What Passion Really Means

“Find your passion” they keep saying, “do what you love”. I keep seeing these phrases and I am wondering if there is really anybody reading them properly. Have you ever asked yourself what passion really means? I did several times in my life – still not sure if I have fully grasped the concept. Here is what I got so far:

Passion is a two-sided coin. This is best expressed by a literal translation of the German word for passion which is “Leidenschaft”. If you decompose the word you will find the words “Leiden” (suffering) and “schaffen” (creating). So passion means that you really burn for something, but on the other hand this burning will also cause you suffering as part of the process. You will only be able to fully appreciate the ups if you have also fully experienced all the downs, if you have endured some suffering.

In this context, people are also referring to the phrase of “paying the price” for something. On the other hand everybody agrees that everything should be free in life?! Sorry, that is not the way the economy works – says the capitalist. Paying the price means that something is or was of value to you. Paying the price for something in fact eventually established its value.

Once you endured some suffering, once you paid the price, you are passionate about something, you lost sleep over it, argued about it, maybe even cried or got mad over it. Does that mean you are insane? No! It means that you are a living human being.

Probably more “living” than all those other robots out there. Most of them are caught in the rat race – a vicious circle that boils down to this infinite loop:

Work for a living, live for working.

But passion is not only there to drive you or to distract you from the rat race. It has purpose and meaning in itself. You can be passionate about anything… your job, your hobby, your family, your spouse. It will always be a giving and taking, but eventually it will make you feel alive.

I mentioned this in a previous post: Many challenges in life can be translated into things you already know, they are eventually the same. Now, what if I told you that there was a way to become passionate about almost anything in life? Woh! There it goes again … that mambo jumbo motivation stuff, but bear with me on this one:

The life and the world you are experiencing right now are a product of your mind. What many people might not have noticed yet is this: In this movie called “Life”, they are not only sitting in the audience, they are director, screenwriter, visual and audio effects designer in one person! Our conscious self is nothing but the sum of what we have experienced so far and here comes the gist: Any of those experiences can be re-shaped in our mind. This technique is often referred to as re-framing as it allows you to but a mental image into a totally new context by changing its frame.

Sounds very hypothetical? Let’s try it on an example. Something negative everyone has already experienced in life: Rejection. What can be good about rejection? Can there be anything good about it at all?!

Rejection is painful. You can easily take it very personal and condemn yourself for not being good enough to be accepted.

Rejection is also something different. First of all, from a neutral point of view, it is feedback to you. You have not been accepted yet. Life is full of challenges. This is also a challenge – a challenge that has become harder as a result of this refusal. But don’t we all love a good challenge? If you have not been accepted yet means that the price you have to pay for achieving your goal might be higher. Newsflash: The scope of your problem has just been enhanced. Your mission got more important! And this makes things more exciting to you as you know: It will be more rewarding to finally get what I want, to be accepted.

There is one famous example for the joy someone can experience by seeing things re-framed like that: Colonel Harland D. Sanders the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken tried to sell his famous chicken recipe like one thousand times, and got refused one thousand times, until he finally got accepted. His idea was accepted not because of luck, but because of his determination, because of his passion to keep on going. Just like that you can re-frame many of the experiences in your life. It may take some practice, but on your way to become more passionate about your life it can be an excellent tool.

I dare you: Start discovering your passions and embark with me on that journey…

About me

Hi there, it’s really nice to be back. Still a mid-twenties guy trying to make his way through the blogosphere by sharing some of his less crazy thoughts! Hope you can enjoy it. I was surprised about how fulfilling writing can really be. It seems that I have rediscovered a passion of mine.

Sven