When your work ignites the fire within, awakens a sense of purpose and aligns with your highest values, you not only experience deep personal fulfilment, but the fruits of your labour create positive ripples well beyond the workplace.
It all starts with passion.
Passion brings out your best work
When you do things you’re passionate about, you become ‘more alive’ physically, mentally and emotionally. Your energy vibration uplifts, your face lights up and you become super focused on the activity at hand spurred by the rush of dopamine and endorphins flowing palpably through your body.
When you’re passionate about your work, it brings out your inner brilliance and you achieve great outcomes.
In his iconic research on the attributes of the world’s greatest companies, Jim Collins found that one of the three essential differences between the good-to-great companies and the comparison companies was that the former had a deep understanding of, and were able to execute on, what they were deeply passionate about.
Collins says that passion, as a key part of an organisation’s strategic framework, can’t be manufactured; you can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of others.
‘The good-to-great companies did not say, ‘Okay, folks, let’s get passionate about what we do’. Sensibly, they went the other way entirely: We should only do those things that we can get passionate about”,’ (1)
So, the question is, how do you find something you can get passionate about?
Discovering your passion
Discovering what you’re passionate about through your work requires asking questions about the kinds of things that motivate you and give you the most pride, satisfaction and meaning.
Consider these questions to discover your passion:
- At what times in your life did you love what you were doing while you were doing it?
- What kind of work inspires you?
- What kind of environment do you like working in?
- What kinds of tasks and projects at work energise you?
- What’s important to your professional growth?
Connect to purpose through passion
As an affair of the heart, without a cause to which it can engage the mind to find meaning, passion as energy, simply dissipates.
Victor Frankl’s iconic 1946 literary work, Man’s Search for Meaning, highlights the importance of finding meaning in your life. Frankl believed that people are motivated by a ‘will to meaning’ (2); an inner desire to find meaning.
When you consider we can spend about a third of our life at work, it makes sense to direct our natural passions towards a role, project or cause to which we can contribute our skills and talents and, in return, experience fulfilment, satisfaction and joy derived from a sense of meaning.
Consider these hypothetical questions to find a meaningful cause to which you can direct your passions and gain a strong sense of purpose through your work:
- If you knew you had to retire one year from now, what kind of work would you do?
- At your retirement function, what aspect of your work/career will you be most proud of?
- If money, status or qualifications were no object, what kind of work/career would you pursue?
Being aware of your passion and connecting it to a worthy cause is a pathway to seek out jobs and careers more likely to bring you happiness and satisfaction. You’ll not only be inspired to do your best work, you’ll also enhance your reputation.
[1] Collins, J. Good to Great, p. 109
[2] Madeson, M. Logotherapy: Viktor Frankl’s Theory of Meaning, 28 Jul 2020 https://positivepsychology.com/viktor-frankl-logotherapy/
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