Let’s look at recognising the different forms of passion and how you can harness these to align you more to your destiny and purpose.
Some people don’t like the word passion. It has negative connotations to them.
Nevertheless, passion is the fuel that will keep you going towards fulfilling your purpose and your fullest potential.
Zero passion equals a dull life and a very unordinary existence.
The truth is each one of us has passion, even if it is buried and doesn’t show up in an obvious way. Our passion reveals so much about our purpose. Knowing how to recognise our own unique form of passion or ‘resonance’ can help us enormously when recognising what our purpose is and how to pursue it.
Some of us feel we are not passionate about anything, but we are. It just doesn’t necessarily look like what we expect it to. Others of us have oodles of passion and excitement but we feel maybe we are a little over the top.
Neither is true, all passion is a good thing, (as long as it’s not ungodly or out of control).
Being in touch with your passion helps you be who you were designed to be. Embracing it and knowing how it points to your purpose is helpful to get you aligned and on track towards fulfilling your purpose to it’s very greatest potential.
So here are some typical ways passion shows up. Where do you see yourself in this list? How does this show you how you can embrace your passion and harness it to align you with your purpose?
Excitement, overwhelming passion, the jump up and down kind of passion.
If this, is you, that’s great! You are perhaps naturally an exuberant person. Sometimes people who are like this have a lot of ideas and want to do many different things. They can sometimes feel overwhelmed with possibilities and choices. The key to harnessing your naturally, excitable personality, is to look for what repeats again and again, throughout your life. When have you repeatedly felt the most resonant in what you do and who you do it with or for? Of all the things that excite you which are the most important to you. Focus is key. Picking that which is the icing on the cake, the most fulfilling will help you focus.
Passion, to start, establish or maintain.
You may be someone who has a passion to start something, or someone who has the tenacity to finish it, to see something through. Maybe you are both or just one of those. You could be directly involved throughout a project or meant to hand parts of it over. The trick is to know which is right in any given situation and finding peace with that. When there are several things God has put on your heart and you are a pioneer or an apostle, you will initiate but others may establish and maintain.
You may be passionate to establish, which takes longer than just initiating, but then are happy to hand it over for someone else to maintain.
You may be passionate to be a maintainer, taking on board something that has been formed and running with it and refining it and maintaining it consistently.
Harnessing your passion means knowing how and when it is appropriate to move on and understanding which level of detail you thrive in.
Passion to see others sorted.
You maybe a coach, a mentor or a teacher. Your passion maybe to see others thrive in what they are meant to be. Sometimes this is hard to see in yourself and to understand as you feel more passionate about empowering and facilitating others than yourself. Nonetheless this is a passion and it translates to many different sectors and arenas in society.
Teaching and coaching are pastoral types of gifts and come in many forms. As well as perhaps the more obvious outworking of this being someone who presents and delivers to live audiences, you could also be an author or a content developer of some kind.
If this is your passion, harnessing it well means understanding the audiences you are most passionate to reach and with what. What is the impact and change you want to see on these audiences and how do you want to reach them?
Quietly Passionate.
You maybe someone who does feel strongly about somethings, but more so on the inside and it doesn’t manifest much on the outside. Identifying what your key passions are will have to be an inward journey.
Ways your passion can manifest could be by how much time you spend on something or particular people, including how much time you spend thinking about these. Also looking at how much time you spend planning, learning, or teaching these. If something energises you rather than de-energises you, you have found your passion. If you’d rather be in it than not, this is a clear indication. When compared to other things if it wins, it’s something you are passionate about. Maybe you instinctively know how it is done well and take pride in that. Another indication of your passion.
Harnessing your passion, means being more mindful of these things and noticing when you are more engaged and less engaged. Then obviously doing more of what you feel a higher level of engagement with.
Passion for Change.
You may be a change warrior! You may often see what’s wrong with something and you know a better way, or you know there must be a better way. You may criticise others or constantly tell them what to do. It may be injustice you see. This is passion. You could have a soapbox topic that you often speak about. This is passion.
How can you harness this? Firstly, take ownership that you care about this, quite a lot! Secondly start to seek God and speak to others you can trust about why God has given you eyes to see this. Ask God what this may mean about what your purpose is. What part of the change are you meant to be a part of?
You may find yourself in several of these categories. Hopefully by reading this you will learn how to hear your own heart and understand the unique ways that your passion shows up and consequently, what this can show you about your purpose and focus.