Designing a Passionate Life

How to Stop the ANTS

Designing a passionate life requires that you recognize and kill the ANTS that invade your life. I was watching public television the other night and Dr. Daniel Amen was giving a talk called "Change Your Mind - Change Your Body". He is a physician and psychiatrist who has done a lot of research on the brain/body connection. It was an absolutely fascinating topic about how our brains are of different types and that once you figure out your brain type, it's easier to loose weight.

Learning From Experiences

Designing a passionate life depends on learning from your experiences. Our lives are a culmination of all of our experiences as well as a series of experiences. The key is to learn from those experiences so you can affect the outcome of new experiences in your life. If you seem to always have similar outcomes to similar experiences, then you are approaching the circumstance with the same mindset and your experience won't change.

Taking Action

Designing a passionate life includes taking action. As you take action towards living a passionate life you will experience different results, some successful some not successful. It's very easy to look at the results of an action and experience disappointment if it didn't turn out the way that you expected it to. Each result that you experience is a stepping stone to the next action. Always remember that the results are none of your business because you cannot control the outcome of the results. I know that sounds strange but let me explain.

Let's look at disappointment. According to Wikipedia; disappointment is the feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations to manifest. Similar to regret, it differs in that the individual feeling regret focuses primarily on the personal choices that contributed to a poor outcome, while the individual feeling disappointment focuses on the outcome itself. It is a source of psychological stress. 

For example, a football team is disappointed because they lost the championship game; or the Olympic Silver medalist who is disappointed because she didn't win the Gold medal. In both examples, these people focused on the failure of the outcome because it didn't meet their expectations, rather than on what they DID accomplish.

When you take action there are unforeseen elements at work that have an effect on the results. You can't control all of these elements and when you focus only on results that don't meet your expectations and then you are disappointed. These results become roadblocks and then you give up and stop taking action. All successful people have failed more times than they have succeeded. They look at the results, regroup and try again. The key is to take action and continue moving forward. Fail as many times as it takes to keep moving forward.

Think about any successful person that you know of, and I would guess that, if you asked them questions or did some research on their journey to success, you would find many failures along the way. One thing shared by most successful people is a passion for what they do.

Results are important in that they teach you what worked and what didn't work and that's all. Learn from your results, adjust and try again, and eventually you will experience more successful results. The secret is to keep trying. What is your next action toward living a passionate life?

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Setting Your 2010 Intention and Theme

Designing a passionate life includes setting an intention and theme for the year. An intention is some form that you can see at the end of the year, or the what. For example, I write a book by the end of 2010; or I find a job that is aligned with my passion and I am surrounded by the people that make it fun and fulfilling; or I am debt free and have $15,000 in savings. The idea behind an intention is to be very clear about what it is you intend to create. After you write your intention, always keep it in a place where you can see it. This enables you to keep focused on that end result. The end result will manifest the method on how to get there.

When you are deciding on your intention, let your mind come up with ideas and then check in with your heart to see if it resonates or not. Is your intention aligned with your passions? How does the intention feel? Do you get excited when you think about it? Does it inspire you? Let it sink in and right now, don't worry about how you are going to get there. Make sure your intention is in synch with your heart.

You also want to set a theme for the year. A theme is the 'how' for the year. It is like background music that is always playing. What do you want playing in the background of your life? The theme is how you want to experience the year and as a result how you want to feel at the end of the year. It's about the journey itself, not the destination. By selecting a theme for the year, you can move towards your intention in a way that feels good to you. It doesn't have to be hard, tough, a lot of work, or draining. Examples of themes may include: I step into my power with Grace, Ease, and Joy; I experience life with ease; I have plenty of time to do everything; or I make connections that enhance my life. Decide on the 'how' for your year.

As you go through the year, keep your attention on your theme and intention. Write them out and post them where you will see them everyday. Setting your intention creates clarity and you will see the opportunities and possibilities because you are clear and you have your attention on your intention.  You will see the steps to take to manifest your intention. Begin the process now and take action when you are inspired.

Create the 2010 of your dreams, live passionately. Sign up for my free PDD report and take that first step.

