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What is passion? How do you describe it? Read on to see what 15 people who’ve found their true calling in life say about finding passion.

Passion is one of those great things in life that have so many meanings (as it’s a different thing for each and every person), and at the same time can’t really be put into words.

Defining it is merely someone’s desire to describe what they feel when they’re in the zone, when they’ve found his true calling, when they’re next to the person they love, or else.

So let’s not underestimate the power of passion by limiting it only to love. That’s just your affection for a person. But you can have as strong feelings towards your job, hobby, city, traveling the world, communicating, etc.

Whatever yours is, I know one thing: You need to follow it, put your heart and soul into that thing and dedicate as much time as you can.

It’s the reason you wake up with enthusiasm in the morning, it’s what moves you so much that it makes you cry.

Let’s check out how others describe passion:

What is Passion: 15 People Describe Passion

1. Leo Babauta from ZenHabits

This will be the thing that will get you motivated to get out of bed in the morning, to cry out, “I’m alive! I’m feeling this, baby!”. And to scare your family members or anyone who happens to be in yelling distance as you do this.

It may be something at work — a little part of your job that gets you excited. It could be something you do outside of work — a hobby, a side job, something you do as a volunteer or a parent or a spouse or a friend. It could be something you haven’t done in a while.

Again, think about this for 30 minutes, or 15 at the least.

2. Dan Andrews from TropicalMBA

If you can’t do something 5 hours a day, every day, you don’t like it enough to be highly successful at it.

I use 5 hours as my rule of thumb because it’s ambitious but plausible for most people.

If you find something you can do for 5 hours a day, it’s probably worth going at it with all your energy.

It’s rare. The upsides for people who can manage it are huge.

If you are enamored with the benefits of a pursuit, but cannot work 5 hours a day on it, you are better off exploring other options.

3. Scott H. Young

…passions are built, but interests are discovered. I agree that the person waiting for life to provide them with a passion is a fool. However, I’d say the same of the person hoping they will fall in love with a pursuit that doesn’t interest them.

…if you’re trying to find out what you want to do with your life, look for sparks. If you’re interested in a topic, consider mastering it. You don’t need to fall head-over-heels in love with a subject to make it your primary focus. Those feelings often come with time.

Once again, I feel the approach to finding a career/life path is like finding a relationship. Most people aren’t naive enough to believe that they are going to be instantly in love from the first meeting.

But at the same time, if you aren’t at least attracted to someone, there is little potential. The interest needs to be there before you can be passionate.

Source: Are Passions Discovered or Constructed?

4. Mark Manson

Finding the passion and purpose in your life is a trial-by-fire process.

You don’t simply wake up one day and become happy doing one thing forever and ever. Like death, it’s a constant work-in-progress.

You must try something, pay attention to how it feels, adjust and then try again. Nobody gets it right on the first try, or the tenth or sometimes even the two-hundredth.

And what Bukowski understood more than most was that doing what you love is not always loving what you do.

There’s an inherent sacrifice to it. Just like choosing a spouse, it’s not choosing someone who makes you happy all the time, it’s choosing somebody who you want to be with even when they’re pissing you off.

It’s something that feels like an inevitability, like you have no choice because this is simply who you are, dysfunction and all. It’s your chosen vehicle towards death.

And you’re happy to let it take you there. But you’re under no illusions that it won’t be a bumpy ride or without surprises along the way.

Just like few of us experience love at first sight, few will experience passion and meaning at first experience.

Like a relationship, we must build it from scratch, piece-by-piece, until after years of brick and sweat, it can stand on its own.

Source: Find What You Love and Let It Kill You

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5. Oliver Emberton

…many of the world’s most successful people dropped out of education entirely. Not because they were stupid – but because they found other areas where they were more skilled that education did not recognise.

They created their own passions.

If you can find something new that’s growing fast, and get skilled at it early, you’ll find it disproportionately easy to excel because of the lack of competition.

And that’s your new passion right there.

Passion is attractive. As passion comes from believing you’re unusually good at something, being passionate is a very sincere way of saying, “by the way, I’m awesome”.

Passion will persuade people to follow you. It will persuade people to believe in you. But most importantly, passion will persuade yourself.

Passion is an emotion specifically intended to make you go crazy and work your ass off at something because your brain believes it could rock your world. That, like love, is a feeling worth fighting for.

Source: How to Find Your Passion?

6. Steve Pavlina

Passion is simply an emotional state, and a temporary and unstable one at that.

The reason passion gets so much credit is that it helps motivate action. And action is what generates results.

7. Rob from MakingItAnywhere

If you do have a passion, by all means follow it: you’ll learn more about yourself and the world than you would from just sitting in an average office job. But unless you can find a way of making it useful enough for people to pay you to do it, happiness and success aren’t guaranteed.

And if you don’t have a passion, don’t worry. Take the time to experiment, focus on producing something of quality that’s useful to people, and let your passion find you.

… when starting out, there’s no real way of knowing how things will pan out, which initiatives will be successful, and what you’ll enjoy working on.

So you may as well continue with your passion projects at the same time.

They’ll keep you sane while you’re grinding away at your business or freelancing career, and they may well turn into something that can make your main business more successful – or even become the main business itself.

