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A post shared by Mitchell Jordan (@mitchelada) on Mar 30, 2020 at 11:53am PDT

You have a passion. Everyone does.

Some discover it at an early age, others find it later in life, and some never find it at all. Not finding your passion doesn’t mean you don’t have one. Perhaps you’ve never really positioned yourself to examine the possibilities of what your passion is, or how to uncover it.

Passion needs to be revealed. It may be hidden deep down or unrecognisable, but it’s there.

What to do with it once it’s discovered is a different topic for a different time. This article is about how to uncover your passion. 

Below are a series of questions and scenarios for your consideration aimed at helping you uncover your passion:

First, imagine yourself free from the idea that you are in need of money or attention. 

Now, recall the feeling you have after eating a big, satisfying meal, where you’re so full that you can’t possibly have anything more. Keeping this feeling with you, examine what that would feel like in another area of your life—the feeling of being fully satisfied in terms of activity.

Take a moment and simply sit with that feeling.

I would challenge that most of us are motivated to perform certain tasks, or engage in certain behaviors for the attention or praise that accompanies it. They add to our own idea of importance, identity, and status. But what if you were filled to the brim with importance, overwhelmed with attention, and surpassed a status greater than you ever imagined for yourself? What would you focus on doing? Also, what things would you stop doing?

Take a moment to seriously consider the above proposed ideas before moving on.

In addition to attention, a great deal of the things we do are for the acquisition of money, whether we need it or not. But what if you had all the money you could ever need and more than you could ever want? 

What would you do then? 

What would you stop doing?

Now, imagine that you cease in the participation of any and all tasks that you have been doing for the money or the attention.

What would be left for you to do? 

Now ask yourself, who would you be if you didn’t do these things? 

Imagine that you were completely satiated, then what would you do?

Again, take another moment to allow this feeling to permeate your awareness.

Let’s now propose you have removed these tasks and activities, and you’ve had some time to rest and relax. What is it that you would choose to pursue? 

If you choose to sit around and do nothing, choose again as that’s just a continuation of the relaxation period. What I’m talking about is the time after you have completely rested and are ready for a new pursuit. Similar to the way hunger moves in after the feeling of being full has faded away. The way you feel when you are ready to be useful to those around you. What would you do then—without having the need for money or attention?

Sitting quietly, allow yourself some time for that feeling to rise to your consciousness.

What have you come up with? 

Whatever that something is, just let it be. Without judgement. For now, just allow yourself to accept this as your passion, thinking of it more as a working title than as a permanent fixture. 

Perhaps you have previously tinkered with this idea as being your passion, but you talked yourself out of it. Maybe this is something you think about consistently, and you imagine what your life would be like if you could more regularly engage in that activity. Conversely, this could also be a brand new idea that you have never considered until now and may even surprise you. Whatever category the idea falls under, allow it, accept it, and embrace it. Remember, there is no call to action at this time. This is simply an identification exercise.

Speaking only from my experience, I have discovered that some people believe that they don’t have a passion, because it is too silly or not worthwhile to be considered such. That they couldn’t possibly have a life or make a living if they pursued their passion. Or other fears like being ridiculed by their peers, if they were to share what they are truly passionate about, so they discount it.

We can often misidentify passion as being something that needs to be deeply profound and moving. Something worthy of building a life, career, or movement around. 

And while there are many things passion has brought into the world, that doesn’t mean it has to be something in particular. Which then means, it can be anything. Anything at all. There is nothing that doesn’t fit. There is no criteria in which your passion must fall under to be worthy nor must it be the only thing you are ever passionate about.

Therefore, it is possible to have multiple passions at once or to vacillate through a variety of them. They are free to come and go. There is no prescribed timeframe that your passion must conform to.

Passion is simply about what excites you, what lights you up. Passion is like the spice that when added to a dish, sets all the flavors in motion bringing the dish to life. The spice on its own may not have much significance in the overall scheme of culinary ingredients, but for this exercise, that’s unimportant. We are simply looking for the spice, not its relevance in comparison to anything else or even how it is to be utilized.

Needless to say, you can ignore or incorporate your passion into your life. You can make it your life’s mission or use it for a weekend project. What you do with it is completely up to you. This is about uncovering what your true, authentic passion really is. 

If ever you find yourself in search of what your passion could be, simply revisit this exercise as often as needed.