Motivating Yourself: Find Your Passion

 If you’re clueless as to how exactly to motivate yourself, first you have to inject a little passion into your life. What does it mean to find your passion? It’s not merely a preference for a particular item or activity: it’s something that gives you true joy; if time, bodily functions, or other obligations weren’t a factor, it’s an activity that you could happily devote much of your life on. To have a passion for something sends electricity running through your veins. There’s an extra spring in your step and sparkle in your eye. Often, to experience your passion requires zero effort on motivating yourself, because the simple act of doing your passion is plenty motivation enough.

            Finding your passion is important when chasing after motivation—because it’s easy enough to find the things that have to be done. Most people are buried under such a mountain of obligations that the idea of motivating themselves is laughable.

            So how does one find their passion? It requires a little self-awareness and a dash of introspection. Try sitting down in a quiet place, either in meditation or not. With paper and a pen, list down anything that answers these questions:

·        Is there anything from your past that you really enjoyed doing?

·        Is there anything that you currently enjoy doing—either at work or for recreation?

·        Was there anything you always wanted to try, but time/your parents/money/circumstances prevented it?

·        Is there anything—no matter how small—that you feel you do well?

·        Say you won millions in the lottery—what would be the first thing you’d do?

Pay attention to what you’re feeling as you’re doing your list—does thinking about a particular activity get you excited, happy, nervous? It’s important not to judge where your thoughts and emotions will take you here. Just keep penning down what you like doing. Try to get at least 20 items down on the page.

Next—go forth and do these activities! Impossible! you may think. If you have something like “scuba-dive off the coast of the Caribbean,” how about practicing at your local pool with goggles and flippers? If “learning how to play the guitar” is one, try searching online for tutorials. The point is to take baby steps towards what interests you. Start with researching about what you like. Then go do it! Once you figure out what you’re passionate about, it can lead you closer to a goal you want for yourself and lend you motivation to run after it.