Life is a lot like a poker game.  Players put down their money and take a chance at either winning the jackpot or losing their shirts.  There is both an element of luck and skill involved, but essentially it all comes down to what you’re willing to risk.

But let’s back things up a bit and examine the people who simply watch the game.  They’re not willing to put the risk involved to see what happens.  And that’s where the metaphor ends.  You have a choice about playing poker, the game of life though is much different.

Taking Important Risks

If life is really like a game, then the key difference would be that you really don’t have a choice in whether you want to play it or not.  It’s one big table and everyone has a seat.  But that difference doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to risk.

In fact, I think of life and risk as the same thing.  Everything about life is a risk.  You could get into an accident or become ill at any moment.  These are the everyday normal kind of risks that you often can’t avoid.

It’s the risks you have to actively search for and make a part of your life that matter most.  They can bring you pain if they go wrong which is the biggest reason people avoid them.  But they also make life worth living when they go right.

The five important risks in life are:

1. Caring about someone else

If you’ve ever gone through a bad break up or dissolved a friendship, you know just exactly how heart-breaking it can be to care about someone else.  But that shouldn’t stop you from caring about another person.

Letting another person get close to you and caring about them deeply can be a scary thing.  It would be so simple for them to break your trust and hurt you.  But the beauty behind letting someone get close to you is that you get to know each other deeply and your bond together is tightly woven.  That can be a great feeling.

2. Learning and trying new things

There’s always an element of risk when you’re trying something new.  Starting a new activity like rock-climbing or surfing can be scary at first, but a large part of the fun is overcoming that fear.

The same goes for big life changes.  If you want to go to grad school or move to another part of the world, you have to just jump in and do it.  It’s impossible to do these incredible things without accepting a little bit of risk.

3. Following your passions and dreams

How many people’s dreams have been squashed before they ever got off the ground?  It’s a sad, but true statement that most people never take their dream past the planning stage.  Everyone should follow their dreams no matter how unlikely they think it will happen.

I started following my dreams because of a simple thought: when else am I going to do them?  You can’t wait for things to happen to you.  And it’s not as if you have another life waiting for you after you die so the best time to pursue your dreams will always be right now.

4. Failing

The downside to taking risks is that there is always a chance of failure.  Otherwise they’d be known as sure-things.  Of course failure remains the biggest obstacle for people to take those risks, but it shouldn’t stop you.

I’ve read that big companies in Silicon Valley will often pass over their own people for promotion to hire people who had started up companies that later went bankrupt.  Apparently, they like the guts of people who will risk bankruptcy and failure.  That’s a good lesson for life in general.

5. Your viewpoints

Everyone has a view of what’s going on in the world and how things work.  Expressing how you feel can be risky since you don’t know how people will react.  You might find some people will be hostile to your opinions.  You might even find that you’re opinion is misplaced.

Many people are content to just sit on the sidelines and refuse to stand up for their viewpoint.  But you can’t be afraid of saying how you feel because it might be unpopular or wrong.  People who are making the most out of their lives have unique opinions and insights into things.  A big part of living life fully comes in being able to express those points of view.

Risks are Necessary for a Full Life

I can definitely see life as a game and the risks we take are just the ante we use to play it.  And even though taking risks means you might fail from time to time, it is better than not taking any risks at all and living life below your potential.

Besides, when you see life as a game it changes your whole attitude about winners and losers.  Games work best when even those who lose still have fun.  You might as well take a risk and see what you’re capable of.  Otherwise, you’re just sitting at the table watching life play out in front of you.
photo credit: banspy

There’s no doubt that leadership skills are important. I’ve needed leadership skills in just about every job I’ve held. In fact, those skills will become even more important to me once I graduate and become a teacher.

But if you look beyond the role leadership skills play in the workplace, you’ll see that they are just as important elsewhere. At any moment, you could be put into an emergency setting where you need to direct people and take action. So in effect, anyone might need to take up the role of leader at any moment.

The Accidental Leader

I learned just how important leadership skills are at an early age. When I was in high school, I worked as a night manager at a grocery store. My normal duties included directing people and making sure everything was running smoothly. For the most part it was fairly routine.

