What are you passionate about?

This is a question that stirs a lot of emotions.

It can thrill you … or it can depress you—depending on your level of clarity about what you’re doing.

If you love what you’re doing, then you’re set. You are on your path.

If you’re not on your desired path, how are you feeling right now. Look at these statements. How do they resonate with you?

• I know what I love to do, but I haven’t started. I don’t know when I’ll be ready. I feel restless and anxious.
• I don’t know what I’m passionate about. I feel numb and bored.
• I have too many interests and passions. I can’t pick one. I feel overwhelmed and confused.

All of the above conditions yield the same result: doing nothing and feeling stuck on a path to nowhere.

Passion is your birthright

I truly believe we were all put on this earth as part of an evolutionary creative dance. Each one of us has a creative imprint that is as unique as our genetic makeup.

As I’ve indicated in previous articles, this topic is very near to my heart. Living from our highest joy is the best thing we can do for ourselves and all of life.

A passion or desire doesn’t have to be earth shattering or world changing. It’s something that gives us joy and makes us come alive.

It can be homemaking, organizing, creating music, sales, marketing, woodworking, painting or whatever your heart desires. So what’s stopping us from pursing our desires?

What’s stopping us from living with passionate clarity?

Anything that gives us joy is part of who we are. It is as simple as that. The thing is: over the years we

• forgot what we love to do, or
• turned all of our dreams into one big “one day” painful longing, or
• kept hiding behind the excuse of having too many things and so little time, or
• became jaded and stopped enjoying anything—even the things that we used to love.

All of the above reasons tell us one important thing: we have within something that is waiting for us to uncover and express. We just learned (or were conditioned) to bury it and focus on what we think we deserve or what society expects from us …we have to get an education, have a job that pays well and take care of our families.

There is nothing wrong with education, having a job or taking care of our loved ones. The problem is having one way of doing things and expecting everyone to follow it blindly. Which, as we know too well, doesn’t work. No wonder so many of us feel trapped or lost!

Conformity does not take into consideration our uniqueness and gifts. It robs us of trusting our own instincts and abilities. The good news is humanity is evolving. We are in unprecedented times of connectedness and opportunity. All we need to do is make a conscious choice to follow our own path. So …

The question is: Are you willing to do what it takes to follow your heart?

If you’re doubting your abilities or thinking you don’t have what it takes, think again.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that you have what it takes to do anything you desire. The creative force within you is at the root of your desires … it can’t wait for you to use it.

The only one that’s stopping you is you. You either haven’t explored what you love, or you know what it is and just don’t know how to do it. The rest is noise and fear.

It’s up to you—always was and always will be. The moment you make a decision to follow your heart and commit to it, life will embrace you with open arms.

How to start

There are a few basic steps you can take right now, regardless of your circumstances.

Allow yourself to explore and dream

If you don’t know what you want, sit and seriously think about what you desire. I’ve written about this here.

Write down all the things you want to do. It doesn’t matter how long the list gets. You are putting your thoughts on paper. This is the first step in clarifying the thoughts floating in your head.

Make a choice as to what you want to pursue

If you’re like me and have so many things, you need to narrow things down and focus on just a few. I would say pick one or two. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself.

How do you prioritize passions that are equally near and dear to your heart?

The only thing you can do is pick one or two and do your best. It is better to pick a couple and get something done, than picking nothing and swimming in a sea of confusion and stagnation.

If you’re stuck and can’t choose, consider these two tools. If you still can’t seem to decide, close your eyes and point at one item on your list. Make this item your number one choice.

Pick one or two, no matter what. Have faith that you will gain more clarity as you start. Once your decision is made, realize that you need to focus on your choices and let everything else go.

We fear that we will miss out on pursuing the other passions if we made a choice. This is an avoidance technique. When you accomplish something, you can move forward to something else. If you don’t do anything, you move nowhere. Success breeds more success.

Determine why you chose this desire

Every thing we want has a motivation, or a reason behind it. Your reasons are yours only. No one can tell you why you want to do something.

The reasons you have are the fuel that will ignite the action. So the more honest and clear you are about why you want to do something, the easier it would be for you to stick to it.

Break the desire down into smaller action steps

A desire is grand and fuzzy. You might want to become an author, for example. You can’t do anything with that. You need to get specific and write down quantifiable steps that will achieve this goal.

Do you want to write fiction or nonfiction? What genre? When? Do you have the required writing skills? Do you have the technical know-how of writing and getting published? How are you going to write? And more.

The answers to the questions will help you in determining the steps you need to take. Some of them might be short and simple. Others might be more of a project that needs even smaller steps. It would look something like this:

Big desire »> smaller projects »> smaller steps

One project for becoming an author might be to contact publishers and get the requirements. The steps would be: do an online search for book publishers, ask Jane Doe how she did it, make a list of publishers I want to talk to, contact them one at a time.

The small steps are where you need to focus and forget the whole for a while. This will alleviate overwhelm and doubt.

Do one thing.

In our example, we would start with online search. It would probably take an hour or so.

Do the next thing.

The next step would be to call or meet with Jane Doe. This step might take longer if it’s face to face. But it’s not difficult.

The steps after would be creating a contact template, updating it and emailing it to each publisher. Each step is doable.

Revise and continue to move forward.

Once a week, review what you’ve done so far and adjust your steps accordingly. In our example, maybe you concluded that traditional publishing is not for you. So you can look into self-publishing by creating steps for this project.

The main thing is to continue to move forward. In our writing example, the most important thing would be the writing itself. This means writing a few sentences every day—even for 5 minutes. It’s better than nothing.

An alternative

Sometimes we need to put our money where our desire is and fully commit. If you have tried this process on your own and still feel stuck, it might be helpful to hire a professional who’ll guide you through the process. But, more importantly, hold you accountable (a crucial part in sticking with your goal).

If you choose this route, I recommend a course by my friend Barrie Davenport. She’s a life passion coach and author—and the best person I know who can help you in uncovering and pursing your passion.

This is a 4-week online interactive course that sums up Barrie’s extensive experience in helping others live a life of passion. It will deal with any roadblocks and provide a social element to ensure that you stick with it.

It’s called The Path to Passion and I whole-heartedly believe it will help you.

The price might be steep for some. But the cost is nothing compared to the benefits of clarity, focus, and tangible results. Plus, Barrie offers a 100% money back guarantee, and free personal coaching if you don’t find your passion in 6 months after the course. I hope you’ll take advantage of this life-changing program.

Regardless of what you decide to do, the main thing is to do something. You owe it to yourself … to live a life of joy and ease … of truth and purpose.