4 Truths Found in Fighting for Passion Passion gets you excited, keeps you curious and helps you produce your best work.
By Adam Kirk Smith Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The reason that so many people miss out on living life with a deep passion is that they only focus on finding it in their careers. But the problem with this mentality is that every area of life impacts another. Passion then isn't only for your work, but passion is a way of life. This being said, please stop using passion as a thoughtless buzzword, because it deserves much more heartfelt attention than that. You need passion more than you could ever imagine, as it is the very thing that will drive you to find success with your huge ideas.
Let's say that you started a business 10 years ago and have lost a passion for what you are doing. I have met entrepreneurs in the tech industry, in the restaurant industry, in the footwear and apparel industry, in finance and so many other industries, who once had a passion for what they were doing, but are now living life without the passion that they once knew. On the other hand, I have also met individuals who have found their passion once again, and can actually voice that this is the reason they are finding success. When the first person told me that this was their difference maker, I didn't pay attention to it, but after hearing the thirtieth person say that passion was their reason for success, I started taking notice. There had to be something to this fact, and I began connecting the dots between passion and success.
As a life coach, I help people find their passion for life and business, so this discovery was very helpful with my work. I would go as far as to say that passion is the key to life, but maybe you're missing it at this moment. But the good news is that even if you don't currently have a passion for life, you can choose to fight for it.
Here are four truths found in fighting for passion:
1. When outside circumstances try to negatively influence your perception, you can still fight for passion. Allowing negativity to be an influence is the number one cause for a lack of passion. When someone doesn't have passion for life as a whole, anything and everything can sway their level of passion. When business is terrible and numbers are down for these individuals, passion declines, but the good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. The odds are in your favor when passion fills your entire being, because it will change the way you see the world. When something is bad, you can use your newfound passion as a driver to produce better work. Passion is always a choice, but it does require a perception shift for passion to take flight.
Related: 7 Tips for Loving Your Career and Working With Passion
You will have times in life where things don't go as planned. Plans are great to have, but very rarely do they go exactly as you think they will. This means that sometimes things will go terribly bad, and sometimes, things will go way better than you could have ever imagined. So no, plans hardly ever go exactly as planned, but you can always hope for better than expected. Expect difficult, but hope for amazing. A shoot for the stars and land on the moon mentality, if you will. However, having this type of mentality is only possible when you live life with passion, because it is passion that produces hope for a brighter outcome. Passion takes you farther than you could ever dream, because it is passion that keeps you working harder, it is passion that helps you persevere, and it is having a passion for life that keeps you curious. Fighting for passion is important, because it is passion that puts all of these things in motion. You need passion to keep going strong.
2. Fight for passion because it will better your internal and external health. This is true because passion is tied to our emotions. While it is important to change our perception of external circumstances, it is also important to live in complete internal health, too. If you are so engulfed in your work that your health doesn't matter, then it is time to reassess your priorities. It is much easier to be passionate about life when you are completely healthy and whole. Health is the most important thing you have -- even more important than your business. If you aren't well, or alive for that matter, then you won't ever be able to enjoy the empire you have built. When you fight for better health, you can then passionately look for opportunities to take care of others along the way.
Related: Path to Success: 4 Ways to Reignite Your Passion
3. To fight for passion you must see that your mission is bigger than yourself. In 2005, Simon Sinek found himself with a lack of passion for what he was doing. Just waking up and going to work required all the energy he had, but the discovery of his why restored his passion. So, what is your why? It's knowing why you do what you do, it's knowing that life is about other people, and it's knowing that you were put on this earth for a reason. If you don't know your why yet, it's time to fight for it.
Making money is great and all, but there has to more to life than the Benjamins. When people come to me who have lost their passion, it is usually due to one's selfishness. However, you can switch from only thinking about yourself to thinking about others when you realize that your mission in life is to impact other people. That's what produces passion, and that's what leadership and living a better life is all about. This means that you don't have to go and start a different business in order to experience passion once again, but you can be passionate about your current work, because there are people anywhere and everywhere who need you.
Related: 6 Prerequisites for Turning Your Passion Into Profits
4, Fighting for passion doesn't mean that you need to yell from the rooftops, but rather, it is an internal drive to succeed. Most people stop pursuing passion because of their preconceived idea of what passion is. It doesn't mean that you need to yell at the top of your lungs with excitement all day, every day. In fact, that's called being crazy, not passionate. According to Merriam-Webster, passion is a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. Of course, everyone expresses passion in different ways, but sometimes the mental picture of what passion looks like can deter people from ever wanting people to pursue it. Passion is and always will be the force that pushes you forward to find success -- nothing more, nothing less.
Passion gets you excited, keeps you curious and helps you produce your best work. Passion is your best answer to do more in life. What are you waiting for? Go fight for passion, today.
