They called him "The Babe", but his full name was George Herman Ruth Jr. The Babe was an American baseball player of "extraordinaire" dimensions but rather than writing down his stats, may I suggest that for those of you interested in just how "extraordinaire", perhaps "googling" him may be helpful.
The image I used for this painting, was a small black and white photo taken not long before The Babe died. This painting is one of 12 paintings belonging to a series of paintings called "American Dreamers".
The Babes passion, was baseball.
What is yours? What are you passionate about in life?
"Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
(Howard Thurman)
I find this quote particularly encouraging because it omits the word success, instead it focuses on "coming alive". Success may well be something that comes with being passionate about something, but personally I believe that being passionate about something, feeling alive when engaged in doing/pursuing what we are passionate about, is at the crux of passion. (Basically, doing something or being engaged in/with something, we love doing for its own sake, and when we are engaged in doing it, we feel alive.)
This is how the Urban Dictionary defines it: "Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to put as much heart, mind body and soul into something as is possible."
What do you love doing? When you do what you love doing, does time fly by?
When you feel most alive, what are you doing?
Let's toss out words like rational, practical, financial rewards, and other similar words for the time being, and instead focus on feeling alive, feeling in the "zone", feeling content, feeling energised, etc..
For some of us, perhaps passion may be somewhat scary. We may ask ourselves questions such as: what if I am not good enough? what if others think that my passion is silly? what if I loose myself in my passion? Committing oneself to doing something one feels very passionate about may stir up all sorts of feelings such as fear, insecurity, and basically, a lot of "what if's".
But, here are a few other "what if's": What if doing what you feel passionate about makes you feel happy, what if it gives you a sense of peace, what if it gives you a sense of meaning and purpose, what if it gives you a sense of feeling contentment, and what if it opens up opportunities for social interaction with like-minded people?
But what if I can't pinpoint anything that I feel passionate about?
If such is the case, perhaps it may be helpful to ask yourself a few questions such as:
Is there something I have always wanted to do, but never tried, because it would be outside of my comfort zone? What did I want to do as a kid, but didn't do, because I was scared I wasn't good enough? What was a passion for me but I put it aside because I was worried about money?
What did I used to love doing but I stopped doing it because my family/friends thought it was....xxx?
“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.” (Neil Gaiman)
In my view, talent is not a pre-requisite for being passionate about something.
Rather, we may discover "hidden" talents when we pursue something we are passionate about.
When we feel alive doing something, we may feel inclined do it again, and again, and by doing it over and over, we become more skilful, we gain strength and confidence from our efforts, and from an outsiders point of view we may seem "talented".
Passion, it seems to me, has at its very core; commitment; regardless of talent.
(It can be hard to separate commitment and dedication to a passion from "raw/natural" talent, but then again, does it really matter?)
If you love painting, drawing, writing, building models, cooking, skating, dancing, traveling, collecting, building, helping, supporting, .....(insert here what you are passionate about)....
just do it.
"Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
(Howard Thurman)
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