Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Definitions - What's a Strength? "Passion" Part 2


Does Everyone Have Passion?

Passion is the 2nd component of 4 in our strengths package. But does everyone have passion? I believe they do but it has been smothered in many. My dad has passion in spades… or maybe in hearts. He may be the most consistently passionate person I know. He also has what Gallup Strengthsfinder would call “Self-Assurance”. It is clearly an innate talent for him. He was so self-assured as a child he didn’t fear death. This actually was a concern for my grandparents.

Here’s the thing. Self-Assurance is an accelerant for passion. What smothers passion? Fear is the number one enemy of passion. Show me a person that appears more or less passionless and I almost guarantee fear has smothered it down to a pilot light size flame. Sometimes fear shows up under other names. Fear may show up as doubt, numbness, procrastination, caution and a bunch of other labels.

But fear doesn’t kill passion, it can’t. It just neutralizes it and renders it impotent. The Christian Scriptures say God’s Calling and Gifts are Irrevocable. They also say that God Gives Us The Desire In Our Heart. He plants them there. They tell us to “Fan the Flame” of our gift and that “Perfect Love Drives Out Fear”.

Go hunt down your pilot light. Fan the Flame. Crank the Oxygen. Perfect your Passion and Drive Out the Fear. The fear may hang around, but the higher you turn the oxygen, the more it’s forced off to the side.

Consider a welding kit. You’ve got a torch to focus the flame. Some struggle with passion because it’s not focused. People with a many interests and talents have to learn to pick something. You’ve got fuel, often acetylene. Your fuel is an interest that’s constantly at the back of you mind. It’s that thing that has to express itself. But many are missing the pure oxygen. Without the oxygen the flame won’t burn hot enough. With the oxygen it will cut hard metal and melt metals together. That’s where the confidence and self-assurance come in. Confidence is the oxygen that makes the flame hot.

How do you get confidence if you don’t have it? You may have to borrow it at first. Get around other people with confidence and it will run off. Maybe you’ll have to buy it. Can you buy confidence? You bet! You can hire someone with confidence. You can hire people with the natural talent of self-assurance. My mom married it. It worked out pretty well to.

If you are not naturally self-assured you have to be more intentional about uncovering your passion, guarding it, and seeing that it's fueled with a steady supply of oxygen. But it’s worth the extra effort. And the beautiful thing is, when you do uncover your passion, it will be in more valuable. You won’t take it for granted. It will also help you spot the passion deficit in others and empower you to reveal theirs.
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