Passion, Curiosity, & Improvement

Three of my favorite words.

Passion becomes a definitive trait.

For those of you that have had the (unfortunate?) experience to ask about my obsession with the automotive space, I apologize for taking you down that rabbit hole. More than likely, it was 30 minutes of your life (if you were lucky) that you will never get back while I detailed my passion for taking something ordinary, trying to learn and know everything about it, and then uncovering ways to turn it into something extraordinary and unique. An automobile was just an automobile to me until I made it original through my own blood, sweat, and tears.?That automobile almost became a part of my identity, especially for those that know me. I believe any hobby, activity, career, etc. we have a passion for will lead to this and unlock our own personal creative traits to make or do something special.

Passion led to curiosity.?

Now I am by no means a mechanic. I have more cringe-worthy stories about the mistakes and laughable moments I encountered as I dove head-first into this rabbit hole of a hobby. Imagine for a second, a piece of machinery that as it stood was only supposed to perform to a certain level.?It was designed that way. But as time and technology passed, that original design could be improved upon.?But we are talking about an automobile here. Something that a company spent millions of dollars of R&D to make it just so.?How could I possibly make it better? I knew it could be done, as I have seen others do it… in their own vision and way, but I had my own outcome in mind.

I will never forget walking into my best friend’s garage and all I would see are tools and parts that seemed so foreign to me. ?My curiosity took over pushing away any fears about “if I could” and rather driving focus on what I will learn first.?I needed to understand how every component of this automobile worked to create the future I saw in my head and that also meant learning about every single tool, every part, and leveraging my (and my friends’ – no one does anything awesome alone!) creativity.?I knew this was going to be a journey, but the potential outcome would be worth it.

Curiosity led to execution with the idea of improvement in mind.

The idea in my head, the feel, the sound, the sight, the smell – meant I had to improve this vehicle in front of me in every way.?It meant taking new risks – that first time you completely tear down your engine bay or pull your entire drive train from the body of the car, to build off of previous improvements - just hoping that when I reassemble everything – it starts, runs, and performs …not just like before, but better. ?Inching ever closer to that idea in my mind. It meant getting out of my comfort zone.?Mistakes were made… engines were blown (not a cheap mistake), parts were stressed beyond their failure points, and discouragement often creeped in.?My best friend would laugh and say, “well, I bet you won’t do That again.”

Here's the funny thing about “improvement”. It forces you to be uncomfortable. But even when you fail, you learn and gain experience. Leaving your comfort zone means one way or another something improves. It builds experience and that experience grows potential.

Why am I bringing this up? I’ve come to realize our untapped potential may very well be limitless. Tapping into that means stretching outside comfort zones. Leverage the personal passion you have and JUST JUMP IN. Success or failure, either way you will improve yourself and that will undoubtedly relate to how you can improve your current projects, job, career and maybe even how you live.