Passion is an awesome subject as just the very word typically excites people!  The word represents such a powerful expression that it seems to raise the spirits just by its very mention.  Not only that, but there is so much going on to pursue, express, seek and develop passions in people’s lives it’s an excellent subject for personally development.  So what is passion?  Passion is a feeling or expression of great excitement and enthusiasm towards a subject.  It raises spirits and surges energy in however and whoever it is expressed to.  It’s incredibly hard to express passion by writing and I truly wish I was speaking this right now as its much easier to be expressive and enthusiastic with your voice, your body movements and actions.  Doing that with text is nearly impossible unless I started adding large flashy colored text, which I will definitely spare you the pain of.  So, you will have to imagine me speaking this with expressive tone, body language and enthusiasm!  Let’s get to it.

Welcoming Passion

Passion is not visible everyday.  For some it may be, but for most people, it is an expressive burst that is not a regular activity and so when it does show up, it definitely gets noticed.  Passion usually has a benefit of engaging the audience more, which is particularly useful when it is being expressed by speakers.  It makes everything more memorable and builds credibility for a public speaker when they show that they really are passionate about and care for the subject they are speaking on.  This occurs in all areas of life though, not just public speaking.  It can occur in your business, your friendships and even online.  Showing passions in these areas demonstrates with sincere meaning what you are emotionally connected to.

When you have the opportunity to see someone else express their topic or ideas with passion, how do you respond?  Do you encourage it, add to that excitement or make an effort (often subconsciously) to stay calm, non-responsive to balance out that person with a less expressive engagement?  I hope you add to that passion and even if you don’t connect with the content shared directly, you can certainly support the energy and willingness to bring that passion to you.  If you can share in that passion and ensure they know that you are happy to see the passion, by contributing your own energy, you really welcome the passion.  You can also welcome it by reminding people of passions and how you’ve enjoying expressing them or seeing it in others.  This helps to influence people to share their own passions and makes it feel a bit safer. In business this is especially true as we often are so careful to follow the rules and expectations of others around us, we often don’t share or express the things we really love.  Are there passions expressed in your business that could use your support and energy to encourage them?

Expressing Your Own Passions

There may not always be someone else around expressing passions that you can reinforce.  Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t add passion by sharing your own!  What are the things you love to do, love to debate, or have dreams of experiencing.  These are potentially areas of passion for you and they are great to express to bring more vitality to a group of people, friends or business.  Expressing your passions will allow you to reveal something about yourself and to encourage others to share their own as well.  Passions are often contagious because of the energy they activate in people.

Your passions are often seated at a young age in life and so thinking back to your childhood years (around age 6-13) what were the things that you most loved to do?  Where you a creator, inventor, story teller, teacher, dreamer, helper, connector, influencer or follower?  These areas as a child are likely the secret to some deep passion you have today, whether you know it or now.  It’s a sign of who you are or want to be and can often reveal passions not yet explored or dreams worth seeking that develop into great passions.  Expressing these stories from your early years is a great way to discover and express your own passions with others.

Expressing your own passions is sometimes risky.  Anytime you expose something that is meaningful to you, you risk being judged for that and it not being accepted.  The great thing with passions is that people are a lot more tolerant of passions than other characteristics of a person.  I think the reason for this is that when a passion is often expressed, it is expressed with deep connection and even love for that subject.  People tend not to attack or debate things we love and when a passion fits that category of something we really love, it is often protected from that social criticism just because we express the significance of that  subject.

Don’t Seek Passion, Bring Passion

Obviously you can share your passions and seek them out, but its just as possible to learn the symptoms of passion and how to express it, how to connect with a subject and how to feel the passion in areas you love.  Personally, I think passion can go much farther than what you love however, and that you can actually love to be passionate.  Once you learn to be passionate about something, you can choose to bring the passion to anything you do, instead of having to seek it.  Bringing the passion to what you do brings on all those great side effects of influencing people, gaining attraction and momentum because of the excitement and expression.  Even if you were not initially caring about a subject, bringing the passion to it can actually activate you to connect and to feel much more for that subject.  Passions don’t have to be things you seek, it can be something you simply know how to do and to bring into whatever you choose.  That’s what I love about passion and what I’ve learned by studying.  Of course, there are subjects I am more passionate about than others, but the ability to bring passion into anything I do helps me get motivated, stay connected and gain influence through that higher level of enthusiasm and energy towards a subject.  What area of your life do you wish you had more passion for?  Is there a passion you have learned from that you can mimick and bring the benefits of into new areas of your life?  Please share yours!

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