Passion

A guest posting by Jimmie Perry.

We’ve all had periods in our lives when we are wondering how we would develop a sense of direction.  How exactly, or when exactly, we would develop that thing called passion that everyone was talking about?  Well, passion is something that we should all develop; we must understand this.  Very few people are born knowing what exactly it is that they will be doing for most of their lives.  Heck, many people don’t even know what exactly they want to do.  That is because passion isn’t something that one is born with.  Passion is something that is developed with time, experience, and commitment.  The method for finding your passion in life can be found by reviewing the life of one of America’s founding fathers, Good Ole Ben Frank.

We are not born with a passion

For starters, passion is not something that anyone is simply born with.  We don’t just come out of the womb and know exactly what we want to do for the rest of our life; it takes time.  Passion comes from a love for doing a certain activity.  A love, or hunger if you will, that stays with us for an indefinite amount of time.  Acquiring passion in any one area requires that we are presented with a desire to solve or understand a problem.

Passion comes from a desire

Most people do not know this about Benjamin Franklin, but he was extremely passionate about putting out fires.  He saw that the fires that were flaring up in his city of New York were causing a serious problem and he sought to find a way to reduce the damage that they caused.  Do you think that the passion to put out fires was something that Ben was born with?  There is no way that he could’ve known about fires at the time of his birth.  His passion for fires was something that he developed as he gained experience with them.  He saw that they were causing massive amounts of people to get injured.  He noticed that the fires weren’t being put out efficiently and that the fire squadrons played a big part in that inefficiency; there essentially was no system.  The issue that arose with fires gave Ben something to focus his energy on which in turn resulted in an insatiable hunger within him.  In short, one of the key parts of finding a passion is finding something that fulfills your desire to solve a problem.

Experience is key

It wouldn’t have been at all possible for Ben to solve the problem if he hadn’t been present when the fires were taking place; he lived in New York and was seeing the damage that the fires were causing.  Again, if he hadn’t been present when the fires were happening, he probably wouldn’t have had the desire that he had to solve the epidemic.  He wasn’t born simply thinking of new ways to make fires more of a rarity or thinking of new ways to make individuals safer; he had to see the fires for himself even to begin thinking of new ways to improve the human condition in that way.  The same goes for all of us; we must go out (or stay in) and experience the things that happen in this world.  We must see all the possibilities (or at least a great many of them) and once we do this we will gain a bit of insight into the things that give us our drive; the things that make us whole, if you will.  We don’t have to explore the world in a physical way.  The world has become increasingly digital in the past few decades and there are now multiple things that can be done in the digital world.  One never knows, you may find comfort in this space as well as your passion.

Cross things off your “Passion List”

A side effect of exploration is that it becomes possible to gain an understanding of the things that we dislike doing.  Our understanding of our dislikes can be leveraged in our quest to find our passions; as you cross things off of the list of your possible passion, you get one step closer to finding the thing(s) that you love and want to do.

Consistently pursue that passion

Remember that neither Rome nor Benjamin’s method for stopping fires developed in a day.  To be honest, Benjamin didn’t even make any major headway in his fire prevention system for a year.  Neither will the thing that is considered your passion be built in a short space of time.  It will require a decent length of time before compound interest begins to show that you are making any real headway into your project; while you are in the process, you may not even notice the progress that is being made.  The point is that once you find that passion, you should relentlessly pursue it.  Don’t allow any lack of progress or apparent failure to stop you from moving.

In short, passion comes, but it’s a process

Passion is something that we can all develop, but it requires a great deal of both patience and exploration before it is ever really found.  This point must be reiterated because so many have trouble understanding it.  Our passions are things with which we become infatuated.  They are problems that we can’t help but put forth countless hours and energy towards solving; they move us.  You will not know exactly what it is that you want to do right out of the gate.  None of us knows what it is that we want to do right away, without any thought or preparation.  If we did, think about how dull life would be; we would literally know what the future held for us.

With that being said, the key to finding our passions in life amounts to these three things:

• Experience: Go out and explore (or stay in and explore)
• Reduce: Reduce the number of things that you like doing to a select few
• Be consistent: Once you find your drive, pursue it relentlessly

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Jimmie Perry is the owner of JimmiePerry.blog and an avid trader.  In his free time, he enjoys writing about the experiences that he has had, and trading.  He is also currently working on his degree in Business Administration from Madonna University.