Identify Your (professional) Passion

Before we look at the steps involved with identifying your professional passion, first let’s review the question ‘what is a passion’.

What Is Your Passion?

The answer might seem quite obvious, but a passion is something you are passionate about, enjoy doing, something would do even if you were not paid to do it. Another way to look at this is to consider you are a multi-millionaire, you don’t need to work, what would you do? Think about your childhood dreams. Some people distinguish personal, social and professional passion… I don’t know if there is really a difference. There are very few personal passions that can’t become professional passions (something that can be a living). I have many friends who have even make a fulfilling living from taking on a social passion.

Passion for Money vs. Your Passion

I often find when talking to people that their ‘passion’ is biased towards what they feel is going to make them the most money, or their passion is displaced by parental or peer pressure in favor of the career or profession that leads to money and stability. Their choice of passion is dictated by what they can do to make big money. Real Estate is one of those areas. A lot of people get into Real Estate not because it’s their passion, but simply because they believe it will be the best way to make money. While this may lead to financial success, many of these individuals live with feelings of regret and that feeling of ‘life is meaningless’.

I personally choose to distinguish passion and wealth creation from investment opportunities such as precious metals, shares, real estate. Saying this, there are some individuals who are both passionate and gifted about these investment vehicles. They sleep, breath and often teach the subject to others.

Passion & Sustenance

It is possible to work on your passion while ensuring you have adequate sustenance to take care of your day to day needs. However, at some point, you will have to take a leap of faith, quite possibly step out of your comfort zone, your security and dive into your passion. What I don’t recommend is you work on your passion under financial duress. There are some people who have been able to endure this, I can certainly relate, but the stress can damaging.

Stress & B.S. Will Diminish Your Passion

One of my mentors told me, ‘take care of the basics’, focus on creating a financial base first, enough that your basic needs are taken care of and you are not stressing for money each and every month. Stress is the enemy of passion.  Another area that seems to kill people’s passion is the daily B.S. (bullshit ) tasks that have to be done to turn the passion into prosperity. I refer to this as the business of your passion. This is where it is important to embrace delegation and outsourcing. Don’t spend your valuable time on task you can outsource to others that you don’t enjoy.

Can Your Job/What You Are Doing Become Your Passion?

Recently someone asked me this question, to be honest I had never thought of it before. My answer surprised me and the audience. “I think your passion can be like a marriage. Sometimes it is like an arranged marriage, you get married because it seems like a good fit, and you learn to like each other, and some even fall in love, and become passionate about each other. So yes, I guess you can become passionate about something. However, the reverse is also true. You find someone you ‘think’ you are passionate about, you fall in love, get married… and then the passion and love disappears.”

Passion, Purpose, Path (Your Dharma & Your Gift)

Depending on who you are talk to, which Guru you are listening to, your passion may or may not be the same as your ‘Gift’ or ‘Dharma’.

We can look at that philosophical discussion another time, for now let’s look at the key steps to identifying your passion.

STEPS TO IDENTIFY YOUR PASSION

One of the ways I help people identify their passion is described below:

Step 1: List Your Passions: Make a list of all the ‘passions’ you think you might have.

i.e.: author, speaker, actor, dancer, musician, executive in fortune 500 company, working with children, etc

Step 2: Prioritize Your Passions: List them in order of preference. Use the compare first to second, to third method.

Step 3: Evaluate Your Passion: Evaluate the first passion on your list, make a decision if this is something you REALLY want to do. Consider the pros and cons. You can pass and evaluate the next passion. Make a note each key steps in seeing that passion turn into possibility, then into profitability, and then, into prosperity!

Ask yourself very honestly are you willing to take the steps, do the work required?

I have seen many people, including myself, think I had identified a passion, but once I got into it, I realized I did not really enjoy all the steps that I needed to do to make it real. Now through delegation, it is possible to focus on what you enjoy and delegate the rest. But I caution you, it might take a while, or not, to get to that stage. Often the business duties that go with your passion can very quickly quench the passion fire within you.

If you realize that the stuff that comes with the passion is not what you really want to do, evaluate the next passion on the list.

