BOOK EXCERPT The Passion Plan:
A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovering, Developing, and Living Your Passion
by Richard Chang
Published by Jossey-Bass Publishers
ISBN 0-7879-48213-6
Hardcover - 285 pages - $25.00
What's Your
Passion? How to Discover, Develop, and Live It
Do you spend a lot
of time doing things you don't want to do, in places you don't want to be,
for no other reason than that you feel you have to? You have to bring home
a paycheck, please your friends and family, and meet the expectations
society has set for you. If nothing else, you find yourself in less than
an ideal situation out of habit. You follow the path your life begins to
take and are too afraid or reluctant to change your course.
Regardless of your circumstances, you probably want more. You might not be
able to put a finger on it, but you still sense that you are not
accomplishing all you can and that fulfillment is eluding you. Are you
failing to reach your full potential as a professional or a parent? Have
you abandoned a dream that part of you aches to realize? Do you yearn to
have a more lasting impact on the world? Such feelings might not be
burning desires but, rather, subtle longings that consistently remind you
that something else awaits you if only you'll work for it.
Profit with a Capital P
What you hope for, secretly or openly, is what I call "Profit with a
capital P." Success, with its traditional connotations of a good
salary, a nice home, and a country club membership, is no longer a
sufficient term to represent the scope and complexity of your desires. As
you enter a new century and a new millennium, you have come to expect
more. You want to profit not only financially, but also in terms of your
emotional, spiritual, physical, interpersonal, and professional
experiences.
You don't just want a big paycheck; you want to feel good about how you
earn it. You want to take pride in your work, be excited about it, and
know that you are growing through it. You don't just want to have a few
children and send them to college, you want to spend significant time with
them, give them every opportunity to discover their talents, and teach
them that they, too, are entitled to more. You don't just want to put in
time at work only to collect a pension at age 65. You want to work for
yourself, retire on your own terms (if at all), and find new ways to
heighten your experience aside from your professional life. In short, you
want to create and define your own success. You want to build your own
Profit.
Passion Is the Answer
In counseling individuals and consulting with organizations for over
twenty-five years, I have learned that those who overcome the deterrents
to fulfillment derive their energy and initiative from a single source:
passion. Not the romantic variety--although many would argue it certainly
cannot hurt--but the kind that fills them with energy and excitement, gets
them up in the morning, and keeps them awake at night. When they
experience it, they lose track of time and become absorbed in the task at
hand. This passion creates personal intensity and uplifts and inspires
them. It heightens their performance and enables them to achieve things
they may never have dreamed possible. Most importantly, this passion holds
the key to their happiness and to realizing their Profit.
As Benjamin Disraeli said over a century ago, people achieve greatness
(and I contend happiness) when they act from their heart and their
passion. Those who learn to recognize the promptings of their heart, and
then find the courage to follow them, are the ones who win races, rule
nations, and create masterpieces. They also, regardless of their
circumstances, live with a sense of contentment--a knowledge that they are
who they want to be.
I call these people "passioneers." Passioneers are not perfect;
on the contrary, they are quite human. They are subject to frustration in
the face of bureaucracy, sorrow in the face of tragedy, and fear in the
face of danger. They do not, however, live with regret. They follow their
hearts and are not afraid to take chances.
Becoming a Passioneer
You can decide right here, right now, that you are going to let passion
into your life. You are every bit as capable of doing so as is a
president, an Olympian, or a Nobel Prize winner. Passion is not a
privilege of the fortunate few; it is a right and a power you possess.
You can get in touch with the passion that defines you and have an amazing
life. You can show the world all you are capable of--all that deep down
you know you can be. And, most importantly, you can be happy. You can live
every day with zest and vigor. You can love your life.
To help you do this, I have created the Passion Plan, a step-by-step guide
to reorienting your life around passion. The plan begins with passion and
leads to Profit. Along its path are seven steps you must take to ensure
that your passion leads to your desired outcomes. Each step is equally
important in building a passion-filled life and in getting the results you
seek.
Feeling, Thinking, Acting
Feeling--The first two steps in the plan--starting from the heart and
discovering your passion--require you to get in touch with your heart and
identify your dreams and passions. This is the key to passioneering:
feeling first. Your heart will reveal what really matters to you and what
brings you happiness. Start from any other source and you set yourself up
for frustration and regret. Fulfillment comes only when the results you
seek and the activities you embrace are in accordance with the person you
are. You cannot look to reason or judgment for insights into your soul.
Who you are is what's in your heart.
Thinking--After you come to terms with your heart, it is time for
reasoning and rationalizing. The third and fourth steps--clarifying your
purpose and defining your actions--require you to think. Because the world
can dissuade you from pursuing your passion, you must pursue it with
forethought and care. The mind provides you with a formidable defense
against threats to passion. Your intellect can help you define a purpose
and set a strategy for following your heart. It can help you determine the
most effective ways to integrate passion into your life and ensure that it
stays there.
Acting--Once you have felt and thought, it is time to act. Equipped with
both your passion and your plan, you are ready to go for the fifth, sixth,
and seventh steps--performing your passion, spreading your excitement, and
staying the course. You will begin to make changes in your life. As you
do, you will continue to use both your heart and your head to make
decisions; your task is to understand both intimately so that your choices
further you on your road to Profit. How you act will determine whether you
remain in an active state of pursuit or slip back into a passive state of
wishing or worrying.
If you remain true to your passion and follow these seven steps, you will
find the results you seek. And you will also reap rewards you never
anticipated because passion can take you to another level of living. It
can open worlds and expand horizons. It can bring new awareness and
heightened perceptions. It can empower and improve. Your idea of Profit
may change as you begin to fulfill your potential. The Profit you find
might actually be new passions or new experiences that lead you in
completely different directions. Whatever its nature, the Profit you find
will further fuel your passion and propel you onward to even greater
achievement and happiness.
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