The only life worth living is one you’re really passionate about.

-  GLEE (I admit, I watch it.  What!)

So do you know what your passion is?  Do you know how to find it?  For the longest time, this question has perplexed me.  The reason why it puzzled me was because I was searching for one all-encompassed answer as to why I did what I did.  Was I looking for a material object, an emotional realization, or maybe a spiritual affirmation?  I was in the dark.  All I knew was that I had to make money.  Maybe money was my passion.  I didn’t know.

After coming across a few videos online by a sharp man named Randy Komisar, Stanford lecturer and a best-selling author of the book “The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living“, I realized that I was on a dead end search.  He suggested that instead of seeing it as just one “passion”, you should open yourself up to a “portfolio of passions”.

He argues that once you can identify your passions, your goal is to figure out which direction you want to take your life.   The problem is the fact that it is easy to choose what is wrong from right.  However, when you have to choose from multiple right answers (multiple passions),  how do you choose the one you will move forth with?

The answer to this is twofold:

1. What do you ultimately want to do in your life?  What footprints on humanity do you intend on making?
2. What current opportunities align with your principles of life, emotions, and passions?

Randy goes on and demonstrates that he would pursue opportunities as they became apparent, but would change course as soon as he figured out that his current path no longer gave him satisfaction or fulfillment.  His life’s decisions were based on ones that coordinated with his principles and what he truly cared for.  With that, he lives a high quality life defined by his passions.

After learning about Komisar, I too wanted a life like his defined by my passions.  The key was to pursue it in a way that it would create a better life for me while making a living.  In my pursuit to make something happen, I had to ask myself some hard questions.  How did I position myself in life (education, obligations, etc)?  Will I actually change if I needed to?  How will me changing affect the relationships that I have with those that I care about?

How did I pursue my passions?

My approach definitely is not as scientific as Randy Komisar’s, but I incorporated his philosophy as much as I could.  It went down like this…

I wrote down all of my passions: biking, investing, writing, eating, women, buying a new car, helping people, inspiring, start a business, working out, board sports, dancing, higher learning, giving back, having a booth at a farmer’s market or arts & wine festival, traveling.  These were all based on my values and principles.

I got rid of all of the faux passions: board sports, biking, eating, socializing, dancing, new car.  My biggest problem here is that I mistook what I liked to do with what I was passionate about.  Don’t get me wrong, I did not stop these things.  I simply readjusted and reallocated my resources (time and money) towards other actions that I truly cared about.  For example: my “Old Self” would have bought the newest and best mountain bike possible.  Now,  any bike would suffice as long as it fit my needs.

I looked hard and deep into which passions would help my financial lifestyle.  So I cut out: Working Out, Farmer’s Market Booth, Women, Traveling.  Once again, I did not stop these actions, I just reallocated some of my resources.  For example, for my “Old Self” I would spend hours on end at the gym.  I guess I was a “people watcher”.  Now, I spend 30-40 minutes and I’m done.  No more comparison contests.  You know, the thing that you do when you stare at another person and think to yourself, “I am more fit than him/her”.

Married my passions with my resources.  This is the part where you do “You”.  Use your resources to be better at what you do.  Learn different approaches and viewpoints of your passion.  I learned how to be a better investor by expanding my arsenal and looking into different strategies other than my own.  I attended seminars on motivation and wealth creation.  I read more self development books and I followed more blogs to spur creativity within (zenhabits.net, abundance-blog.marelisa-online.com, thesimpledollar.com).

I aligned my passions with the opportunities around me.  Sometimes, those opportunities won’t be there immediately.  But once they emerge, you’ll need the courage of conviction to make something happen.  As for me, I took my passion of the stock market and I brought it to another level.  I went into option trading (something that I once deemed too risky).  I surrounded myself with a team of individuals that constantly encouraged, educated, and advised me.  From there, I became successful at merging my work with my passion.  Option trading has given me the freedom to make a living while creating a life that I want.

You see, it’s definitely not scientific.  Some would call it learning your passion by trial and error.  Anyhow, what do you guys think about Randy Komisar’s philosophy about finding your passion or rather “portfolio of passions”?  Have you found your passion(s)?  I would love to hear your comments.

Sayonara

Photo Credit: Jordan K.

Content Source: Academic Earth

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