Step 4: Declare Your Passion: If you are prepared to take on the tasks and challenges of pursing that passion, declare it! post it on FB, write about it, and really embrace your decision enthusiastically.

Step 5: Focus On Your Passion: Once you have identified your passion, stop evaluating and trying to work on the other passions. Turn one passion into prosperity at a time. You can work on a passion while having a job or a business that is your financial support.

If you are not sure if it is your true passion, pick one! Test it… if you find it is not your passion, or you are no longer passionate about it… pick another passion! Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate, start today with your list, and by tomorrow you can start the process of turning your passion into prosperity.

In a future article I will explain some of the practical steps that will help you turn your Passion into Prosperity.

Make it a passionate day!

Beejal Parmar
Connect via Twitter/Linkedin: ibeejal

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Answers To Your Questions

If you don’t ask the right question, you wont get the right answer!

Statement vs. Questions: I have often heard people make a statement such as: “There is nothing I can do!”, or “I am not good enough”, “I cant do it” – when one announces such statements, this becomes that persons truth, and he/she will be right – If one believes there is nothing they can do -they are right -  There is nothing they can do! - if they choose to reframe the statement into a question, such as “What can i do?” – they have know shifted, and are now open to receiving an answer.

When you ask a question, you are inviting an answer… so when you feel stopped in life, ask yourself what question do you want answered.

• example: “I am afraid to be a public speaker”
• reframe: “Why am I afraid of being a speaker?”

Now you allowing, inviting an answer.

A Series of Questions and Answers

The answer to your question may not surface immediately, you may need to ask a series of probing questions:

• reframe: “Why am I afraid of being a speaker?”
• The answer to the question was: “I am afraid of looking bad!”
• Reframe into a question: “Why am I afraid of looking bad?”
• Answer: “Because I care what people people think!”
• Question: “Why do I care what people think?”

As you start to ask questions, one tends to come across answers in some way shape or form. In some cases, an opportunity may present itself to you to create a breakthrough in your life – such that the you will discover the answer to your question.

Tuning Your Questions

There are techniques and methodologies to ‘tuning or wording your question’ with additional clarity and focus.

Feeling Your Question

Another great tip I was given was to ‘feel’ my question. When I ask the question, am I sensing fear, lack, limitation, need? What message am i sending out to universe with my question?

When you ask a good powerful question, you will feel empowered and uplifted, as if you invited universe to give you/show you an answer.

When your question is laced with fear, doubt, worry, etc. you will sense these feelings as you recite your questions back to yourself.

Be Open & Patient with How & When You Receive Your Answer

Once you have asked your question, be patient in receiving the answer. Here a quote that a friend sent to me on this:

I beg you…To have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer…  -Rainer Maria Rilke

The ‘Art of Asking the Right Questions’ is a phenomenal tool in self-development, yet one often overlooked.

POWER TIP: When you find yourself stuck or facing a challenge, learn to ask ‘Powerful Question!’

More to come…

Fly Angel Fly – Overcoming Fear

Has FEAR ever stopped you? Prevented you from taking the next step? Are you being stopped by FEAR in your life right now?

I overcame one of my fears when i saw an Angel fly!

I recently attended a Marshal Sylver seminar called ‘The Next Level’. It was an amazing 5-day training event, one of the best training seminars I have ever attended. On Day 3 we did a high ropes course. At the end of Day-2 we were divided into teams. Well, there were a couple of ‘larger’ individuals on my team… and to be honest the competitor in me was a little disappointed – I knew we would not be breaking any records.

We drove an hour out from Las Vegas into the desert to the high ropes course. We got kitted up, split into teams and prepared to face a series of individual and team challenges.

On the very first challenge I was determined to go first, simply because I rarely like to go first, so my personal challenge was to go first. The first challenge was the Burma ‘Death’ Bridge, (I added the word ‘Death’ for dramatic effect! (If you have seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom you will get the idea).

