FINDING your Passion is HARD – if not damn impossible.

And the reason for that is that Passion has been taught wrong.

Actually, it hasn’t been taught about at all.

So for the past half decade I have been studying, learning and getting to understand all the nuances and textures of one of the most sought after emotional experiences of our generation.

And there are a few truths I have come to know about Passion.

In a world full of turbulence, turnover, tech giant layoffs and a whole lot of uncertainty – it’s becoming even more important, now more than ever, to share them.

So grab a tea, drink, whatever you need – find a nice and quiet place, and let’s go through some foundations on this wildly complicated and beautiful topic.

Soooo…

What About Finding Passion Makes It So Dang Difficult?

When it comes to Passion, few people today know what it really is, how to experience it (or experience more of it) and what to actually do with it.

Yet, we talk an awful lot about it in society, don’t we?

Many people talk about their Passion as something they would love to do for work.

They feel as though to ‘find their Passion’ is to find their truest ‘fit’.

Our Education system uses the language as a way to play on people’s deep desire to contribute in a meaningful way – through which a degree (what education sells) is often needed.

But what happens when our systems fall short… and can’t help us connect the dots to finding our best fits, or living our best life?

Deflated opportunity is the reality for 87% of working people globally. According to Deloitte, Gallup Inc and other agencies committed to understanding the plights of our workers and our leaders today in how they feel about work.

It is not missed on us that while many people talk about Passion, close to no one provides instruction on how to move through or work through the process or the journey of finding your own in any type of meaningful way.

Let’s now take a look at some of the complications of dealing with Passion in our society.

The Institutionalization of Passion

As a society we have unintentionally Institutionalized Passion.

And I’m not using the word Institutionalized to mean establishing a practice or custom around Passion per-se.

I’m using it to mean, we have buried our understanding of Passion by linking it to our own established practices and customs. Namely, our practices and customs around our relationships to work and our obsession with our value for ‘economic usefulness’.

And here’s what’s wrong with that: We have, somewhere along the lines, forgotten that Passion came before Capitalism.

We have entangled the feeling of passion with financial success and the coupling of them both confuses as well as diminishes the REAL value of Passion.

Furthermore you can be Passionate and broke, OR, Successful with no Passion, or, Successful and Passionate, or, not Passionate and broke.

If you are like many of the clients that come to me for support, there is only one experience you are interesting in having: How to be Successful AND Passionate.

If this is your end goal then it’s important to note that Financial Success and Passion Success are two distinctly different types of Success models. Meaning, they have two distinctly different approaches for obtaining or experiencing each. And if you want to have both, you need to learn both models.

But trying to make them both mean the same thing is a mistake that is more hurtful than helpful.

This is the simplification or the dumbing down of Passion that hurts our ability to experience it.

Institutionalizing Passion not only insults Passion – it insults us as humans.

So if it’s so flawed, Kira, why do we do it?

Great question, glad you asked it.

Let’s journey and uncover.

A VERY brief (and slightly simplified) history of production.

In our society, in order to create models of scale we need to create models of standards. Simplification is a requirement to do that, and to a degree, so is a certain amount of sameness.

This helps us build a mold that works for large sized populations.

And we need them in order for us to move out large complex tasks in our society.

Think, moving money around, trade and exchange – doing business, transportation, the path to becoming a neurosurgeon, agriculture, environmental resourcing, and all the things.

Building systems aren’t easy.

And they are built to last a long time. In respect to systems that we interact with today – most were built hundreds, and some thousands of years ago.

Think, Banks, Government, Education, Agriculture, Transportation, Power, etc.

Passion works differently to the way our current model was built.

Passion works in the form of differences.

Passion is disruptive and it’s innovative.

Passion is the human aspect of the systems and the forms we have laid.

So for any of us on our own journey looking to contribute in one of the many systems we have created – it’s natural to think that we need to find (from the selection on the outside) what would give us the most fulfillment on the inside.

And then we naturally follow the linear thought that says, if we found that and did it, we could find marriage and live happily ever after working in our soul job.

But it’s a dangerously wrong way to think about Passion.

Let’s break this concept down a bit further.

After interviewing thousands of people on this subject matter, here is what I know:

We have created assumptions about Passion that do not line up with the research.

If you are on your journey of trying to ‘find’ Passion, here are 4 facts to consider that will help you re-think Passion in a more helpful and useful way, to you.

FACT 1: Passion is one of the most complex emotions/states a human can experience.

Much science has come through in the study of Flow and the science of human optimized performance. The Flow Institute has worked with Scientists from Harvard to MIT to break down the ways in which we can ‘hack’ our brains motivational and production power.

And while we know a lot because of the billions of dollars and decades that has been spent on this work, we still have a lot further to go.

Passion is said to be a gateway for Flow, according to the Flow institute. The two neurotransmitters that come on line when a person experiences Passion are Norepinephrine and Dopamine.

These two neurotransmitters (and hormones) are powerful ‘get in the moment/engagement’ chemicals.

Passion doesn’t create these chemicals.

Our interaction with the world and how it interacts back with us creates these chemicals. When that happens in just the right way, we experience what we call Passion.

Passion is an output. The input is what happens when we combine our inside things with our outside things.

Passion is only a word to describe an experience we are having.

Learning about what that experience is and what creates that experience is my world and what I get truly very Passionate about and one of the many reasons for why The Passion Centre exists.