But one night I was urgently called to the front desk to respond to an immediate emergency. A middle aged man had walked into the store gushing blood from his forehead. From what I was told, he had just been in a car accident and came inside seeking help.

Since I was the manager in charge, everyone looked to me for what to do. Of course, this was beyond my training, but I still needed to make decisions.

First, I directed the front desk cashier to call an ambulance. Then I made sure to cordon off the area and instructed other employees to direct incoming and outgoing customers around the scene. When the EMTs arrived, I monitored the situation and answered their questions until they took him away to the hospital. It was a lesson in leadership I’ll never forget.

So anyone can be tasked to become a leader at any moment. Here are five leadership quotes from five different leaders about what you’ll need if your moment comes.

1. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu

A good leader empowers others to do what needs to be done. When working in large groups, no one person can do everything. It takes the combined work and effort of many diverse people working together.

Leaders have vision and guide others until their aims are fulfilled. However, credit must be given to those who did the most effort. When goals are accomplished, a good leader says “we” or “the team” did it, not “I”.

2. “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” – Colin Powell

Being a good leader and having good people skills go hand in hand. You need to be someone others can go to with their problems because they respect you and listen to your advice. Being seen as a problem-solver and a “go-to” person inspires confidence and trust. Without those two qualities, you’re not an effective leader.

When you’re the person in charge, you want to be someone anyone can talk to about anything. A big lesson I’ve learned as a teacher is that you have to interact and build rapport with your students if they are going to accomplish anything. If you can’t be someone they know and can relate with, getting things done becomes much harder.

3. “Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” – John D. Rockefeller

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

It’s common to hear that leaders lead through example. But the reason you hear it so often is because it is true. Being a leader means showing others how things are suppose to be done. And not only that, but how things should be done properly.

Leaders know that every one of their actions will be scrutinized. Just look to the U. S. President. Every minute detail of his actions are analyzed and up for discussion. The more you lead by example, the more you’ll get out of other people.

Furthermore, a leader’s actions must inspire others to become better people. You’re in a powerful position to make someone’s life so much better. And if you can empower others to believe in their dreams, actions or themselves, you’ll find they become forever grateful and loyal.

4. “Leadership is about magnetic communication. Leaders have a way of communicating that draws people toward the vision and the horizon.” – Doug Firebaugh

Just like leaders need to have good people skills. Leaders need to be great communicators to get their message and vision across to others. Learn to speak to others in a way that makes them feel important and valued. And remember that listening is just as an important communication skill as speaking.

Look at Ronald Reagan’s leadership style which earned him the nickname “the great communicator” because of his uncanny ability to connect with the American people. To this day he remains an inspiring leader whose message still manages to draw many people in. He was a master at getting his message across to others and people followed him.

Becoming a Leader

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it is that good leadership skills aren’t needed solely for people who run countries or big companies. They’re for everyone.

And don’t just settle for being a good leader; become a great one. When your time comes to lead, you’ll be glad you could step up to the challenge and overcome your obstacles. Prepare yourself now because you never know when an emergency will pop up and everyone looks to you for guidance.
photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

The only thing stopping you from reaching your goals and dreams are your limits. It’s when you meet your limits that you feel resistance and things you want seem harder to achieve. Whether it is fear, doubt, physical abilities or some other mental block, it can present a huge barrier to getting what you want.

Unfortunately most people can’t work past their limits and give up. So how far you get in reaching your dreams is very dependent on how good you are at overcoming this obstacle. Fail to push past your limits and you’ll leave your dreams unrealized. Work through them and you can make any dream or goal a reality.

Pushing Past Your Limits

A few years ago I decided to go to the gym on a regular basis. In order to build the muscle I wanted, I would regularly lift weights, do my cardio and eat well. I made a lot of progress at first, but eventually I met resistance and my exercise goals became harder to attain. I had reached my limit.

What happened was I had become complacent in my exercise routine by lifting with the same amount of weight and reps every single time I went to the gym. Looking back on it now, I can definitely see why I wasn’t making any progress. Only after increasing the weight and pushing myself to work harder was I able to take my weight-lifting goals to the next level.

