Passion, Purpose & Performance
- Do we really want to just exist to live a life of meaningless moments surrounded by less then meaningful experiences.
- Life is what you make of it. For some that always means challenging the status quo and for others that means just existing within the status quo.
- When you live with Passion, it’s more the former versus latter.
- The question that burns for us all, what is your Passion?
- Now, understand this, the answer is as disparate as there are stars in the Universe and unique and just about as personal.
- Some people rely on more then just one Passion and it helps them balance, recharge and release their full potential.
- Passions might change from year to year depending on your life circumstances. As you mature, you may find an evolution and even returning to earlier passions. Who knows, but for sure you need to tap into that Energy that fuels you.
- Pedagogy has always spoke to students in terms of Potential so as to challenge their imaginations about the endless possibilities.
- Sometimes, it’s a students greatest gaps or deficits which may actually reveal their greatest potentials.
- You often hear stories about a Young Einstein who really was a poor student, to much daydreaming and less rote success, who would have seen that Potential for him to rise to Patent clerk. His greatest gift was his imagination.
- We all have strengths often overlooked and yes weaknesses too, but they can negatives portend greater opportunities to learn about ourselves.
- We can never underestimate that we are peculiarly different for a reason. Ask any successful comic once a class clown if they knew that they would be famous one day for doing what came Natural in school but led to endless turns at more detention.
- Ask anyone great what changed and somewhere, somehow, they found their truth in who they were already meant to be. Yes, years of hard work, tests, homework, routines, workouts, countless auditions and rejections but they never saw success coming until one day they found it behind them already. Whatever your Passion, hard work and yes rejection and failures ensue.
- Never say never.
- Finding your True Passion May take a lifetime and for some it may come only after a crisis or unexpected opportunity unleashes it. We all have countless opportunities as Passion is in us always.
- It’s that drive to change, commit, succeed at things because we need too.
- Passion is a very focused need in each of us. In other words it’s how we most align doing without signs of obvious distress. The Act empowers you beyond any other actions so much so that you find your inevitable Purpose too.
- Take a moment to consider your life and take stock of where you have been and what you have done.
- For us all:
- As a kid, what did you like to do ie play sports, cub scouts, school play
- As a teenager, what did you dream about being.
- As a young man, what roads did you finally take.
- As a person, what responsibilities occurred in your life planned or unexpected.
- At middle age, what regrets most befell v what prides you found.
- In your Senior years, what is your greatest memories joys past, present and future.
- As you look on your life, what satisfaction most assured you that life has meaning and there is more to believe in beyond mere mortality.
- What would you die for and why live any other way. Your Passion answers those questions.
- The next critical factor, Purpose; what is your purpose?
- It may not seem obvious but there is quite a link between Passion and Purpose and vice versa.
- It’s a curious question to ask and much more practical. Actually, even if you can’t answer Passion; your Purpose may actually lead you back towards it.
- Basically, who are you now at this moment and what do you do?
- The question you might get asked at a Party by a complete stranger. What do you say.
- I am blank.
- I have been led to believe this quaint conversation is verboten in Europe as they do not consider the Job per se as Socially relevant.
- I am an Actor, Performer, conductor, Engineer etc. hmmm are we really any of those things anyway.
- Are we our Job or Interests or Obligations? Interestingly, here in the US, I suspect many more might assign our Job as the fundamental identifier of who they actually are versus saying I am a Father, Mother, Sister, Friend, Provider, Supporter, Sportsmen, Aficionado, Car enthusiast, Birdwatcher, Religious practitioner whatever.
- In Reality, we might just want to return to the Ultimate roles we all play which are Artist, Explorer and Leader to understand ourselves more fully.
- How many of us truly identify ourselves to this level. Rather, we fall into traditional roles when it is so much more:
- The Father is a Leader
- The Mother is a Leader, Explorer, Artist
- A Supervisor is a Leader
- Birdwatcher is a Artist and Explorer
- In previous posts; we have spoke of what roles mean to us.
- Artist- to Create
- Explorer-to Search
- Leader-to Do
- Let’s go back to Learner which can be for the Student all of the above: Create ideas, Searches for Answers, Do the work. whereas
- The Teacher of Learners is also a Leader, Artist, Explorer. They Lead to knowledge, Present passion, and create a great learning experience.
- So what about Purpose; what exactly do we mean.
- Once we have finished asking about what we all do? One is forced to deal with the Practical aspect of our actual Purpose. What purpose does your life actually serve.
- Now, practically speaking you may ask does my existence serve a real purpose? It is a big question esoterically but also it is very practical.
- Let’s say you answer, I am a Student, a Math Major, then that might lead to, I want to Teach.
- What’s a Purpose here? It is to be a Learner.
- It is the core Reality about someone's Purpose.
- The Teachers Purpose is to Teach but really who gets taught is more Learners.
- Fundamentally the Teachers Purpose is now more about others and less about himself; now they serve to Teach Potential Learners versus being a Learner.
- Therefore; take a moment to examine your core Reality and imagine how it helps answer your Purpose which is Service to something beyond your own selfish needs, concerns actions.
- Performance is the next critical factor.
- Why is Performance important and how do we judge ourselves versus being judged and it’s ultimate impact.
- In the arts, the ultimate judgement occurs during the Performance on Stage, it’s a reckoning of Time and Place and Audience.
- You studied at school and attended workshops and now at tonite’s show, you perform. Your entire being and craft onstage with fellow actors, crew and yes your Audience who is a Customer too.
- Purpose therefore is about Service and Role
- So can you see where we are going with this again for those of us in the Business world, we can judge ourselves and yes we can be Judged by our Performance.
- Performance means results; what are your results? You must be the Ultimate Judge of yourself by taking into account Reality which is to a degree the summation of the objective & subjective forces about you; Age, Gender, Identity, Finances, Social Standing and Internal realities of Physical and Mental Forces, and yes Spiritual awakening.
- Tough question in business and maybe tougher in life. Often, it’s at the end of a Life you hear the mourners or others judge but then maybe it’s not what you might say.
- Why the gap? What does it matter how you are living your life.
- Now and now again is when you want to judge your performance and look at it as closely and coldly and honestly.
- As to your past, look at your performance fondly, good or bad and say to yourself, I know I can always do it better but it is my past and I will learn from it now.
- Your future is always an open canvas to be painted but ask yourself with what colors do I use, what sketches have I laid out.
- Oh what a picture I want to paint but what will it be. Decisions are critical, I must decide, I am the painter, or you could throw paint on the canvas and just imagine what it means, well it’s just fate.
- Ultimately Performance is about your Actions, Decisions and Results.
- In the end; this is your Life, and it’s about your Passion, Purpose & Performance.
- Knowing these 3 can fulfill a need.
- If we circle back we can see why all 3 are so important. Knowing your Passion and it is like your Jet Fuel and knowing your Purpose is like knowing your Flight Plan and knowing your Performance is knowing how you land the plane. It is in real time watching like the audience and clapping at the appropriate moments or laughing or crying and afterwards talking about what it meant. In essence you are your own audience to the Performance of your life. Encore, encore and encore.
- Next, coming Humanity & it’s Heroes