Technique to Discover Your Passion

Make your dreams come true. Find your life’s purpose. Go where the wind takes you. Be your truest self. All of these things have something in common: passion. By uncovering your passion, the possibilities are endless in your pursuit of happiness. Follow the steps below as a guide for discovering your passion:

• Find a time where you have two or three straight hours free without disturbance.
  
• Start with 13 sheets of blank paper – lined or unlined, a journal works fine, and your favorite pen.
  
• Relax, take a few deep breaths and sink your mind into your heart, think with your heart, and write at the top of the first page, “What do I love? What makes me happy?”
  
• Begin writing everything that you remember that you loved and that made you happy from the earliest childhood memories until the present moment.
  
• Fill up all 13 pages, front and back. Do not leave any white empty spaces. Let it be flow, keep writing. It is amazing how memories suddenly appear out of nowhere.
  
• When you finish, take a brief 5 or 10 min break and come back to your 13 pages.
  
• Read what you wrote. as you read the 13 pages, you will start to notice trends. Circle where you notice themes arising.
  
• At the end, write all of your circled trends on another blank paper. You will see an overarching theme show up.
  
• Find one word or a phrase that describes the overarching theme. Voila, your passion! Then you can begin to formulate a plan based on your gift and your passion. Everyone I have guided in this exercise told me how clearly they could see and determine their next steps! They tapped into their inner excitement and creativity even without expecting this type of result.  

When I did this exercise, I discovered my overarching theme was change, transformation. This surprised me initially, and then as I reflected on this theme, I realized how passionate I truly am about transformation!
From there I formulated a plan: help facilitate transformation of individuals first, then transition to organizations in transition, and finally support the planet in change. The next day I signed up for a licensed, certification coaching program.