2009 Completion and 2010 Creation

Designing a passionate life includes acknowledging yourself and what you've completed. By doing this you create space for new things to appear in your life. The end of the year is a perfect time to do this. I have provided a exercise for you to do just that. Use this exercise to acknowledge what you have completed in 2009 and state what you want to create in 2010.
 
2009 Acknowledgement
This exercise serves:

• to remind you of what you've accomplished and created
• to recognize and acknowledge what you have learned
• to re-evaluate the vision of what you desire or want
• to recognize what you can let go of

Enjoy this process. Recognize and acknowledge what you have accomplished. Immerse yourself in the energy of creation and be very clear about what you want to create. This process is a work in progress, as is all of our lives. We're never done. Think big and have fun doing this exercise. Get connected to the energy of your passions.

Part I - Completion 2009
What did you create in 2009? Make a list of what you created in your personal life this year. For each item on your list, answer the following questions.

• What have I accomplished by creating this?
• What energized me or filled me up by creating this?
• What drained my energy?
• What have I learned in this process? (In what ways did I grow from this?)
• What can I let go of? (What am I done with learning and ready to let go of)

Part II - Creation 2010
Ask yourself the following questions for the new year:

• When you imagine having lived a passion filled life at the end of 2010, what is different from your life today?
• List 3 to 5 things that if you create them, will move you towards living a passionate life in 2010.
• List the things you want to complete.

Repeat this process for the following areas of your life:
Business
Spiritual
Physical
Other?

What are you passionate about right now that will propel you forward into the act of creation in the year to come? What are you doing to live a passionate life? Sign up for my free Passion Deficit Disorder (PDD) report and find out what you can do about it.

 

Which Actor or Actress Represents Your Character Traits?

Designing a passionate life includes knowing your values, passions, spirituality, and character traits. My husband recently asked me a question that I found rather intriguing and thought provoking. So of course, I want to pass it onto you. If you are in a romantic relationship, it is a really good question to ask each other.

The Question:
Which three actors/actresses would you pick that have character traits similar to your own and then describe the character traits that you share with that person?
(Of course, we don't really know the actors/actresses but we have a perception of them and we give them character traits from that perception, which we relate to.)

The Answer:
The first person picks three people and explains the character traits that he/she shares with the actor/actress.

Before you do this exercise, I would set some ground rules for sharing this information.

Ground Rules

1. Take turns asking the question
2. When your partner replies, simply listen, give no commentary at all, yes that means say nothing about what they said. Don't turn it into a major discussion.
3. Thank your partner for sharing.

You are both sharing a part of yourself and making yourself vulnerable to the other person and both of you want to be accepted for who you are, so offering commentary or disagreeing with the person's assessment could cause an argument and perhaps even damage to your relationship.

I found that it gave me insights into how my husband sees himself in the world and gave me a new understanding of him in one particular area of his life. It was enlightening. It helped me to see things from his viewpoint and as a result, I'm more understanding. This goes a long way to creating a peaceful relationship.

Designing a passionate life may include romantic relationships for you. Understanding your partner's viewpoint goes a long way to creating the type of relationship you want. Start living passionately, and sign up for my free PDD report now.

 

 

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.

How do You Use Your Time?

Designing a passionate life and creating life balance includes effective use of your time. You only have so much time to work with in a day. You and I both know this to be true, but how often have you really looked at your day and how you spend your time? You use time to live passionately with your family and friends, to earn a living at what you love, to be of service to others, and the list goes on and on. You have so many choices on how to spend your time that it becomes a balancing act to spend your time wisely.

How to Maximize Your Energy

Desigining a passionate life and creating life balance requires that you maximize your energy. You only have so much energy to put into the actions you take in your life. Every decision you make either increase or decrease your energy. This includes the not only the actions you take but also the people in your life.

What Would Love Do?

Designing a passionate life and creating life balance includes love. We all have our definition of love. When I sat down and started to think about it, I noticed that I had quite a range of thoughts about how to define love. The word "love" can be used in a very casual way, such as "I love to eat chocolate" to the love we feel for our partner and family members, and the final type of love that I see is "spiritual love". This broad range of usage and understanding by people makes love hard to define and sometimes grasp the feeling of love.