We all have it. It’s in there- somewhere Our challenge is to journey inward to excavate it. Once we find it, we need to blow off the cobwebs and then proudly live it. It’s important to find our voice and speak our truth about it.
What is it? Why, it’s PASSION, of course.
Webster defines passion as "intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction." We can have passion for ideas, practices, people, our higher power, making money, social injustices…. whatever stirs our soul.
And that’s the key question- what is it that stirs your soul? What gets your creative and "take action" juices flowing? What do you wake up thinking about at night? What makes you jump out of bed in the morning? That is where you find your passion, and in the now famous words of Hillary Clinton‘s riveting victory speech in the New Hampshire primary, find your "voice".
I don’t know about you but I have seen people who said they had passion but you sure couldn’t tell it by how they were acting. There was no spark in their eyes. Just a distant emptiness as they went through the motions. And I have seen people so passionate about they work they are doing, the group they are leading, or a belief they hold that if you stood too close you would get burned from their fervor. Now, that’s the kind of passion that I’m talking about!
As for me, I have a passion for helping people get their acts together in their work, their relationships, their business, with their money, their careers, and perhaps most importantly, with themselves. I love seeing the twinkle jump into a person’s eye when the light bulb goes on and they have unearthed their true passion. And I love helping them create strategies and action plans to ignite their passion in the world.
Passion. It can be quite contagious if we live it, find our voice and speak our truth about it.
"How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people who suffer from these afflictions don’t have a voice to speak?" -Isabel Allende
You are so, so right. I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs over the past few years. The successful ones have one thing in common – passion. You can smell it a mile away. They seem to inspire people without even trying.
Rita,
A wonderful post! Passion really is the key, isn’t it? As Tom Peters says “It begets it”. Therefore, I say “Passion begets passion.” It’s amazing just how contagious it really is!
I’m glad I found your site! It will be very valuable for me!
I’ll leave with a quote from Steve Farber (which I think fits well here): “Love what you do, in the service of those who love what you do.”
I can’t believe I misquoted Steve. My previous comment should read…..”Do what you love, in the service of those who love what you do!”
My apologies!
I am jumping up and down in agreement, Rita. WOO HOO!! Passion is critical – no matter how “big” or “small” you think it is – if it’s there, it makes a HUGE difference…well said. If you don’t love it, why bother!?
Rita, that was great! You are a hugh inspiration to everyone who reads this article. I have a passion to write stories, and I have.They are small short stories, waiting to be perfected . Thank you for the extra boost! T.S.
Love this post! I truly believe passion and conviction make ideas more contagious than any other form of persuasion!
Thanks for the comment, Brad. I agree with your observation about the passion that entrepreneurs can have. And isn’t it sad to meet one who has no passion and is only concerned with the bottom line? You can smell that a mile away, too.
Stop back again, Brad.
– Rita
Hi, Eric. Great quote by Steve Farber. I am a fan of his, too! Thanks for the wonderful reminder of the importance of SERVICE.
– Rita
Ginger, thanks for YOUR support with this post. I can picture you jumping up and down. The Whoo! Whoo! is stellar.
Keep coming back to my blog.
– Rita
Terri, thanks for the blog post. What an honor it is to be called an inspiration. Thank you, thank you! And, please, keep writing. The world needs to hear your stories!
– Rita
Elizabeth, thanks for your support and your comment. It is great to have you as a fan of my blog posts.
– Rita