Beejal walking across Burma ‘Death’ Bridge

After going first and getting over the Burma Bridge with some ease, I was standing on the side watching a team member attempt to get across. He slipped and found himself in an awkward position on the Burma Bridge. He was one of the larger people on my team. As I looked on, our team captain walked out behind him and helped him up. In that moment the day shifted from what I could personally accomplish to how I could help and support my team… that was the moment, my Turning Point occurred. That shift from personal agenda to considering the needs of the team, becoming one of the team, and how I could use my skills and abilities to help others became apparent.

There was one member of the team, named Angela, who was deathly afraid of heights. Throughout the day she had overcome several height challenges. At the end of the day she was to face her biggest challenge ‘The Zip Line’. Despite her intense fear, she really wanted to do the zip line. She started climbing up the tower, about half way up, she started to turn pale.

Angela on the platform

The team supported  her up the stairs, one step at a time. I remember her leaning on us for support, as her legs started to wobble as she reached each platform. The higher she climbed, the more real the challenge became. We finally made it to the top, Angela could hardly stand. One of our team volunteered to go first and then it was Angela’s turn.  She inched her way on to the platform, she inched her way to the edge of the platform – to say she was afraid was an understatement!  During the 10-15 minutes of coaching and support, there were times I thought she would not be able to do it. The fear was very real for her.

Angela inched her way to the edge and  then the moment… she edged herself of the edge,

experienced a 20 ft or so free fall, and then she zipped down the line with the biggest smile you have ever seen. She did it for herself, her son and her friends.

Angela told me the next day that when she scoped out the attendees, she really had no intention of

getting to know me – how ironic, I happened to be one to help her up the cargo net, and one her team mates who help coach her to overcome her fear so that she could fly!

Cheers of Joy for Angela

Later on in the evening after the ropes course, I got a chance to overcome one of my ‘stopping’ fears. The fear of ‘what people thought about me’.  Imagine being surrounded by 50 people asking the most embarrassing, intimate  and personal questions you could think off. When volunteers were asked for, I knew I had an opportunity to face my fear. I thought about Angela, and what she had overcome.

I raised my hand, Marshal Sylver looked at me with a huge grin, and said ‘It’s your turn to be in the hot seat!’

These days, when I find myself stopped, I think about this experience, and say to myself ‘Fly Angel Fly!’ and find the inspiration to take the next step.

POWER TIP: When faced with FEAR, trust in your inner Angels, and take that leap of faith!

Take Action Now

Where in your life could you benefit from Taking Action Now?

Have you ever experienced an internal resistance to taking action? You just seemed stopped, paralyzed! It could be in your business, relationship, career, health…

That was me early 2009. After a series of personal challenges I felt ‘stuck’, despite years of being involved in personal development, attending seminars, reading books etc… I simply felt ‘stuck’.

That was until a friend gave me a ticket to attend a personal development event in San Diego called TruSage. A sellathon event features several speakers, who at the end of their 90 minutes try and sell the audience a product or seminar. There were several good speakers, including Lisa Nichols, but the person who made THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON ME was Marshall Sylver. I had vaguely heard about him before when I studied Hypnosis a few years back, but did not know much about him.

I have seen MANY speakers, and I was quite simply blown away by Marshal Sylver’s stage presence, his ability to communicate powerfully, and how he presented himself. I said to myself  ‘I really want to learn from this individual’. And that is just what i did. The impulse and inspiration for the new direction and many recent life changes came from a series of Marshal Sylver training events: Turning Point Seminar, Total Prosperity, The Next Level, and Seminar Boot Camp with John Childers.

The name of the preview seminar I first saw was called Take Action Now. I phenomenal 90 minute presentation that i encourage you to see if you get the chance. You can see an online video of the presentation at www.prosperityalliancepro.com

I have always wanted to be a speaker, trainer and facilitator of personal development events, but for some reason or another – I never took the next step.  Thanks to Marshal Sylver and the amazing friends made at the Next Level seminar, I decided to Take Action and start taking actions towards producing training programs, speaking and training.

There are many good speakers, trainers – the reason I appreciate Marshal Sylver, is that he has a non-nonsense approach, his training are designed to get you Take Massive Action now.

So I leave you with this thought: identify areas in your life in which you feel stopped, decide what action would help you reach the next step – and get the support you need to TAKE ACTION NOW!