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The majority of people in this life are not happy with their current job, their current situation, their current lifestyle, their current relationship, and the list goes on and on.  Why is this so?  Have they really given up on life, not ever wanting to find their passion, not wanting to take their life to the level they want?  I don’t believe this is the case.  People simply do not know HOW to get to where they want to be.  Let me explain my reasoning…If you ask someone if tomorrow they could do whatever they want with no regards to finances, social pressures, and current commitments, most would not do what they do today.  Most would change their job, buy the car they’ve always wanted, spend time with the people they keep thinking, “I need to catch up with him!”  I submit that most people still have dreams, dreams that they still believe in deep down, but that haven’t been fulfilled in so long that they no longer try to live them.  So how do you and I find those dreams and put them at the forefront again?

Here are a few suggestions on how to find your passion in life again:

• Stop worrying about the people around you who have already found their passion.  You will never win when you compare yourself to others.
• Do NOT put money into the equation.  What I mean by this, is do not simply believe that the thing that you may be good at or that other people say you’re good at is your passion just because it generates the highest income for you.  If your daily actions are controlled by whether or not it generates more positive income for you, you’re headed in the wrong direction.
• List the things that you do when you have nothing else to do.  What happens on an idle Tuesday at 4:00pm when you have done all of your work, your homework, your house chores and whatever else you have to do or need to do…what do YOU do when nobody tells you what to do and when nobody else is around?
• Be happy with where you are in life no matter where you are.  Take it one day at a time.  Do the things you don’t want to do today so that tomorrow you can do the things you want to do.
• The way it is now is not the way it has to be tomorrow.  If you want something different in life, DO something different.  Insanity is continuing to do the same things over and over and expecting a different result.

I admit, it’s easier said than done.  I recently read an article on a blog titled Slacker Reform, and it ended with the following:

It isn’t a wake-up one day and count to ten and poof you’ve got your purpose.  Finding your purpose isn’t a ten step program, it’s an infinite step program.

Each step is often small.  Minuscule even.  The leaps and bounds that get touted as sparks of genius or inspiration are an accumulation of hours of minuscule steps both forwards and back.  They’re the moment you can put what you’ve been feeling for years into words.

It’s about living as an experience, a process, which aligns with your very beliefs as a person.  With your core self.  With your soul.  Or ego.  Or heart or whatever word you choose to bandy about.  But all the same it is what you would create a revolution about.  It is your purpose.

What would you create a revolution about?  What is your purpose?  Start living today.

Most of my posts start out with something like, “I just happened upon an article that made me think the other day…”  This one is no different!  Sorry!  I know, I need to come up with some original content, but sharing content that’s already out there that has had an impact on my life isn’t so bad either, as long as I add a few comments of my own, right?

I recently read an article entitled, “Stop reading about it and do it.”  It caught my eye because Charissa had once shared with me a quote that has stuck in my mind since.  First, the quote:

You cannot be successful without passion, but passion alone will not make you successful. ~Chelsey Rippy~

So very true!  Passion, enthusiasm and excitement are very necessary to success, but true learning, experience and the actual end result of success comes through doing.  Here’s the article!  It’s not very long, so don’t whine about reading it. 

We learn more by doing than by reading.

That’s a simplified statement, of course, because reading teaches us a lot, but it’s in the actual doing of things that we do our real learning. It may be a fairly harmless statement for most of us, but think about this: do you actually put it into practice? How about in your efforts to improve your life?

It’s easy to see how this applies in a school situation: In an article in the Chronicle for Higher Education, studies show that the best way to study for an exam is not to read and re-read, but to put the book down, try to recall what you read, then write it down. Much more effective.

But how about in your everyday life? This isn’t as obvious, but it’s just as effective.

When you want to improve your life in some way — by simplifying, by being more frugal, by starting to exercise or eat healthy, by learning more productive habits, by being a more positive or compassionate person — you are learning a new skill.

And when you learn a new skill, all the reading in the world won’t teach you the skill. You have to learn by doing.

So reading countless self-help articles and books are great — I’ve written a few myself — but remember that it’s only the first step.

You have to put the personal development posts away, get away from the computer or book, and start doing it. Today.

Only in doing it will you actually learn.

Reading does help though: first in helping you to understand what to do, and second in keeping you motivated as you actually do the skill. But it’s not a substitute for doing.

So stop reading this post, and go do what you want to learn to do!

- Leo Babauta, Stop Reading About It and Do It

So what’s the end result to us doing instead of just being passionate about something or reading about it and thinking it’s a good thing to do?  We learn, gain new experiences, and actually grow, instead of rely on a roller coaster of emotion that is bound to have peaks and deep valleys.  When we are doing, there is no time to dream, because we enable ourselves to live the very dreams that we are passionate about.