I think this situation is similar to the trouble most people have in achieving their goals and dreams. No matter what you want to achieve, you’re going to eventually reach your limits and make little or no progress. You just need to make sure you’re taking the necessary action to make sure your limits don’t become a big problem.

Here are seven things you can do to push past your limits.

1. Find someone to help push you

Just that little bit of support encouraging you to keep going in the face of resistance can mean so much. Having someone on your side can counter-balance any negative thinking you might have. They can tell you to do more and push you into doing things outside of your comfort zone.

2. Take on a little more than you think you can

Pushing past your limits means taking on newer, progressively harder challenges. If you’re not challenging yourself to do bigger and better things on a regular basis, you’re only working within the confines of what you already can do. That’s a sure-fire way to stay exactly where you are and make little to no progress.

3. Imagine reaching your next level

Working on your dreams or goals can take a lot of focus. Where you put that focus matters a lot. You might know where you are and where you were, but do you know where you need to go? Imagine that next level for reaching your dreams and take steps to get there.

4. Look at how others reached where you want to go

Whatever your goals are, there are probably others who have had them and succeeded in reaching them. Look to them for clues on what they did to push past their limits on their way to success. You’ll probably find a lot of great information from examining the path they took.

5. Inspire yourself to action

Find something that inspires you to reach your goals. Whether it is a video, quote or thought that inspires you to succeed, it should be something that fills you with passion and drive to get things done. Inspiration can be a powerful motivational tool.

6. Don’t stop until exhaustion

I’ve been known to push myself so hard that I reach exhaustion. Each time I work out, I try to lift with more weight. I’ve worked on this blog for endless hours to get the HTML formatting and design just the way I want them to be. These tasks exhausted me, but they were completely necessary for me to reach my goals.

7. Work on your weaknesses

Where there are weaknesses, there are limits. Think about a marathon runner. They won’t be able to train very well for a marathon if they can’t find a good running stride or have bad nutrition. These are big areas of weakness that just makes training harder. Without correction, your weaknesses will limit how far you can take yourself.

Breaking Down Your Barriers

In order to reach your dreams or goals, you need to push through your limits and past your comfort zone. There are no shortcuts. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. That’s been my personal motto for success in life. It’s my way of reminding me to constantly push myself and not settle for average.

When you’re facing your limits and you feel that resistance, it can seem hard to overcome. But just by pushing yourself a little harder, you can really accomplish some great things. And the funny thing is that once you do, you can look back and wonder just why you ever thought it was that difficult to begin with. Don’t let limits stop you from doing anything.
photo credit: tableatny

If I were to meet you at a party, would you be someone I would remember? Depending on the size of the party, that might not be such an easy task. As you meet people throughout the night everyone tends to get grouped together. Names become much harder to remember. And as the night comes to an end, you might just be one person among many that I’d met.

But every so often you start talking to someone who just has that spark of personality that commands attention. They get noticed because you want to remember them and know more about them. They’re the kind of person who at the end of the night, you want to hang out with again.

Standing Out and Getting Noticed

Life is a lot like a party. There are pre-existing social groups you’ll want to start conversations with. Just like parties, there will be plenty of distractions and noises to get in the way. Working your way through everything and making a good quick impression can be very difficult.

Whether you go to a lot of parties or not, being a remarkable person is an extremely useful skill. There are so many areas of life that require you to stand out from others and get noticed. You could be interviewing for a job, networking or trying to get the attention of another person for a date. The difference between success and failure could just be how well you make another person pay attention to you.

What Being Remarkable Is

So what does it take to become remarkable? The short answer is to do something different from everyone else. The biggest reason you’d ever blend in with a crowd is because you look, act and talk just like them. How is anyone going to separate you from the pack if you’re just one among many?

There’s a lot of truth to that answer, but it doesn’t quite cover everything. While I do think that doing things differently from everyone else is the foundation of being remarkable, it doesn’t go quite into much detail as to what that really is.

