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Nashville, TN: It's a new year, which means it's time for a new word. Starting back in 2009 (though first blogged about in 2010), I've chosen a word of intention for the year, rather than a new year's resolution. This helps keep me on a set path but allows me to avoid the pitfalls of failing at an overambitious to do list beginning on January 1.
This year's word was revealed to me a few weeks ago at a company holiday luncheon. The COO of the company was talking to the staff and said while he is pleased with the work we do, he also wants to make sure we are passionate about what we do. This caught me off guard a bit. I hadn't really thought about the word passion in a while. I'm at a place in my life where overall, I'm loving the things I do and loving the people I'm with. Everything's great. But passion? Now that I've settled into a groove of life, I've been trying to remember back to having a sense of passion about... well, anything.
After a quick goggle search, I found passion to be defined as:
a strong and barely controllable emotion
or
a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something
or
an extreme real-life soap opera moment (thank you, Urban Dictionary)
After a quick scan of past memories, I remembered passion to be felt as:
getting handed a tour from (seemingly) out of the blue
and
sharing a story of hope with someone who is on the verge of losing faith
and
sharing a first kiss with a longtime crush
Like with all new relationships or -- simply anything in life -- passion tends to fade and in its place comes comfortableness and familiarity. While those are great states to be in as well, there comes a time for a personal check-in to either light up that original passion-fire once again or find it somewhere (or with someone) else.
A quote from the late, great Nelson Mandela:
The good news is that I found my word fairly early. The only problem is that by the time January 1st rolled around, I was already feeling not very passionate about focusing on passion. Because the problem is you can't half-ass passion. You've got to go full-force, high-speed, face-first into a pitch black unknown area. You've got ask yourself those hard, potentially life-changing questions: am I passionate about it/him? You've got to be vulnerable and put your cards on the table even if the other person potentially doesn't want to play. And that is exhausting and scary stuff!
Then why do it at all? Because, from what I know about passion, when you go after it and work and work and work for it and dream it and live it and love it every single day... and then it HAPPENS, there's simply nothing better. Feeling a true sense of accomplishment. Or hearing those words of victory. Or falling ridiculously in love.
So, I'm in. Just like that. I'm going to look for the passion in all I do. I'm going to seek it out when I can't find it and move towards somewhere/someone else when it's not there anymore. But I also need to stay open and not have an exact plan on how & when to find or schedule passion. (Note: as a planner, this makes me incredibly uncomfortable.)
To keep me focused on the passion, instead of a
key this year, I decided to make a vision board. Inspired by a friend (and a bunch of red wine a few nights ago), I thought of the things that bring me passion or that I want to be more passionate about, printed out pictures and put them on a piece of thistle paper. That collage now hangs in my office which I will look at every day as a reminder not to half-ass my way through any of this life.
I've smudged the photos a bit because those are MY passions to focus on. If you're curious to know what they are, instead, why not ask yourself, what are YOU passionate about?
