Want More Passion?

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Passion is not found

— it’s forged

People speak about ‘finding their passion’ as if they’re waiting for a missing sock to turn up.

It’s passive.

As soon the word, “finding,” is placed in front of the word “passion,” we’ve already forgotten what passion is. Forgotten, as in you once knew. As a kid, you never needed to find your passion. You were never devoid of passion; you became more of who you were.

Passion is the embodiment of your identity.

Finding your passion implies passion is currently lost. Misplaced. Gone. You’re at the mercy of passion magically coming out of hiding. Re: missing sock. Waiting on passion is the exact opposite of how passion works.

Because passion is active.

Passion is not found, it’s forged.

Passion is not a state of being, it’s a practice.

Passion is not contemplating what to do next.

Passion is a relationship to yourself within yourself. You don’t have to find passion, you already have it.

Passion is the methodical, incessant, giving over of oneself

to a force greater than self,

until one is bereft of the self

he or she first started with.

Yes, in passion, you might find a newer, stronger version of yourself. A self you knew existed, but had not idea how it’d manifest.

While you can take ownership over passion, you don’t own it.

And while passion cannot leave you, you also can’t force it into existence.

Passion is a muscle; it must be fueled; it must be tested; it must be torn to grow.

When you push into something new, you grow in passion. When you push into something you’ve done a thousand times in a different way, you grow in passion.

We’ve been conditioned to think that the road to freedom involves feeling comfortable. That the road to success is the removal of obstacles. Passion is not Bengay; passion is not momentary relief.

That would be external. Passion is internal. Passion is not comfortable.


How does passion relate to therapy?

Most people come into therapy wanting a problem to be removed. As if by the removal of a particular issue, their life will somehow be on track. They’ll be unstuck. However, what’s more likely? It’s not that the obstacle is making them stuck. The obstacle is merely an indicator as to the root of the stuck state.

Passion is not the removal of obstacles. Passion is working through discomfort to use obstacles as fuel, thereby building sustainable freedom. As you work through uncomfortable obstacles, thereby growing passion, you’ll have all the tools you need to push through stuck states.

Dan Loneypassion