Some Final Thoughts on Passion at Work

I believe we’ve created a good case here this month for finding passion and having it present in your work. Now the big question – how do you integrate it into your career when you work for an employer in a structured environment for a good steady paycheck, or own a business not quite doing what you love because the money’s so good doing something else?

If you’ve identified a passion like photography for instance, and work for an accounting firm, that appears to be a huge obstacle. Taking advice from The Passion Test authors, you must break that passion down (much like goals) to make them more manageable and easier to incorporate into your life right now. So you think about the different aspects of photography you most enjoy, and brainstorm ways to bring that into your work life. Offering to take photos of the next company event, for the next annual report, or even proposing a display of your work in the cafeteria to let people know what you love to do are some very viable ideas.

Eventually, you realize that photography is such a huge piece of your life that your next job must allow for its use somehow. That’s where, as they mention in the book, creating a template of your passions and laying it on top of your next decision, challenge, and opportunity comes into play. Always choose in favor of your passions.

Now what about the money? Can you make a living solely following your passion? Yes. With a realistic picture of your financial needs and a well defined action plan, not to mention patience and dedication, you can make this happen. And something funny begins to take place while you are working more and more with your passion. Money becomes less of a focus, you are intent on your passionate activity, and the money actually does start to follow without you having to constantly worry and oversee it.

I encourage you to take these ideas to heart. For most of us, our work is a major part of our lives. It doesn’t have to be the one piece that you like the least. It should be something you look forward to, are fulfilled by, and that serves your true desires.

Let me know your thoughts and experiences with integrating your passions into your work. Please post a comment!

Passion at Work: Who Needs it?

So do you really need Passion, that “extreme, compelling emotion” (Webster’s) in your work? A popular non-conforming-type author says hard work and excellence are the true keys to success. He says to set your passion aside and just get really good at what you do. Interesting… I hold that the opposite is true: that passion plays a strong role in getting good. Extensive research by author Marcus Buckingham shows that people excel at what they like or even love to do. Furthermore, key factors for increased levels of productivity and profitability are tied to employees’ ability to do work they love. Hard work alone without some degree of drive (read passion) does not mean assured success. What do you think?

Here’s a good reason to keep pursuing your passions: good health. Drs. Newberg and Waldman, both neuroscientists and authors of Born to Believe, say “the brain is very happy when you’re focused on what you love. The more you focus on what you truly love and desire, the volume gets turned down in those parts of the limbic system where the destructive emotions of fear, anger, depression, and anxiety are controlled. This allows you to think more clearly.”
They go on to say, “You also turn up the volume in other parts of the limbic system that generate positive emotions. When this happens, you get a release of dopamine, endorphins, and a variety of stress-reducing hormones and neurotransmitters. The more you focus on what you truly love, the healthier you are likely to be, and the more you will feel the positive effects of those stress-reducing neurochemicals in your body and mind.”

Passion in our work means happiness, clear thinking, less stress, and good health. I’ll continue defining mine and working toward incorporating them into my work life. How about you?
Please post a comment!

Passion - Getting Clear

I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Janet and Chris Attwood, the authors of The Passion Test this past weekend. In addition to talking about their own and others’ interesting stories, they led the audience through the first steps of the Test itself. Here’s a glimpse into how it works:

List 10 things which will make your life and your work ideal, which when accomplished, will make you feel fulfilled and complete. Complete the sentence, “when my life is ideal I am…”

Now starting with the first one, compare its importance in your life to the next one and the next one and so on. (as if you could only choose one or the other) If another takes priority, then begin comparing that one with the others that follow. Do this exercise until your top 5 come to light. These are your passions.

If they don’t seem very clear at this point, go back to step one. I did and each time I got a little clearer. The authors say “When you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only the extent you are clear.”

There are more steps such as creating markers or identifiers of what will be happening when you are living these passions, vision boards, and action plans of things you can do right now to start living your passions. Each step helps you get closer to what truly drives you and is most important.

