– by Pene Beavan Horton –
Some of us at 80 are still wondering what we want to be or do when we grow up – other lucky ones have known since they were eight or younger. Why do some of us spend our whole lives passionately pursuing our passion, while others have no passion to pursue?
Is this just the luck of the draw for people who find their passion early? Or is the passion born out of the environment in which we are nurtured as we grow up? Is our “luck” due to passionate parents and opportunities for growth, or are some people born with more imagination than others? Are some people born creative and others not? Where does passion come from?
Some of us have a passionate desire to help others in need, while others set their hearts on becoming great athletes, artists, explorers or political leaders and spend thousands of hours working towards their goal.
But what of those who “lead lives of quiet desperation?” Are they desperate because they don’t know what their passion is, or desperate because they have never had the means nor the energy to pursue it?
How many of us are passionate about our jobs? For most of us our jobs are not our passion. But can we make them so? We often have a nagging sense that there should be more to life than the work we do. If we want to get out of bed in the morning full of excitement because we have another day to follow our passion, then we need a passion to follow.
What many people don’t realize is that passions can be developed. The secret? Choose something, then throw yourself into it wholeheartedly. Focus on it. Think about how to enhance every aspect of it. The more we think, plan and study how to improve even the most mundane job, the more it will appeal to us.
Try it. A focused effort to improve what we are doing in every possible way may lead to an exciting discovery … that even if our job isn’t something we want to do forever, by exploring every possible way to improve our performance we will have created in ourselves a different kind of passion: a passion for excellence.
Excellence is worth pursuing for its own sake. For our own sake. Excelling at something makes life joyful. We feel we are contributing to our family and our community. We are making a difference.
A passion for excellence stains everything we do with light and colour. We can follow this passion whatever we choose to do, whether we’re eight or 80 …
If we cultivate a mindset of gratitude and the pursuit of excellence, no matter our situation, we won’t have to look back on our life and feel sad because we have never had a passion to follow. We can look back over our life with pleasure and think: “I was the best darn bottle washer … or whatever … on the planet!”
That’s what I wanted to be when I grew up … and I did it!