Being remarkable comes down to doing three things:

1. Avoid what’s overdone

Nothing will make you blend into the crowd faster than if you just act like everyone else. No matter what you’re planning on doing or saying, there will always be the temptation to do or say what many others have before you. This is a pitfall to avoid.

It’s like when you meet someone and try to say something funny about their name. I knew a girl whose name was Eileen and she had to have heard people reference the song “Come on Eileen” to her hundreds of times. They think they’re being original and funny, but they really aren’t.

If you really want to see how overdone some people do things, then go to a bar and watch guys flirt with girls. I saw a girl get hit on several times one night and each guy said something similar to start up a conversation. I can only imagine how boring it would be to hear the same thing over and over again like that.

2. Accentuate something unique

Everyone has something that is uniquely their own. Once you find out what that is, you can highlight to make yourself more memorable.

For instance, if you’ve seen a bachelorette party out on the town, you’ll probably remember them because of the outlandish way they make the bride dress. In a similar manner, famous 80s icon Mr. T did stood out by wearing his gold jewelry.

Figuring out what you want to accentuate will depend on the situation. While wearing something outlandish will help you stand out when you’re out on the town, it might not work well in a job interview. For something like that, you’ll want to emphasize experiences and skills other applicants don’t have. That might take some time to figure out, but will be worth the effort.

3. Be on the edge

The problem with blending into a crowd is more than just about being forgettable. It’s also boring. Just imagine being surrounded by people all dressing, acting, saying and doing the same things. Not only can you not tell one person from another, but you’ll tire of the repetitiveness.

Becoming someone who gets noticed means taking a risk and being on the edge. You have to be that person who is willing to do and say the things the rest of the crowd can’t. A little unpredictability and spontaneity can go a really long way. Make people keep guessing about what you’re going to do next.

Stand Out In A Good Way

Being remarkable can take some daring. After all, you’re deciding to do something few others are also doing. It means being something that other people are not and that takes some risk.

Being remarkable can carry its own consequences. You might inadvertently stand out, but for all the wrong reasons. If you want to extend the party metaphor, think of the loud drunk girl flashing everyone. That’s not the way you want to be remembered.

For the most part though, being someone memorable is almost always the better choice over being forgettable. Getting into someone’s memory can mean all the difference especially when there are so many others trying to do the same. Are you remarkable?
photo credit: shoothead

Last week I had a conversation about travel with someone who had never left the country before. I asked her if she ever thought about traveling abroad and she said she would love to except there was a big problem holding her back. Her big problem was that she wasn’t a good swimmer.

I’m sure you’re wondering what she meant by that. I was too. So after a little more prodding I found out that she was referring to the Italian luxury cruise liner that sank a few months ago. She was afraid of taking a cruise and ending up in a similar situation where she would be in danger because of her inability to swim.

Traveling Fears

Obviously the chances of being involved in a cruise liner crash like the recent Italian one is astronomically low. I admit that her fear is rather extreme since almost no one would say that they can’t travel for such an outrageous reason. However, I’m using this story to illustrate just how irrational many fears about travel really are.

Before I go further, I want to clarify that some ostensibly ridiculous fears are actually very real. Many phobias such as Halitophobia (fear of bad breath) and Heliophobia (fear of sunlight) can seem strange to outsiders, but to the people experiencing them they can be a serious problem. These fears are very real and are often caused by traumatic experiences.

In contrast, many fears about traveling are based upon media exposure and come from a complete lack of understanding about danger. To illustrate this further, I’m going to go over some of the more common fears.

Crime

One of the biggest fears about traveling is crime. And I admit that crime is a concern for me while traveling. It certainly can happen so you have to keep yourself safe. But some people take this fear way too far.

A few years ago I told people that I was planning a trip to Nicaragua. I was completely surprised by the number of objections I received about traveling there because of the crime rate.

Like a good traveler, I researched the country and discovered that Nicaragua is actually one of the safest countries in Central America. I went there despite the resistance and felt completely safe the entire time. People were judging the country’s crime rate on what they thought was true instead of what it actually was.

