Designing a Passionate Life

Both Sides of the Argument

Designing a passionate life with balance includes writing down all the ya-buts that come up after you identify your passions. After you identify what you absolutely love and what makes your heart sing, often the self-doubt arises. Your self-doubt can arise in a variety of ways but one common way is what I call the choir or those voices in your head that just won't stop listing all of the reasons why following your passions won't work. There are usually two sides to the chatter, the voice coming from your heart that states all of the reasons why it's a good idea. Then there is the negative choir made up of multiple voices of naysayers. These voices are often a combination of your own self-doubts as well as the doubts of family members and friends.

Stopping the Hiccups

Designing a passionate life includes stopping the hiccups. Let me explain. I'm talking about the actual physical hiccups that you can get and what I'm calling the hiccups of life. Stay with me here. I will connect the dots. I got the hiccups today and I expressed my frustration with having them to a friend of mine. My friend's face lit up and he said, as people often do when you have the hiccups, "I have the perfect solution and it really works, just try it!" I don't know how many times I've heard different solutions for stopping the hiccups but I humored him and listened. What he said resonated with me and I knew it would work and I wanted to prove it to myself.

How to Stay Inspired

Designing a passionate life includes living from inspiration. I'd like to define inspiration before I talk more about it.  Inspiration is acting or moving either your intellect or emotions. I see working from inspiration different than working from motivation. Motivation is defined as a need or desire to take action. To me inspiration comes from a place of power, creativity, and connection from deep inside of you and you feel the desire to take action. To me, inspiration is a lighter energy than motivation. Motivation feels like "willing or forcing" myself to take action rather than being moved to take action. Both inspiration and motivation move you forward but from a different type of energy. Right now, I'm focused on inspiration.

Doing What You Love

Designing a passionate life requires clarity, commitment, and action. I agree with Barbara Sher’s quote that reads "pursuing your dream “...isn't a luxury that can wait until you've taken care of the 'serious' business of life. It's a necessity." Many people spend the bulk of their lives earning money and working at something they don't love and this is NOT living a passionate life. Most people spend their lives working towards the goal of retirement and then do what they really want to with their lives. Is that what you want your life to be about?

 

Developing Daily Practices

Designing a passionate life includes developing daily practices that move you towards your life vision. After you are clear about your passions, you need to take action towards living your passions. The actions come with the clarity of vision. You also need to develop daily practices that become habits that strengthen you and continue to move you towards living your passions.

Dialog with Your Life

Designing a passionate life and life balance requires a clear vision of what this means to you. There are lots of different exercises that can help you and I've done many of them and they work. I want to introduce you to a different point of view that has given me a different perspective on how to gain clarity about what I want my life to look like. This technique is to have a conversation or dialog with your life.

Overcoming Negative Head-Talk

Designing a passionate life includes eliminating negative head-talk. I've also heard it referred to as negative self-talk, negative chatter, or what ever name you give it. The end result is the same, self-sabotage. You may not only experience negative head-talk but also depression, lack of energy, and other behaviors that keep you from moving forward, taking action, and enjoying life. So what can you do about it?

Living Your Full Potential

Designing a passionate life includes discovering and living your potential. I'm sure you've heard this before but I want to focus on this from an internal point of view. Many times when this topic is discussed it is measured by the external accomplishments of people. I think this is important but it's not the only measure of living your full potential.

Embracing the Waves of Life

Designing a passionate life includes embracing everything that comes your way. It's been my experience that to live a passionate life means to ride the waves of life as they come and go. Life is really like a series of waves, some are high and lots of fun and some are low and now so fun. You will experience a full spectrum of thoughts with these waves. The trick is to ride these waves as centered and present as possible and not take up residence in any stressful thoughts you experience during the low times.

What is The Passion Test®?

Designing a passionate life includes knowing what you are passionate about. I'm so excited, one week from tonight I'm starting my four week Teleseminar class for The Passion Test. It is a powerful tool that you can use to identify your top five passions, your markers, you passion score, and much much more. I've given it to many many people and they are amazed at what they learned about themselves and their passions.