Warning Signs of a Passionless Life

Designing a passionate life and living a life aligned with those passions is the secret to a life filled with joy and fulfillment. How to change from a passionless life to a life overflowing with passion begins with self-reflection of your life as it is today.

To start the self-reflection process, take the following personal inventory and find out how much passion you have in your life at this moment. Find out how many of the following questions you answer yes to.

1. Are you bored?
2. Is the zest for life gone?
3. Do you experience the “Thank Goodness it’s Friday syndrome”?
4. From all outside appearances, your life looks wonderful. Do you find yourself wondering why it isn’t fun anymore?
5. Do you have to literally force yourself to go to work?

If you answered yes to more than three of these questions then you may be suffering from passion deficit disorder. You have no passion anywhere in your life. You have fallen into a routine because it is comfortable, convenient, and safe. Bottom line, you’ve settled. Don’t beat yourself up, you’re not alone. In a 2005 Harris Interactive Study, 80% of Americans are not passionate about what they do for a living.

Having no passion for what you do in life overflows into all aspects of your life. You do not have the energy to contribute to your relationships and family. You lose interest in the hobbies that you used to love. Friends and family don’t find you ‘fun’ anymore and life feels hard, boring, and routine. It can affect your health. You become old before your time.

Well, the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. You do have a choice and that choice is to start exploring what does energize you, what does get you excited about life. Find out what you’re passionate about and your life will take on a whole new level of energy, meaning and fulfillment.

Let’s take a look at how you can start making the shift to the possibility of a passion filled life rather than settling for a passionless life.

7 Ways to Identify Your Passions

Before you begin the process of identifying your passions, I want you to put aside the voice inside of you saying “ya but” and live totally in the realm of possibility. During this process you are going to reconnect to those things that make you smile, energize you, and you are curious about. Let the energy flow, get excited, and get connected to that energy. It is still there inside of you waiting to be expressed, let it come out. You are looking for the clues to your passions. Don’t worry about how to get there, right now simply connect to what gives you joy.

• Make a list of the things that you spend your free time doing or researching. What are the things you love to do, read about, or want to know about? What can’t you get enough information about?

• Revisit your childhood dreams. Do any of your childhood dreams still appeal to you? What aspects of your childhood dreams can you reconnect to? Write down the childhood dreams that still energize you.

• For one week, write down the things that you do well, the things that are ‘fun’ for you to do. Notice as you go through your work day, what you ‘like’ to do. Notice what you like about your job and write it down. If you don’t have a job, notice what does give you joy throughout your day.

• Ask your family and friends what have they noticed about you that gives you joy. Often times your family and friends notice things that you may be blind to seeing.

• Look at all areas of your life for clues to your passions. Family/friends, career, finances, spirituality, health, community service, home, significant other, and fun/recreation. What are the things in these areas of your life that you look forward to? Make a list of all of these.

• Spend some time noticing what is going on around you and inside of you when you go through each day. When do you smile during the day? What causes you to smile? What energizes you during the day?

• On a piece of paper create two columns, on the left side; write down things that are important to you and in the right columns write down your strengths. Play with the combinations of the two columns and see what comes up.

Compile a list of all of the items that you have gathered over a week’s time. Let the list be as long as you like. Read each item on the list out loud and notice how it makes you feel inside. Do you feel lighter when you read it or do you feel heavier when you read it? Pay attention to the items that make you feel heavier, are they truly passions or things you think are passions? Start to cross off the items that don’t feel energizing to you. Use your list as the starting point for the possibilities of living a passion filled life.

I wonder what would happen if you were able to identify your passions and start living in alignment with your passions?