Your Passion Path...3 things to remember as you go

You don't choose your passion, your passions choose you.

All of us are gifted with certain passions, and the people who are lucky are the ones who get to follow those things.

- Jeff Bezos.

What the heaven is passion?

Google says passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion.

Kunle says passion is whatever you do from your heart with all your heart.

Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos says you don't choose your passion, it chooses you.

The first problem most people have with this passion is that; they tend to mix it up with things they enjoy. There is a world of difference between what you're passionate about and what you enjoy.

For example, I run 5KM every single day for 66 days in a row. I've done that once a year for a couple of years now. Based on that, some may say "Kunle, you're passionate about running."

No. I'm not.

I enjoy running.

Usain Bolt. That's a passionate runner.

Here are the 3 things to remember

#1 Your Passion is something you do

There is not a shortage of material out there about how to find your passion, how to discover your passion etc. I have "news" for you.

Your passion is something you DO from your heart with all your heart.

Don't be deceived, you won't discover your passion on your couch. Action is required.

#2 Follow your path

To follow your passion, you need to know what it is. Right?

Wrong!

Your passion is not something that exists without your cooperation.

You only need to pay a little bit of attention and follow what shows up.

Usain Bolt found his passion by following a bowl of rice and chicken in Jamaica!

Usain had lost a race to a competitor in his school. One teacher told him "if you can win him next time, lunch is on me." Lunch was rice, peas and fried chicken. He ran, he won. He got his rice and chicken, and the world got Usain Bolt.

#3 You have to figure it out

This is the tricky part. If nobody offers you and I rice and chicken, are we doomed?

Kind of. Your passion is 100% your responsibility. My passion is 100% my responsibility.

Its like a treasure that you have inside you, and all you need to do some exploration, do some digging. What you find will show up in its raw form (like natural resources i.e. gold, diamonds, crude oil), then you start another process of refining it, before you can give it to the waiting world. You know what, we'll snap it up like hotcakes.....only after you've refined it!

The question then is: How do you figure out your passion?

It's not rocket science.

3 step exercise

1. Write 5 things you enjoy doing and another set of 5 things you love doing that add value to people. P.S. Things like eating, sleeping etc won't count, because they don't add value to others.

2. From the list of 10 above, pick the top 3. You can make this choice easily by a process of elimination. Do not kid yourself :-) P.S. Which of them have you done at least twice weekly in the last 6 weeks. Delete others

3. From the top 3, choose the one with the highest amount of occurrences in your schedule. Take time out, to go and do it on a higher level. i.e. go with the pros P.S. You'll discover if you really want to go the extra mile, or you're happy as you are

My Passion for skiing

Recently, my family and I visited Switzerland. I'd always enjoy watching people on TV glide gracefully down the white heavenly mountains of snow. When we got to the mountains in real life, it was 20 times more magnificent than I had imagined. I immediately started thinking about taking skiing lessons, for my daughter and myself. As I "questioned" my friend who is casual skier, he told me about how you have to get up early in the morning, book at least a full day, pack your skis, drive to certain locations, target "good weather" .....almost an endless list of what needs to be in place for you to enjoy a ski day.

For me, that's asking for too much.....especially when you consider that all the equipment I need for my favorite sport are a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and running shoes. All the weather I need is "all weather", and all the time I need is half an hour, anytime, anywhere...no reservations needed.

I decided (more a discovery than a decision) that skiing is not my "passion" :-)

One good thing to not do as far as passion is concerned is "do not kid yourself".

In conclusion

Your passion is whatever you do from your heart with all your heart. The keyword is DO. It's your responsibility to find it, refine it, and present it to the world that's waiting for you to Explode Your Passion.