Passion (and how we’ve got it all wrong)

Are you asking the wrong “Passion” question? Women all around the globe are seeking their passion. They believe that if they can find it, life will be much easier. They will know their purpose in the world.  They’ll know their next steps.  So, in the meantime, they press the pause button on their life until they find what turns them on. Life passes by with their days and nights filled with the mundane, while they wait for passion to come knocking on their door.

In my opinion, this is tragic.  I know, because I lived this existence for many years.

So, let me offer a different take on this subject of passion, one that has dramatically shifted everything for me.

Let’s step back in time, shall we?  Ten years ago, I was working as a full time nurse in a cardiovascular intensive care unit.  I was drained, burnt out and frustrated. I definitely didn’t feel that I had found my passion.

But, I needed to find it in order to get out of my present circumstance (or so I thought).

I had pressed the pause button waiting for my passion to find me.  In the meantime, life on hold.  And nothing happening.

One Sunday night, during my 12-hour shift,  I had a patient wake up from his by-pass surgery, and he looked me in the eyes and said, “You are an angel, so full of love and compassion.” (Yes, he did really say that verbatim.  Anesthesia causes you to see and say unusual things.)

I don’t know why, but a light bulb went off. “I am love and compassion.”  I didn’t have to find it. I was it!

What if I brought that into everything I do – emptying bed pans, talking with families, taking my daughter to school?  What if I stopped waiting to find my passion and brought passion to each experience of my life?

Over the course of our lives, we’ve forgotten that we have a very impressive skill: the ability to generate our feelings. And, that’s exactly what passion is – a strong emotion. So, instead of looking for passion outside of you, why not bring it into everything you do – getting dressed in the morning, cleaning your house, your office job, packing your kid’s lunch?

When I showed up in my life as a passionate being, passion had no choice but to find me.  I began to notice even more what lit me up, and I began to fill my life with things that sparked even more passion.  But, I became passionate first!

We think that if we argue with our life enough and try to flee it to find something better “out there” to turn us on that we will have hit the jackpot.  But, what if we have it backwards?  What if you must get turned on first from where you are right now in order for more things that turn you on to find you?

My experience has been that this is the only way!

But, how do you turn on passion if you’ve been living in a life of frustration and doubt?  Well, a little appreciation is a good start.  Perhaps, some celebration.  And, if that doesn’t do the trick, turn on some music and dance.  There are so many ways to tap into the passion that lives within you.  For me, I just decided to be a passionate woman.

What if you made the decision to bring passion to everything you do?

While taking a shower, when choosing what to wear, when answering the phone, before writing an article, during dinner or when making love?

I believe that’s why I’ve been able to create such an incredible life filled with wild adventures, brilliant people and a business that teaches women how to French Kiss Life.

The world falls in love with a passionate woman.  And, you don’t have to find it.  It’s within you.  Always has been.

Thoughts? Leave them below, sil vous plait! 

Tonya