Follow your passion to inject purpose into your life! If you do things you’re passionate about, you’ll live a full life without any regrets!
The message permeates our society, but nobody ever tells you what it means.
What is passion, and how do you know when you’ve found it?
What is Passion?
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Passion is desire, drive, and dedication all rolled into one. It’s an intense calling to do something, regardless of how hard it might be.
When you’re passionate about something, it burns inside you, driving you to accomplish it.
Defining Passion
The dictionary features many definitions of passion. It’s an emotional outburst bereft of logic, devotion, desire, and attraction.
Passion could also represent fits of rage or romantic desire and lust. Any intense feeling could be described as passion, but we’re going to focus on the definition linking passion to a strong desire for or devotion to some activity or concept.
Passion is an intense love of an activity or idea. It’s an interest that fills your heart with joy, that you pursue in your free time, or that you dedicate your life to achieving.
What Does Passion Feel Like?
The intensity described in dictionaries gave people an unrealistic view of what passion feels like. It might feel that way for some, like a desperate longing they can’t escape or an itch that’s never satisfied no matter how much they scratch – but it doesn’t feel like that for everyone.
It feels different for different people, a truth that makes the idea harder for some of us to define.
Passion may feel like longing or desire, but it also might feel like freedom and hope. It might feel like contentment or peace. Sometimes it’s like a need, a strong desire to do something you can’t escape no matter how hard you try, sometimes it’s more like a relief from stress.
There’s no right or wrong way to feel passion.
How To Tell When You’ve Found Your Passion
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The wide range of emotions experienced when pursuing a passion makes it difficult for some folks to tell whether they’ve found theirs.
Here are some of the top ways to tell if you’ve found your passion:
- You’ve found something you feel compelled to do deep inside
- You feel agitated when you can’t do it
- It’s been years, and you still want to do it every day
- You would pay to do it – in fact, you sometimes do
- You’d love to do it for a living
- You live and breath it
- You know everything about it
- You crave opportunities to learn more about it
- You want to share it with the world
- Your life revolves around it
- It makes you feel whole
Everyone won’t experience all those feelings, but if you feel some of them, you’ve probably found something you’re passionate about.
You Can Have Multiple Passions
When you’re searching for that thing that drives you, nobody tells you that you can have multiple passions.
But you can.
The hints that you’ve found your passion could apply to multiple areas of your life. You could be passionate about learning, the environment, your family, and a beloved hobby.
Don’t let the idea that your passion is just this one single thing. You could have many passions. Open yourself to exploring them all.
I Don’t Feel Passion
Most people have a passion, they just haven’t found it yet. Check out our resource for what to do when you don’t feel passionate about anything. We offer tips for overcoming that feeling and finding your way.
If nothing sparks your interest and you feel no passion, it might be time to seek professional help. Mental illnesses such as depression can suck all the joy out of life. A therapist can help you identify and overcome the issues preventing you from finding happiness.
Passion Lies in All of Us
“Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping… waiting… and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir… open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us… guides us. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love… the clarity of hatred… the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we’d know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we’d be truly dead.” – Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Everyone is passionate about something, whether you know it yet or not. One of life’s greatest joys lies in discovering it.
If you haven’t found yours yet, don’t despair. We can help.
As a certified life coach, I’ve developed a comprehensive guide to helping people discover their passions. It’s loaded with over 50 pages of journal questions, worksheets, mind maps, and action plans to help you uncover the things you love.
You won’t have to ask “what is passion” once you’ve found yours!
What is Passion? It’s Life!
Passion drives us. It gives our lives meaning. It’s a spark igniting our lives, giving us hope, and making us feel alive.
Our passions make us feel, make us human. We need them to thrive and sometimes even to survive.
As Angel says, “Without passion, we’d truly be dead.”