Our bodies are beautiful masterpieces of information and sophistication.

Reducing that sophistication to a word is the deficit of language.

FACT 2: Passion comes on line, not through a one-to-one experience, but instead, through a one-to-many experience.

Passion is not one-to-one.

Being passionate about ballet, or fly fishing, or Call-Of-Duty – is not a real thing.

An experience that touches us in just the right way by pressing the right internal buttons (built over your lifetime) through an external experience is how Passion comes on line.

What Ballet, fly fishing or Call-Of-Duty represents are external manifestations of an internal set of preferences guided by drivers that you may not (more than likely) be conscious you have.

The collective of which turns on that powerful light switch inside of you.

At The Passion Centre we have built a curriculum around helping our clients understand those unconscious hidden drivers that turns on Passion, unique to everyone.

FACT 3: Everybodies relationship to Passion is different.

My brother describes his Passion like a hunger that doesn’t turn off.

One of my dear colleagues describes his Passion like a burst of energy that motivates him towards his dreams.

A client of mine sees her Passion as who she is in her core waiting to come out.

I see mine as an internal system deeply desiring expression and liberation.

We are all wired to experience Passion. And we are all wired differently.

Starting with knowing what your internal buttons are, and THEN looking at how certain external experiences can turn it on helps you to become more Passion aware.

But the process to do this has been left out of pretty much all literature.

Where you might want to start is to examine, what is your personal relationship with Passion. Come up with your own language and words to help you describe how you feel when you’re passionate or what you used to feel or how you want to feel.

This work is about self knowledge. It’s about breaking through barriers within yourself to peak into the areas that bring you closer to Passion.

Because Passion is more about you, than it is about anything else.

Learn you, and you will be your own gateway to your source of Passion.

A major reason why I have created a blended curriculum that first moves through a self discovery and unblocking phase. This is done prior to putting their personalized building blocks of Passion together in order to design careers, new business ventures or lifestyle strategies with my clients using this inside, outside model.

FACT 4: You Don’t Find Passion – You Turn It On – You Activate It.

This is the root of why I am so Passionate about Passion.

For years I bought into thinking that I needed to find something that made me Passionate.

How disempowering IS that?

I had to find some THING on the outside of me to make me feel something on the inside of me.

What was worse, in my case, was that when I started my journey – there were literally 100’s of contestants.

Some people draw blanks when they think about what they are Passionate about – I drew too many.

And that was more paralysing for me than drawing blanks.

Because too many options can be the same as no options at all.

Especially in a world where we are taught we have to find one direction.

So in order for me to do that, I needed a way to scale it down.

It bothered me so much that I decided I needed to change the conversation I was having with myself in order to get better answers for myself.

But first I need to understand a few things:

1) What was I looking to experience?

2) What was I looking for that experience to give me?

3) What did I want to do with that experience?

By answering these three questions I realized something I hadn’t realized before.

I didn’t really know what the word Passion actually meant.

I was using it to describe something – but was it even the correct word to describe what I wanted to experience?

That curious little question was the pinhead that created a massive explosion.

After reading hundreds of books, articles and journals on Passion, and not getting the specific question I had, answered – I took it upon myself to just start learning what I wanted to learn about it.

This has turned into a 4 year venture (and love affair) of understanding the inner ingredients of this potent experience to a standard deviation score of .02%.

And yes, I 100% had to add that in.

I now work with Companies, Schools, Founders and Individuals to measure their Passion Health and create ways to improve it by focusing on the exact criteria that creates it in the first place.

No more guesswork. No more failed attempts at trying to motivate employees, students, or yourself. No more functioning in the dark trying to ‘find’ something that was never meant to be ‘found’.

Just absolute clarity around what is required and a focused lens on tweaking and adjusting those things to build optimized environments and performers.

So what does this all mean?

What I found out is actually very good news for those of you out in the world trying to ‘find’ your Passion, or wanting to experience it.

Because what our research is saying is that we have to lose the external hunt and start with an internal hunt if we stand a chance at experiencing Passion.

In other words, instead of looking for external data points, you have to first start with knowing your internal one’s.

This is an exploration into understanding the right switches that turn on your Passion.

And this is what our courses at The Passion Centre helps you to do.

One of our programs helps you in as little as 7 days!

Imagine that! 7 days to Passion clarity.

By giving you the platform to deepen your awareness on what turns your Passion on, arms you with more helpful and tangible ways to create direction for yourself, your relationships and in your businesses.

At the most it will help you start to narrow down those options and fine tune what needs to happen to experience higher levels of Passion in your work or in your life.

And at the least, it will help you clearly identify what drives you at your core so you can start examining if the direction you are on will lead you to what you want to experience for yourself.

Either way, you’re winning.

Now here is one final reminder:

Our research helped us to see that Passion is easy.

You however, are complex.

And beautifully so.

You deserve to dive deeply into more ways to reconnect to who you are at your core.

Because when we are able to gift ourselves this, the whole world benefits.

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Thank you for taking the time to journey through this Newsletter. If this resonated with you, or you found value in it, please drop a like and/or comment and subscribe and follow me if you’re not already!

It would mean the world to me.

If you are in a place where this is calling you – don’t let the call drift.

Read more below to see how I can support you on your journey by either taking part in one of my courses or joining our community of others committed to the self-full, passion-filled, purpose-infused life.

Until we see each other again.

Wishing you all the Passion your heart desires!