Adam RicoHave you ever given up on trying to find your passion?
I have.
Once, I almost gave up on workyouenjoy.com and the hope of coaching others.
One night I decided I was going to throw in the towel.
I had my blog up for about a year at that point and no one had contacted me to ask about my coaching services.
So I decided I was going to quit and try something else.
I got on my computer and saw I had received an email.
This email was a heart breaking cry for help to get out of a work situation that was sucking the life out of the person.
They wanted to hire me as their coach!
What? I was just going to….
That’s where this all started and I knew at that moment I couldn’t’ quit.
Even if I only helped this one person, it was all worth it.
Since then I’ve had the privilege to serve many others and help them find their passion and do work they love.
Often we try so hard to find our passion and when we don’t find what we’re looking for we give up.
Yet we find ourselves in a worse situation because now we’re a little bitter.
Previously there was hope.
Now it’s resignation to the status quo.
But here’s the problem in all this.
We want a formula.
Do this, talk to this person, read this book, go to this conference.
However, whether it’s finding your passion or finding success in your passion, formulas don’t work.
So what should you do instead?
Sometimes the best thing we can do is stop trying so hard.
Henry Ford once said he didn’t want executives who had to work all the time.
He believed those who were always focused on activity were not the most productive.
He wanted people who would clear their desks, prop their feet up, and dream up new creative ideas.
He believed only those who had the luxury of time could come up with fresh new ways of thinking.
Can you imagine your boss coming to you and asking you to stop “working” and start just thinking.
When was the last time you just did nothing?
Turned off the TV, radio, podcasts, Twitter or Facebook, and the various other noise in your life?
What impact might that have on your ability to find your passion?
The next time you start to get frustrated that you haven’t found your passion yet try just taking a solitary walk around your block.
Get up earlier than everyone else and just process your thoughts, write or pray.
Take a different route to work, paint a picture, sit next to a stranger at the park and ask them about their life and their work.
Do something outside of your normal routine.
Use this uncertain time to enjoy other parts of your life you’ve been ignoring and enjoy the process of uncovering what you feel passionate about.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t received that email.
The person who sent me the email thought I was the one helping them but in reality they were the one who gave me the greater gift.
All I had to do was nothing.
Question: What else can you do if you want to give up on finding your passion?
Free Book Giveaway!
Thanks to the generosity of the John Maxwell Company and my friend Rick Vandermyden I’m giving away a free copy of John Maxwell’s book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.
Bonus! This book is autographed by John Maxwell himself!
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I will choose a winner at random on Saturday, June 8, 2013. If you don’t hear from me via email you unfortunately didn’t win.
