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Episode 420 – How to find your passion

• This week was a week of some major insights for me
• Maybe because I was traveling
  • Anytime we change scenery
  • When we come out of our routine
  • See a new place
  • Surround ourselves with new people
• That is when new ideas and insights come in
• At least that is what I experience
• I can tell because I am always deeply inspired on my return
• I sit in the plane – upset when there is no power outlet because I just want to write and write and write
• Even when I just spend a day on the beach or the mountains
• Or I go somewhere with a friend for a few hours
• Anything that is not part of my routine is refreshing and I cannot recommend it enough
• I love my routine – don’t get me wrong
• But once in a while its good to get out and experience some change
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• I love travelling as much as I love getting back into my routine
• When I leave on a trip – I am always both worried and excited
  • Excited for the adventure
  • Worried about falling out of my routines – diet, exercise, sleep schedule etc
• The same happens when I return home
  • I am excited to get back into my routine
  • My gym, my home-prepped meals, my own bed, my friends, etc
  • But at the same time I am dreading the predictable routine and I will miss the excitement that’s combined with new adventures
• There is fun in both but getting away from the routine has so many other positive side effects
• And the biggest one is the inner growth that happens when we widen our perspective through new experiences
• Which made me think about our passions
• I know so often we struggle coming up with what they are
• I remember when I was younger people often asking me what I am passionate about
• Especially when it was time to choose a career
  • And I never had an answer
  • I didn’t have any special talents or activities I was engaged in like so many of my friends who played sports, or instruments or were artistic in some way
• And hence I often thought I wasn’t destined to do anything great in this world, because otherwise I would have already discovered it
• Even now, halfway through my life, the question still comes up
• And it bugs me just the same
• Social media, even entire books are full of reminders to find my passion
• As if I had lost it somewhere on the side of the road
• Does it create the same pressure for you as it does for me?
• If it does, lets put it to rest today
• Whether you are still in high school trying to figure out what to do with your life
• Or unhappy in your 20 year career and trying to figure out whats next
• Our passion is not locked up in a little box to which you need to find a key
• And once you find it you will enter eternal bliss
• Its not ONE thing that once discovered, will bring you happiness, money and make all your dreams come true
• Instead – our passions are discovered over the course of our life
• They are the result of experimentation and an engagement with the world around us
• This is major – and yet – I didn’t know this
• I learned this only within the last 2-3 years
• Crazy I know
• Finding my passion seemed like a chore, a task, something I needed to do but nobody could tell me how
• I thought maybe my passion would find me one day and if it didn’t, oh well, I guess I missed it
• I discovered several passions just last year
• If you have listened to my podcast for a while, I know you know them
• That’s the thing about discovering our passion – once we do, we cannot hold back
• They bring so much joy into our life that they change us
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• I talked a lot about my new passion called mountain climbing which I discovered simply by trying it out one day
• One time – and I was hooked on something that had never crossed my mind in my entire life
• And by discovering something completely new, I discovered other passions,
• One of them – my love for nature
• That one was not so new
• As a child I spent many hours out in nature by myself, because when I grew up I always lived in isolated areas
• Again – by engaging with a new activity – I brought to life passions that I didn’t know I had and passions I had forgotten about
• So let me repeat it
• Our passions are the result of experimentation and an engagement with the world around us
• My love for traveling comes from travelling
• And it is refueled by travelling
• My passion for speaking came by taking a big bold step and starting my podcast
• I never liked my voice very much
• And now I hear constantly that my voice is very special
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• Maybe I didn’t engage enough with the world when I was younger
• Maybe I didn’t try out enough activities
• Maybe I just was risk adverse
• I don’t know what took me so long – but what matters is that I now know how to discover my passions
• And I strongly believe there are more I don’t even know about because I haven’t explored them
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• So if you feel that you don’t have anything in life that you consider a passion,
• or maybe you are unsure whether you just acting childish by dreaming about something you haven’t done since you were a child
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• Now you know what to do
• Engage with life
• Experiment
• Explore and discover and get to know your world
• And by reaching out, you learn more about yourself
• Follow where your heart leads you
• There are reasons certain things grab our attention
  • Invitations from people
  • Blog posts and books we enjoy reading
  • Skills we are interested in learning
• Follow the trail and see where it leads
• And sometimes, its as easy as doing something different from our normal day-to-day routine
  • catching fresh air
  • changing the scenery
  • and suddenly inspiration hits us and gives us ideas
• For me- it works every single time
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• Our passions are not always related to our profession
  • they can turn into it but don’t have to
• so if you are unhappy in your job and you keep switching careers in hopes to finally find something that makes you happy – don’t despair
• dont put the pressure on yourself that your passion needs to generate an income
• instead – search outside of your job
• do your job as best as you can and then dedicate your free time to pursuing what makes you happy
• we spend about 1/4^th of our week at work
• we sleep another 1/4^th
• that leaves us with 50% of free time to enjoy and do what we love
• start there
• that’s where I started
• I turned empty time such as TV watching and useless internet browsing into fulfilled time
• I explored
• I took a couple of chances going to events where I didn’t know anyone
• I tried out a few new things
• And I didn’t need to search for long
• Podcasting found me pretty quickly and with it came a lot of other discoveries
• Now – my free time is filled to the brim with things that bring me joy and now the challenge is prioritizing between them
• sadly – we spend a lot of our free time not really pursuing anything worthwhile
• we sit around without purpose
  • in bars, in front of screens or food, with people and in conversations that don’t take us to the next level
• if you want to find your passions, you have to a bit more become selfish
• you need to take charge of your time and go after your interests
• at least in the beginning
• I had to decline a lot of happy hour and dinner invitations with people that I really enjoy
• But I had to so to pursue my passions
• Discovering our passions takes time and often sacrifice
• That is why many people never find them
• Because they are not willing to put the time in
• Exploring takes time
• I spoke about doing the hard work in my last episode
• I only do the hard work when I am passionate about something
• Our Passions gradually develop over time
• We don’t follow our passion – it follows us once we discover it because we want to keep doing it
  • Photography
  • Improv and Acting
  • Playing a sport
• What are your passions?
• What lights you up?
• Go in that direction
• Explore
• And when you feel the flame burning stronger, cultivate your passion
• Turn it into something more
• A weekly routine
• Maybe even a daily one
• Perfect it by taking a course, becoming certified, then teach others
• And maybe even make it a source of income
• You never know
• The difference between a quick but fleeting excitement and a deep passion is that you want to keep going after it, despite the hard work and sacrifices
• And by doing so, many people have turned whimsical ideas into profitable businesses that create an impact in other peoples lives
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• Simply because they felt so strongly about them
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• Don’t settle with just distraction after a long day of work
• Your phone, the TV, video games
• Go and explore this work
• Engage with life
• Discover what not only brings you joy, but don’t settle there there either
• Look for meaning
• Look for fulfillment
• And look to make an impact on others

Ending with advice from EG:

“If you’ve lost your life’s true passion (or if you’re struggling desperately to find passion in the first place), don’t sweat it. Back off for a while. But don’t go idle, either. Just try something different, something you don’t care about so much. Why not try following mere curiosity, with its humble, roundabout magic? At the very least, it will keep you pleasantly distracted while life sorts itself out. At the very most, your curiosity may surprise you. Before you even realize what’s happening, it may have led you safely all the way home.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

Much love