I miss those wild and creative days, don’t you?
You remember drawing as a child? You just got a piece of paper, crayon, marker, pencil, it didn’t really matter, as long as you had something that would write. And then you’d just started going at it. You didn’t think about what you had to draw or what people would think about it. You’d draw your stick figure there, the house, the mailbox, the tree, the sun with the glasses on it, you know what I’m talking about.
You just went at it and you had a good time with nothing else influencing you. Well, when you take that approach to finding your passion, its really as easy as 1) get a high level view, 2) brainstorm like crazy and 3) figure out what will work. So lets get a little more details on that.
1: High-Level Views
Get a high level view of your overall situation. This is where you sit down, you don’t have to do it on paper if you don’t want to, but you just kind of think, “ok, what the hee-haw am I really interested in? What tickles my fancy? What makes me happy? What do I enjoy doing?” Maybe even question what are the things you don’t enjoy doing.
And you can just make sure you stick away from doing those things. But just jot down some of these things you’re thinking of into one or two word chunks, and just write them down on a piece of paper or have them in mind. I would recommend keeping the paper so you have a record of it and it will help you when we go to the next step.
2: Brainstorm Like Crazy
Now this can be as easy as keep on doing what you’re doing, which is just a brain-dump-type brainstorm. However, you will get a whole lot better results if you actually use a brainstorming tool. Brainstorming tools are awesome because they are designed to take the infinite possibilities that are in your subconscious mind and focus it towards an output, kind of like a laser beam.
You know if the sun’s just shining down, it’s going to be warm, it’s going make stuff grow, but once you focus it through a lens, you can start burning through stuff like crazy. That’s what you’re going do with the brainstorming tools.
And there are many tools available such as the Fruit Root Tree brainstorming method, the Lotus Blossom brainstorming method, and the Ideas Grid brainstorming method. Look around for them. Check them out.
3: Figure Out What Will Work
That’s a mighty big list of ideas you have there, friend!
Now that you’ve got your gigantic list of brainstormed ideas on what tickles your fancy and is really your passion, you can start kind of turning a realistic or critical eye on it. But if you’ve got on your list “play major league baseball,” you know maybe you need to pull back on that one and change it into something more realistic like, “hey, join the softball league in my local area.”
You know it’s a stepping stone. I’m not saying you can’t go to the next step, but that’s where you got to start. You got to keep it more realistic, while keeping your end goal in mind.
And really just turn, I won’t say the critic but more of the ,”hey, how can I make this dream come true type of mindset on.” Don’t dash your dreams down though. I mean cross out the crazy stuff that ends up making it on your page. Not all the way through so you can read it later but say hey this isn’t going to happen just yet.
And try to get down to somewhere between three and seven really awesome things. And guess what? You now have a list of your passions that you can focus on and start doing for the future.
Counting Your Way to Passion
So as you have just now found out, finding your passion really is as easy as 1, 2, 3. You’ve got a high level view, you brainstormed like crazy, and you figured out what worked. So are you ready to find your passion? Get out there and get counting.