Reconnecting with your lost passion

There is something in your life that you are really passionate about; your art, your writing, your music, helping others, travelling, photography; something else. When you make time for them, there is no concept of time, it feels effortless and you are full of energy. You are happy.

But everyday life keeps sending those messages that your passion is better spent elsewhere; there are bills to pay and, everything else. Passions have become extra curricular activities, for those with time on their hands and no responsibilities. When you see someone else living your dream, you might feel sad for a while or a sense of longing, then quickly convince yourself that somehow, those possibilities don’t apply to you.

What has it been like to ignore your passion? For it to always take second place, and to never know what it could be? What if you did have time, it was possible, and you discovered that the thing you love to do left you better able to deal with your rest of your life?

From the age of 22, my career had been a series of jobs that I fell into, stayed in because its what I knew and had experience in, and eventually suffered because I had committed myself to a sentence of experienced but not happy. I had bills to pay, I was afraid of the unknown, and I feared losing security.

In 2011 fate intervened; I was informed one morning that I no longer had a job, effective immediately, as the company had just gone into liquidation.

After my initial fear, blaming and then numbness, I was overcome with an incredible emotion that I had not experience in a long time; relief.

For the first time in many years of my life I felt free. The ‘shoulds’ I’d imposed on myself, and the rules I took on from well meaning others, melted away. For the first time in a long time, I asked myself a question; what is it I want? What is it I am passionate about?

Fast-forward three years, and I found my passions also turned out to be my calling. I am an ordinary person who found out that the same possibilities that I told myself were only available other people could be available to me.

How to reconnect with your passion

Pay attention to the rules you have adopted into your language

Sometimes we spend so much time attending to ‘what should be’, we lose sight of how we actually feel. The ‘you cant’s’ and ‘its not the right time to’ were other people's rules and that I’d adopted. Sometimes they come from life experience. Security was something I valued very highly, at the detriment of experiencing something new. Now, contentment is something I value so much more.

Write down everything that you love

Then choose the top three and spend just one minute visualising them. Whether it’s singing, art, writing or yoga or whatever, notice the surge in energy, the elevation in your mood and the contentment within your body as you think about something you’re passionate about.

Seek others who get it

Are you surrounded by people that also ‘don’t have time’ don’t share your passion or have some of the same ‘should be doing’ rules as you. What would it be like to spend time with people who earn money for their love of photography? If you love to write, where are the other aspiring writers or those who have already published a book? What about the avid hikers you know that turned their passion for nature and walking into a profession and now lead hikes?

Set out time to nurture your passion

This may start out as 30 minutes or even 10 minutes a week. Just enough time to remind you how this things makes you feel and to do something that makes you feel connected, energised, excited, contented and it just makes sense. Plan these times in your diary. That way you can see that you do have time. Once you have got into the routine, increase the time and allow that one thing that nourishes you help you experience what true passion feels like.

What do you love so much that you would do it for free?

Between that thing that you love and you do effortlessly, is where you’ll find your true passion, your gift and your calling.