There’s no doubt in my mind that living our passions makes us happier, more successful and fulfilled. Here’s what Scottish theologian and author, William Barclay (1907-1978) had to say: “There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.” We each have unique gifts derived from our passions. All we have to do is identify them and then use to them to enrich not only our own lives, but those of others too.

Interested enough to find out more? Purchase the book or take it online at http://www.passiontestonline.com/, where it asks you for a small donation. This exercise of delving into your core is very worth the money and time. Build your life – personal and work – around what matters to you most.

More: The Value of Coaching - International Coaches Week

Thinking about hiring a coach? Common benefits to working with a coach include:
Gaining fresh perspectives on your personal challenges and new opportunities
Enhanced decision making and problem solving skills
Improved interpersonal effectiveness
Increased confidence in your work and life roles

In my experiences of working with my own business and spiritual coaches, I have gained their objective insight on whatever issue I bring to the table, and even better, I gain the invaluable opportunity to talk it out knowing they are really listening to me. There's sometimes nothing better than that seemingly small gift. They hear me talk and then they listen between the words for what else might be going on to help me get to the real issue at hand.

That's what I appreciate about the coaching field. It's filled with people who really care and simply want to help others. If you are changing jobs, leaving relationships, building a business, looking for purpose or even physical well-being, there's a coach out there ready to assist. As the current President of the San Diego Professional Coaches Alliance, I am proud to be associated with many people like this. Please visit our website at www.sandiegocoaches.com to meet some of them and www.coachfederation.org to learn more about our industry.

You can accomplish anything with a coach!

The Value of Coaching - International Coaches Week

This week is earmarked as International Coaches Week, which was started in 1999, to recognize the difference that Personal and Business Coaches make in individuals’ lives and how they add to the health of organizations when employees are trained, and then coached, into higher productivity and satisfaction in the workplace.

So what exactly is this field of Coaching all about? Coaching is a supportive relationship with a trained professional that enhances one's ability to learn, make desired changes, solve problems, and achieve goals. Coaches work with their clients individually or in groups, face-to-face or by telephone, typically in a series of regularly scheduled sessions.

Coaching is not consulting, teaching, or therapy because it is not focused on giving advice, delivering curriculum, healing dysfunction, or analyzing behavior. The focus of coaching is on guiding a client to find their own unique answers. Coaches won't tell them what to do or what they need to learn. A coach supports them in strategizing solutions, choosing the right direction, building personal skills, and raising awareness. Coaching doesn't spend time in the past; it concentrates on where a person is today and how to get to where they want to be tomorrow.

People typically hire a coach when they:
Determine that their goals and dreams are not being achieved by their current methods;
Have the willingness to be challenged, supported, and called forth to approach things differently;
Decide they are willing to do what it takes to create change in their lives

Thinking about hiring a coach? For more information on the Coaching industry, visit http://www.sandiegocoaches.com/ and http://www.coachfederation.org/.

February - A Month for Passion (in your work): The Passion Test

February is a good month to talk about passion, wouldn’t you agree?
For the next few Mondays, the topic of discussion will be about finding passion in your work, not the February 14th kind (I’ll leave that one to you).

A particularly good book I’ve been reading is The Passion Test by Chris and Janet Attwood, which is filled with guidance, inspirational stories, quotations and exercises for identifying your passions and following them.
Let me rephrase that – rather than “following them”, the ideal scenario is to take control and make your passions the template for your life where you choose only those activities and projects which match those passions and will take you closer to realizing the life you want. In the book, the authors say repeatedly, “Whenever you are faced with a choice, a decision, or an opportunity, choose in favor of your passions.”

The book instructs you how to actually take the “Passion Test” (which you can also do online at http://www.passiontestonline.com/), create “Passion Cards” to help get clear and affirm them, and make what they term “Markers”, indicators that you are truly living your passions. I recommend spending some time with this – what you think is your passion may be only a small piece of a bigger one that you can really get your arms around and integrate more fully in your life. And if you’ve never sat down to figure out what they are, here’s a great start.

If you decide to purchase the book and work through it, I’ll be interested to know your thoughts and results. Please post a comment!