Have you ever had a time in your life when you wanted to do something you really wanted to do, but weren’t really sure what you wanted to do?  Are you sick of hearing that if you follow your passion the money will follow, because you have no idea what you’re passionate about?

That’s just how I was at one point in my life.  I could not for the life of me come up with anything I was passionate about, much less the one thing I was passionate about the most.  And I realized I’d been feeling that way for a really long time.

Arriving at this conclusion is a blessing.  It’s an opportunity to say, “I know I have one life to live, and by golly, I want to really care about something while I’m here!  Just for me!”  And it’s an opportunity to launch a quest to discover what it is you care about.

This may take you some time.  Because realizing that you’re passionate about nothing most probably means you’ve become very separated from yourself.  It means you’ve been focused on external cues as to who you are versus internal cues.  It means you need to tune back in to that internal voice.

There are many ways to do this.  One is to think back on your childhood and remember what you were passionate about then.   My first attempts at this all came back the same way: “Nothing!  I’ve never been passionate about anything!”  It was very frustrating at the time.  If you experience this, then know that you were passionate about some things, and that if you allow yourself to explore and remember, eventually these things will come back to you.

For example, I was an avid reader, and I still am.  I am passionate about books, well-told stories, and learning. I have always loved science.  Not so much chemistry class, but current scientific discoveries and science fiction, where many things that are now in our world were first invented.  And I loved that, because I’m passionate about the future.  I’m constantly enthralled and intrigued with what we’re discovering about the way the universe works and how we fit into that picture.  All of those things were present in my childhood.

As an adult, I found another tool that got me closer to my passions.  A book called Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham.  This book is the outcome of thousands of interviews that resulted in the definition of 34 strength themes.  The cool thing is it comes with a link to an online quiz that will allow you to personally identify your own top 5 strengths.  Mine are Strategic, Analytic, Futuristic, Restorative and Significance.  You won’t know what these mean until  you read the book, but here’s what I learned: my strengths are my passions.  If I can apply them anywhere in life or business, I can turn on my passion!  And I can create better results.  Now that’s a powerful thing to know.

Would love to hear back if you read the book and take the quiz.  What are your top 5 strengths?

P.S., we can discuss later whether you really only have one life.