What's your passion?

The other day, in the midst of a casual conversation, a dear friend asked me, "What's your passion, Priya?".  I was about to rattle of my favorite pastimes which I typically liked indulging in but then I held myself back.

My train of thoughts suddenly found a new turn. 

I have a variety of interests in my life, be it traveling to unknown places, reading, writing, philanthropy (contributing to society), marketing and communication. I love doing all these but can I call any one of these my passion. As I tried to mull over this question...a faint 'NO' echoed in my head.

 The dictionary defines "Passion" as a powerful emotion or boundless enthusiasm for a particular thing or person.

By that definition, none of the above interests could qualify as my passion. 

Why? Because, honestly I have not done enough and that too consistently to engage deeply in any of my interests as per the dictionary meaning to qualify them as my 'Passion'

So when I asked myself again the same question, I heard a a big and resounding 'NO' this time.

There was suddenly a feeling of heaviness which started weighing on my head.  I was feeling dreadful for not being able to answer such a easy question. I realized that I truly didn't have a passion for a single interest though I liked to believe I had many.

Later that night, I kept thinking about that innocuous question and then I asked myself again, 'Priya, what really is your passion in life?' 'And are you doing enough to call it your passion?' For all the interests I mentioned earlier, I may have my moments of passion when I chase or follow or indulge in the activity with single-minded purpose. But at the end of it, its just a phase. This is what I have come to realise. Once I achieve a certain level of engagement, I move on to my next interest. This lapse or movement from one interest to another, whether it happens because of boredom or a feeling of wanting to do something new or wanting to do many other things at the same time, I am not sure. But it surely happens.

In a nutshell, I was becoming Jack of all trades but Master of none. (Calling myself Jack would also be inappropriate and pompous)

If one is passionate about a certain interest, object, hobby or anything, one definitely needs to have dedication, sincerity, discipline and complete engagement in it.  Its about being unreasonable with yourself in order to achieve it. No compromises and no excuses!

And that quality, my friends, separates the wheat from the chaff.

I looked around myself, and also thought about all the successful people (my idols) who make/who have made it to the newspaper headlines for the right reasons. The one thing which made these successful people what they are was that they have this boundless and unbridled enthusiasm and unwavering discipline for their passions. Their love for what they do is so immense that the lines between what they call passion and their work completely blur. Both collapse together becoming an integral part of their life and what my friends, we can  truly call as passion.

We see this quality in only few people on the face of the earth and that's why they create History and become part of  our History books and we remain mere passive readers of these books.

So the next question to me is, does that make me a confirmed invalid as regards being considered passionate goes or is their hope for people like me too.

The answer which came back to me was nothing new which I (we) didn't know already. But it was just a question of application of these traits which I or we may have all present within us but we don't want to practice it or because we don't want to extend and stretch beyond our comfort zones. We excuse ourselves, we justify our lack of discipline or we are too kind (read lazy)towards ourselves. That indeed is what separates the truly passionate people and those like me who I would like to call as mediocre.

I believe, to be passionate or have an unwavering passion one needs to have or be is :

P - Purposeful or Focused

A - Action oriented

S - Sense of Discipline

S - Strong willed

I - Involved

O - Original or creative

 

N -Not afraid to take risks or experiment

So simple and absolutely nothing new, right but why is it so difficult to implement then??

Having said all of the above, I did a self evaluation exercise. I measured all my interests on the above parameters. It provided me a good perspective of what interests could be focused on and developed into passion.

Right now, all I can say is that I don't carry the feeling of heaviness anymore and what I can see is a clear path to achieve the state of being passionate.

Next time you meet me and ask  'Priya, whats your passion in life?' please don't be surprised if I have a ready answer, said with great belief, conviction and passion.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit - Aristotle

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aristotle145967.html#hcjbrgJRBwOclr0l.99

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aristotle145967.html#hcjbrgJRBwOclr0l.99