We pulling apart my 4 component definition of a strength. The first component was talent, the hard-wired natural aptitudes you were born with. I guess it's appropriate that on Valentine's Day we move on to the second component which is passion.
Passion is that inner drive. It’s what you would do, or probably are doing for free. In Marcus Buckingham’s brilliant series of film shorts called “Trombone Player Wanted” he tells the story of Ewan, a middle schooler who plays trombone in the band. But Ewan has a drummer inside that just has to get out. The rest of the story shares the steps he takes to release that inner drummer. You are like Ewan. You have something inside of you that just has to get out. It may have been stopped, stuffed, smothered, and beaten by parents, peers, and even pastors but it has to get out. God put it there.
What makes you say Y.E.S.? I mean that literally, but you see it’s written with periods suggesting there might be more. It’s an acrostic that helps you remember to consider how you feel before, during, and after an activity.
“Y” stands for “YEARNING”. What activities do you look forward to? What are your “I can hardly waits”? What do you long for? That is your first clue to passion.
“E” stands for “ENERGY”. What activities give you energy? What can you do for long periods of time without getting really tired. Star Wars creator George Lucas was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey recently on her new network called OWN. They started talking about passion and it’s relationship to success. Lucas said, “if you want to know what your passion is, ask yourself what do you start at 7 in the morning and when you start to get a little hungry, you look up and realize it’s 7 at night?”
Personally I haven’t found any 12 hour activities but I do know exactly what he’s talking about. I can often write for 2-4 hours and it feels like 30 minutes. Time just flies by. Another word for this sensation is “Engagement”. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about this phenomenon in his book called “Flow”.
I don’t know a lot about cars. But I broadly understand the role an alternator plays under the hood. The alternator is there to re-charge the battery while the car is going. If you didn’t have an alternator or your alternator quit working as it has for me on a couple of different cars, your battery would run down and the car would stop. You have some “alternator activities” in your life. These activities re-charge you as you go. They allow you to work longer and harder and better. That is passion.
“S” stands for “Satisfaction”. What activities in your life leave a warm after glow? My mom used to ask me after work occasionally, “But isn’t it a good tired?” No! It was an awful tired! I was working in a family construction business that didn’t have work that played to my strengths. I tried to stir up passion for years. I tried just about every trade known to man. I tried drafting and selling and estimating. All a bad tired. Some left a horrible tired. But when I write this, when I do research for this, when I do training programs designed to help people maximize their potential, when I coach people to help them maximize their potential… It’s a good tired. Aaaaaaaaah, it’s satisfying!
So if you want to find your passion, check out how you feel before, during, and after an activity.
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