Tag Archives: Passion

“By Doing What You Love…”

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“By doing what you love you inspire and awaken the hearts of others.”

—Satsuki Shibuya, painter, artist, spiritual teacher

Photo from Flickr by Chattgd

Photo from Flickr by Chattgd

Most coaches I know have their own coaches, supporting them on their professional and personal journeys. They consider striving for their own definition of success and fulfillment of great value and importance.

This behavior is one of the most important characteristics that attract clients to a particular coach. People see that their potential coach walks the talk and has made considerable progress in their own life journey. This makes them credible as a supportive partner in helping clients realize their goals.

EXERCISE:

Who do you know that truly loves what they do, and awakens your heart to pursue your own passions and purposes? How can you do more of what inspires you, to have the same influence on those around you?

You Can Do Anything

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“You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hope rise to the stars.”

—Henry Ford, American Industrialist

Photo from Flickr by Soren

Photo from Flickr by Soren

When I was in my late teens, I worked at the Country Club bakery/restaurant in Philadelphia. My first job was to wash pots and pans in the bakery. It wasn’t such a bad gig, since I got to eat a lot of sweet treats and good food from the restaurant.

I’ve always been motivated and driven, so it didn’t take me long to realize that being a baker was the “cool” job.  With that realization, washing the soiled pots and pans was not in my cards for long.

I made a deal with the bakers. If I could complete my dish washing duties quickly and completely, they would teach me how to bake.

The good news is that it worked, and one of my first duties as a baker’s apprentice was to make what we called water bagels. This meant putting the yeast-filled dough rings into a vat of boiling water to create the rapid rise that makes bagels so tasty and popular.

EXERCISE:

Summon your intense eagerness for an important task or job today. Allow this heated enthusiasm to help you achieve new heights in either your professional or personal worlds.

“Be enthusiastic as a leader. You can’t light a fire with a wet match.”

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“Be enthusiastic as a leader. You can’t light a fire with a wet match.”

-Author Unknown

Photo from Flickr by Mark Tighe

Photo from Flickr by Mark Tighe

Take a moment to generate a list of great leaders you have seen and been inspired by over the course of your life.

Fundamental to all of these individuals is the passion of their beliefs and convictions – the enthusiasm that helps them ignite the flames within themselves and those they lead.

EXERCISE:

Give yourself a rating from 1 (a wet match) to 10 (a blazing bonfire of passion) for both your professional and personal worlds.

What can you do today to find the fuel that sparks your passions and enthusiastically brightens up your world, and that of others?

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”

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“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”

– David Bly, American politician and member of the House of Representatives

Photo from Flickr by Tim Buss

Photo from Flickr by Tim Buss

The world is filled with “get rich quick” schemes, like the miracle diet that will let you lose weight effortlessly, and many other supposedly low-effort, high-result strategies. The problem with just about all of them is that they simply do not work.

I really like the word “striving.” It causes me to think of pursuing a noble and passionate cause when I’m “all in” and won’t stop until the goal is reached.

For me, though, it is not simply the goal that is the source of this striving. My passion, inspiration, and fundamental purpose for being mobilized into action are also essential.

Exercise:

What are the important goals and hoped-for harvests in your professional and personal life that inspire you to strive and do the hard and challenging work required of you today?

 

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive…”

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“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

—Howard Thurman, 20th Century African-American author, educator, and civil rights leader.

Image from Unsplash by Jakob Owens

I support a strength-based approach to work performance and life in general.

The work of many individuals, including Marcus Buckingham, has established that the average person works in their area of strength perhaps only 20 – 25% of the time. However, some of the most satisfied and highly-successful people work in their areas of strength and unique abilities 40 – 50% of the time.

Exercise:

How could you design your life and career to shoot for spending 60%, 70% or 80% of your time in your areas of strength?

If you did this, how alive would you be and what difference would you make in your life and the lives of those around you?

#2: “Do not follow where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

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– Ralph Waldo Emerson

We’re wired to doing what other people expect of us. We learn (from parents, teachers, and other influencers) that we should try to fit in and not stand out.

Yet many of us regret that we did not follow our own muse, passions and visions.

Ask yourself:

  • What inspires me?
  • What am I passionate about?
  • Where do I lose all my sense of time?
  • Where and when am I the happiest?
  • What are my unique abilities and talents?

Exercise:

How will you find the courage to chart your own life journey? Where will you go and what will you do?

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