment in life. The heart of these techniques lies in questions we all must ask ourselves. What is your motivation? What are the things that make you smile? What did you want to be when you grew up?
The first step to finding happiness is realizing what it is that makes you want to get up and start moving in the morning. Those aspects of life that leave you whistling are the ones that hold the key to the passions of life.
The dutiful son or daughter who gives up dreams of acting to attend college and get a “real job” will eventually conform to those expectations. But will he or she be happy sitting behind a desk day in and day out? The doting mother who gives up finishing her Master’s degree to take care of the kids will love her children with all her heart and provide them with all their needs and wants. But will she really find solace in mommy and me groups and story time at the local library? The caring husband who sets aside his hobby of collecting model trains because it is viewed as childish will eventually forget the dust covered trains in the attic. But will his passion for tinkering with the shiny trains be placated by repairing the broken dishwasher and changing the oil in his wife’s car? We often agree to what is expected of us and drown out the voice inside our head and hearts. But the truth is you don’t have to be irresponsible or unreasonable to fulfill your passion.
Rediscovering your passion may actually be harder than you think it should be. After lying stale in our minds for so long, those small things that once drove us often become alien in nature and need to be rekindled and reworked in order to find a place in our every day lives. The best path is to revert to your youth. Think back to what things made you most happy. Remember the passions that made you smile and the hobbies that once held such a high importance in your life and make room for those passions again.
Once that passion is rediscovered, never lose it again. There is a reason why the youth of the world do not listen to what society has to say and that is passion. Never letting the world take too firm a hold on your life is at the heart of your happiness. Sure, supporting your family is necessary and working is an inevitable evil, but that is not all the world is made of. Our passions are what make us unique and if we find them again, we need to hold on for dear life.
No amount of money or praise at work can compare to the feeling you will get from reintroducing that long lost passion back into your life. There is a euphoria that surrounds a passion, a healing nature that makes all the wrongs of the world disappear and the work entailed in making that passion a part of your aging life, is key to living a fulfilled life.
Stop right now and think about those things that made youth so wonderful. If only for a moment, take a step back 10, 20, 30, 50 years and find that one thing that drove your mind to the limits of happiness. Once you have that thought firmly in your grasp, go for it!
Filed under: Self Improvement