As part of our Passion Series, we’re tackling the whole idea of motivation, choice, pursuit, sacrifice, and sustained effort (re: dedication). Where does passion for a thing come from? Many times it’s rooted in a childhood experience, something that creates a core memory for a developing mind that, if properly fostered, grows to become a life goal.

Art, music, sports, service. These are the four main areas where people find their passion. Art, music and sports speak for themselves. Service includes military service, teachers, law enforcement, medical professionals, chefs. So many of these people devote their entire lives to the service of others. The Greater Good. Hard work, over time, often thankless, even more times under-rewarded, yet they still do it. The world could not function without them.

Many times encounters with folks whose passion has faded or was misplaced is the cause of some of our most frustrating memories. The teacher who has forgotten it’s about the children; the power mad cop or doctor; Gordon Ramsey. When people pursue a service occupation for a paycheck instead of a deeply held personal belief system, it usually ends in strife. We’ve all had to deal with it.

Passion can degrade into obsession too. While a certain amount of obsessive behavior is necessary to accomplish any meaningfully difficult task, a passion that becomes an obsession loses it’s luster quickly. The love is gone. It’s represented in pathological behaviors like alcoholism and drug addiction, narcissism, or just plain old greed. We see this when a Scotch connoisseur starts settling for those little plastic airplane bottles of vodka; media personalities lose touch with their humanity (or reality altogether); or people who started on a path because of a genuine love for it allow it to devolve into an exercise of just getting MORE. Truly, obsession is the byproduct of a passion devoid of love. It becomes more about ownership than sharing. Only some of you reading this will get that last statement, and that’s okay.

So how to find your passion, to foster it for life and never fallout of love with your goal? Where does passion come from; how can someone figure out if what they think they want is REALLY what they want; how to pursue that desire in a healthy way; and even how to spread your own enthusiasm to others? These are the questions we wish to explore during our Passion Series and we invite you to join us on our journey.