Passion comes from everything that you’ve experienced since you existed.
It’s your home base of emotional power.
Passion is your underground power source.
To get what you want in life requires sustainable energy.
You can get this energy by focusing on what you are passionate about — whatever makes life worthwhile to you, what gives it zest.
Your dreams for the future come from your passion.
Getting what you want is tapping into this renewable power source.
It’s not about creating a different you.
It’s about being more of the person you were meant to be.
You can channel your passion to power your quest to achieve your dreams.
So, why exploit your passion?
The word “exploit” means to utilize something for a productive purpose.
Unfortunately, the word has inherited negative connotations.
For our purposes, however, to exploit your passion is a very good thing.
In essence, you mine the raw material of your passion.
Then you refine it, creating the rocket-fuel to power your quest.
The following questions will help you drill down to this power source within yourself.
It will become the fuel for achievement of your dreams.
When you power your dreams with passion you are ready to reactivate and renew yourself, which is the beginning of achievement.
The following questions will help you extract this valuable commodity.
Some of the questions will seem to be asking the same thing.
This is intentional, to help you dig deep enough to reach the truth.
1. What is important to me?
You’ve had a portion of your lifetime to figure this out, but your answers can change over time.
What is important to you at this time of your life?
Go ahead and write it down, either in list form, brief description, or any way you wish.
2. What makes life truly worthwhile to me?
This is similar to the first question, but with a slight difference.
Answer as simply as you can.
3. What was I most passionate about when I was a child?
The purpose of this question is to help you extract things that you may have forgotten, that still have meaning for you as an adult. What were you most passionate about when you were very young?
4. What am I passionate about now?
List everything that fires my passion or helps define it.
You may come up with the same answers as question one and two, but go ahead and answer anyway.
You need to keep drilling down to what you are really passionate about.
These questions are designed to help you do just that.
5. If those who know and respect me were to give a eulogy at my funeral, what would they say was my passion?
Sometimes we need other people to help us realize things about ourselves.
They see us in a different way, from the outside.
You don’t want others to define your passion, but it can be useful to know what they think.
The purpose of this question is to further help you flesh out your true passion and things you may have missed in the first four questions.
6. If I listed many things that I was passionate about, which ones am I most passionate about?
When answering these questions, don’t worry about perfection.
Just go ahead and do your best.
You may change your answers later if needed.
You are continuing the process of identifying what you are most passionate about.
7. How would I define my passion in one sentence?
You may have to write more than one sentence as you work this one out.
So begin defining your passion in as many words as needed.
Then cull it down to one sentence as best you can.
Try to make it as specific and crystal clear as possible.
Let’s Summarize
Exploit your passion.
Passion is something you feel.
It’s what makes you feel more alive.
Don’t try to analyze it too much.
As long as it is not a passion for something immoral or illegal, accept the fact that you have passion for something.
That is your beginning point.
Your now at the starting line for your future achievement and happiness.
Here’s a next step….
If you need help in your quest to rediscover your true self, you might find a previous Medium post useful. Here’s the link…
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How can you accelerate your passion, purpose, and talents? That’s our focus.
Ken West is the author of Get What You Want (later republished as Achieve Your Purpose) which presents a process of self-discovery and achievement.