8. Jeff Goins

When I began to write for passion, at first nobody seemed to care. But I kept at it, kept doing the best work I could no matter how many (or how few) paid attention. And slowly over time, people took notice.

Why? Because there is something attractive about passion.

Our work is more than what we do or make. It’s the entirety of effort that goes into each step of the process. In a sense, it’s what we don’t see.

So when you’re sweating and bleeding and loving every minute of it, remember: this is the reward.

When we set sail in search of our life’s work, this is what we must seek: passion. Not fame or rewards or riches, but a willingness to quietly do our work, trusting the sowing-and-reaping nature of life. Remembering that good things come in time if we do our jobs well.

So where does that leave us? Where, practically, can you go from here?

Strive to do your work with gratitude and generosity. Because this part is not you paying your dues or delaying gratification until payday. This is the best it gets.

9. Tynan

Passions are very rarely big nouns like, cars, computers, or dogs. They’re usually verbs, and they’re usually specific.

The best way I can suggest to find a passion that you’ve built is to think about what really excites you. Forget about business, just think about what in life makes you live in the moment and ignore everything else. For me it’s evangelizing living an awesome life.

It’s critical to be doing something you’re passionate about. I don’t believe anyone will have runaway success without this. To be massively successful you need to put 110% into it, and few people can do that without passion. I know I can’t.

Don’t look for a business that you’re passionate about. Find one of the thousands of businesses that you can apply your passion to, and develop it. Focus on it exclusively and push through the dip.

Source: Finding Your Passion

10. Sam Walton

Here’s how Sam Walton describes passion:

If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you – like a fever.

11. Sebastian Marshall

I had this vague thought that maybe I want to be a painter, but I was never really excited about it until I did it, and then I saw a couple sparks of inspiration and passion starting to grow.

But when I investigated what the training would be like and started learning how to draw, it didn’t really resonate with me.

There’s lots of things I enjoy and think are worth pursuing, but the time I’d have to put in to learn how to draw and paint, I didn’t think would be worth putting in.

And I think that’s how you discover passions. Take a crack at it once and see if you like it at all. Then start studying and improving your craft, and see if you like that too…

I think following your passions is overrated to some extent.

I mean, yes, follow your passions, but it’s not a magical solution to all problems. There’s this general advice that, “Follow your passions and things work out” and I’m just not sure it’s true.

Yes, follow your passions, but also do other things right.

12. Robin Sharma

Without passion, nothing great ever gets built. Passion fuels innovation, builds a fantastic team and makes the impossible possible.

I want to express my passion in all that I do. Otherwise, what’s the point?

13. Jonathan Mead

It’s something you take seriously — it’s deeply important to you, yet you feel intimidated. You don’t want to screw it up. You don’t want to spend years of your life going in the wrong direction.

Most people will tell you that you need to go on a quest to “discover” your passion. I don’t think that’s the best advice.

Your greatest passion is within you. And there’s an incredibly great chance that it’s not singular.

Your passion can include a multitude of desires and a melting pot of interests. You can be passionate about many things and not have any of them compete for the #1 spot.

But whether you have one passion or an infinite number of passions, they are within you. Right now. Waiting to be recovered.

You must not only have a passion for your craft, but an earnest desire to help others.

If you can’t get as thrilled about helping others with your gifts as you get about the gift itself, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to attract others to your message.

Source: Find Your Passion

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14. Joel Runyon from ImpossibleHQ

You probably don’t need any help “finding your passion”.

I know what I like doing. Chances are that you do too.

You don’t need to “find your passion”. Just do more of the things you like doing. If you’re not sure what you like to do, find more things to say yes to, and see how much you enjoy them.

15. Craig Ballantyne

It’s amazing what you can do when you are consumed by passion. Wake up early. Work long hours. Skip meals. Focus with laser-sharp intensity. And get up early the next day and happily do it again.

You are a lucky person if that kind of passion comes into your life once or twice. If it stays with you for years and drives your career, you are blessed.

You can get that passion in your life. You can get it for your job, for your lovers and partners, and even for the place where you live.

Contrary to what some self-help gurus say, passion does not come from choosing the right people and things in your life. It does not come from people and things at all. Passion comes from you and only you. And it goes wherever you want it to.

If you want passion in your life, there is only one way to get it. Care.

Care about your job. Care about your spouse. Care about your house, your town, and your country.

The more you care, the greater your passion. The greater your passion, the earlier you’ll rise eager to tend to what you care about.

Source: Extreme Success: It’s All About Passion
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So how do you describe passion? What is passion for you? Have you found it in your life yet?

What is passion for you? Check out how 15 successful people describe passion and how it has changed their life:
About The Author

Lidiya Kesarovska

I'm a blogger, author, course creator and the founder of Let's Reach Success and it's my mission to share my knowledge in lifestyle design, blogging, business and personal development with you so you can manifest all your desires and serve your purpose as a business owner.
I've been named one of the top 10 course creators and experts to watch in 2021 by Yahoo! Finance, have written for TIME magazine, have been featured on Thrive Global, Disrupt Magazine, and more, and quoted on publications like Entrepreneur, Fit Small Business and Fundera.
After turning my blog into a full-time online business, I now teach others how to do the same because financial freedom doesn’t need to be just a dream.
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