Passion Paralysis
We must act
out passion before we can feel it.
Jean-Paul Sartre
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Are you trying to figure out what you
are passionate about? The effort to “find your passion”
is a common theme in success literature. Again and again,
you will read and hear that passion is the key to greatness.
And so people much spend much time and effort trying to identify
their passions.
Nothing great
in the world has been accomplished without passion.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
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No doubt, there is a direct connection
between passion and action. The question is: What do you do
if you don’t feel passionate about any particular course
of action?
The reason I ask the question is that
I have met many people who are waiting to discover their passion
before they move on in their lives. I have also experienced
the same kind of stuckness in my own life.
You have heard of “analysis paralysis.”
That is when you spend so much time analyzing that you never
get around to acting. There is another type of paralysis.
This is “passion paralysis.” In the state of passion
paralysis, you have to figure out what you are passionate
about before you make the big choices in your life.
Passion is
energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what
excites you.
Oprah Winfrey
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What if the reason people get stuck in
passion paralysis is because we have the order mixed up? Several
years ago, I identified what I have labeled—tongue in
cheek—“Kalinda’s First Law of the Universe.”
This Law states: “If you are stuck, you are making an
assumption that is keeping you stuck.”
What if the assumption that keeps so
many people stuck in passion paralysis is that they assume
that they have to feel passionate before they take action.
What if we have it backwards? What if passion is a response
to action, rather than the impetus to action?
Passion is
the genesis of genius.
Anthony Robbins
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What if you can’t discover your
passion the way you would discover a $20 bill on the sidewalk.
What if passion must be created by action?
The word “passion” was originally
derived from the Latin word for “suffering.” The
Mel Gibson movie, “The Passion of the Christ”
refers to this original meaning. The root of the word “passion”
is also related to “patient.” People who seek
out medical care are called “patients” because
they are suffering in some way. And as we all learn in doctors’
waiting rooms, patients have to learn to wait.
Even though this root meaning is not
what most of us think about when we use the word “passionate,”
there is something insightful about recognizing the original
meaning of the word. Passion takes time. It involves patience,
and even suffering.
When I think of my own writing projects
from short papers, articles, books, and even these newsletter
articles, I find that my passion for the project increases
the longer I work on the topic. In other words, the more I
act on the project, the more I care about it.
Nothing is
as important as passion. No matter what you want to
do with your life, be passionate.
Jon Bon Jovi
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I suspect that the great passionate doers
of the world became more passionate as they acted. Their passion
came as a direct result of action, rather than the other way
around. When you think about it, can you really feel passionate
about anything before you become involved with it? I also
suspect that you can become passionate about almost anything,
as long as you put your full effort into it.
And so, if you are suspended in a kind
of limbo, waiting to discover your passion so that you will
know what you want to do, I urge you to act first and feel
later. You might find that you become more passionate as you
act. And if you discover that you really have no passion for
what you are doing, you can choose another course of action.
In either case, acting first and feeling later will spare
you from the terrible state of passion paralysis while you
are waiting to “find your passion.”
For Your Abundant Success,
Kalinda Rose Stevenson
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