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Last week, I talked about what it means to be “passion poor” (feelings of hunger and emptiness when we are living without passion).
This week, I want to talk about what “passion rich” looks like. It includes all the benefits of pursuing your passions. Benefits that come from living a life with passion and making our passions our plan, not just our dream.
Passion Rich Benefits
When it comes to life in general, there are many benefits to pursuing our passions, whether they’re a hobby or a form of service to our fellow man, or both.
These benefits include:
1. A simplified life and personal freedom.
With all the chaos and information overload in today’s world, there’s something very freeing about going back to the basics of our interests and joys.
Over time we tend to complicate what was once something simple. This introduces confusion, and eventually our passions and reasons for doing something get misplaced.
Rediscovering our passions (or discovering new ones!) can bring some simplicity back into our lives. This can lead to new freedom in our day-to-day routines.
2. Greater self-awareness and self-confidence.
Many times we feel pressure from family or society to be something we’re not. This can cause our confidence to plummet because we aren’t operating in our own strengths and interests.
Taking time alone to listen to what our soul is telling us and to recognize our strengths and interests leads to authenticity, which in turn leads to greater self-confidence.
3. Expansion of our comfort zones.
As our self-confidence increases, we begin to push the boundaries of our comfort zones.
It’s in this expanded territory where we can discover new passions we never knew we had!
4. Empowerment.
With increased self-confidence and new strengths and interests, we become empowered to combine our passions and take them to a new level that can benefit a greater whole.
Making A Living With Our Passions
Oftentimes, when we’re pursuing our passions authentically, our passions become our career or vocation. We’re actually able to get paid to do the things we love to do!
For some of us, we kind of just “fall” into such a situation.
For the rest of us, we have to make a conscious, intentional decision to make a career change, and then figure out how to do that. This frequently involves changing our vision, overcoming our fears, and maneuvering through a variety of obstacles.
The benefits of taking our passions to the next level and turning them into our vocations include:
5. Work we love.
There’s nothing more life-draining than being stuck in a job that doesn’t bring us some form of joy and doesn’t utilize our strengths and interests.
Now, I must say what I’ve always told my clients when coaching them on their careers. None of us are ever going to love 100% of our job 100% of the time. But if we can find something we love at least 60% of the time, then we can be enriched and fulfilled in our work.
And yes, there are ways to find such work!
6. Professional growth and career success.
When we’re doing what we love, we can’t help but excel and grow in our area of expertise. This can lead to rapid promotion and career success.
7. Professional freedom.
In pursuing our passions as a living, we can have the opportunity to be our own boss which gives us professional freedom such as choosing who we want to work with, making our own schedule, and even obliterating salary caps!
8. Fulfillment of our vocational purposes.
There’s nothing more rewarding and fulfilling than knowing we’re doing the work we were called to do. This happens when we’re using our skillset to do what we love and what benefits others which results in a return. It’s what I call “finding your sweet spot.”
Benefits of a Harmonious Life And Career
When we’re able to incorporate our passions into both our careers and our lives, we get to experience the ultimate benefits:
9. Cohesiveness and harmony in work and life.
When we experience this benefit, the lines between work and life are blurred because our work often doesn’t feel like work.
The joy we experience in our work spills over into our lives, and vice versa.
10. Increased satisfaction overall.
The cohesiveness mentioned above leads to an overall satisfaction with every area of our lives.
11. Being part of something bigger than ourselves.
As humans we are all born with a desire to fulfill a purpose that fits into the bigger picture and grand scheme of our world. We want to leave the legacy of having made an improvement and impact on our surroundings in our time here on earth.
We accomplish this through the unique passions and abilities with which we’ve been equipped.
Our passions are meant to be discovered, pursued and used. They were never meant to lie dormant or be hidden under a rock!
Do you need help unearthing some old (or new) passions? Or do you need help figuring out how to incorporate your passions into your life or career?
Check out the complimentary on-demand program 5 Ways to Pursue Your Passions in Life and Work.
