Counseling Passion and Life Components
September 17, 2017Strike A Balance
January 19, 2018Passion is any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. It is a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything in your life. Passion can be constant once you recognize its’ presence and decide to access its’ power.
Gregg Levoy talks about passion as being a life skill. I understand his premise yet struggle with the idea that it is a skill. Passion, in my opinion, is an internal emotion that, when used effectively, can enhance our life skill and assist us in our success. The life skill is in being effective in using our passion to move toward that “thing” we find desirable. Here are 3 items needed to assist passion:
- Evaluation – what is it that you want to accomplish with your passion. What is the best version of yourself that you will listen to so that you can appraise your situation in order to take the best action possible.
- Action – there must be a process of “doing something”. You can be as full of passion as possible yet without acting on that emotion nothing will happen. There is always a result from action so make sure that what you choose to do leads you to where you want to go.
- Consistency – this provides us with harmony, regularity, and steady continuity. This allows us to gain confidence as we pursue our passions. The rule of consistency is basic human nature. Life is complicated, and humans want past behavior to match current behavior. It feels reasonable to us and is quicker for us. By sticking with what we know, we can utilize our passion in unique and individualized ways, as more of our energy can go to that action.
If this sounds circular, it is! As passionate people we evaluate a situation, take action, be consistent, increase passion, evaluate, take action, be consistent – on and on and on and on! Passion grows as success happens. The “circle cycle” gets stronger!
“As far as I know there’s never been a one-size-fits-all user’s manual written for life. – Steve L. Vernon