Most countries are not as dangerous as they appear. In the entire world I would consider maybe only 3-4 of them as places too dangerous to travel. The rest of the world is safe as long as you use common sense and don’t take any unnecessary chances.

Terrorism

I’ve heard some people cite terrorism as a big concern when they decide where and when to travel. However, I think it depends on the events going on in the world and the country in question. The less prominent terrorism is in the news, the less likely you’ll hear it being used as a reason not to travel.

Terrorism shouldn’t be a reason not to travel somewhere. The chances of being involved in an airborne terrorist attack are one in 10,408,947. You’re twenty times more likely to be hit by lightning.

Disease

It’s always a good thing to check out the diseases you might face while traveling. You don’t want to catch malaria, dysentery or typhoid while enjoying your travels. However, you can preempt a lot of these diseases by getting immunization shots. If you keep clean and avoid dirty water, you’ll immensely decrease your likelihood of catching anything.

Dangerous Animals

Believe it or not, but I’ve heard many people cite dangerous animals as a reason not to travel somewhere. Many people were concerned about my trip to Guatemala because of a number of dangerous snakes. A friend of mine had people expressing concern about traveling through Africa because of various dangerous animals there such as snakes, spiders and crocodiles.

It’s always good to familiarize yourself with dangerous animals local to the country you’re seeing. However, the chances of being injured or killed by a dangerous animal are extremely low. In fact, many of these animals can only be seen if you purposely seek them out.

What Is There To Be Afraid Of?

In all these cases, a little common sense can go a long way. Before you travel, familiarize yourself with what type of crime happens there, avoid any dangerous-looking animals, be aware of your surroundings and don’t take any unnecessary chances. Using common sense and a little bit of preparation can make other travel fears such as the fear of getting lost or losing your money a little less likely too.

So what should you actually be afraid of while traveling? Traffic. The number one killer of Americans traveling abroad is traffic accidents. Most of these occur in low to middle income countries where automobiles are relatively new.

Even then there are many common sense things you can do to keep yourself safe. Always wear your seat belt and avoid drinking and driving. Familiarize yourself with the country’s traffic rules. Be very careful while crossing intersections since many drivers ignore traffic signals.

I find it funny that no one has ever expressed traffic as their fear for traveling. Above everything else, this should be your biggest safety concern while abroad. You should always be aware of the other things listed here, but they aren’t as likely to hurt you as a traffic accident is.

If there is one thing you should take away from all this it is that common sense should be your guide. If you have enough of it to keep you safe at home, you have enough of it to keep you safe while traveling. You shouldn’t let anything get between you and traveling the world. Not even irrational fears.
photo credit: mrhayata

According to one source, the average person consumes about 34GB of information every day. That’s an interesting thought alone, but it makes me wonder just how much of the information is faulty, ill-informed or just plain wrong.

Fortunately misinformation is often faulty for similar reasons and errors in logic can be exposed by asking certain questions. Instead of accepting information at face-value, you can use questions to become smarter about what you accept as true. It can be a powerful way to turn you from a passive receiver of information and into an active user of it.

What Does It Mean To Be Smart?

I really don’t think asking questions gets the attention it deserves. Usually being smart is associated with memorization. In fact, I’m often told I’m smart because I have an odd ability to memorize and recall a vast amount of trivial information.

But I think intelligence is more of an art than that. It’s less about memorization and more about how you interact with information and process the things that come your way. Consider questions like a data-filtering process for all the information you’re exposed to.

Here are four questions to start asking.

1. Causation or correlation?

You’d think that cause and effect would be easy things to determine. For example, smoking causes lung cancer. But figuring out what causes something else to happen can actually be an extremely difficult thing to determine.

In many cases, two things are correlated, but one seems to be causing the other to happen. For example a few years ago some researchers thought eating breakfast caused children to be more successful in school. The more breakfasts children missed, the worse they did in school.

However, further research showed that eating breakfast and success at school are just correlated. In fact they don’t influence each other in any way. It just so happened that children who skipped breakfast were also more likely to be absent from school. And absenteeism was the real reason for poor performance in school.

Final Takeaway: Correlation is not causation. Just because something occurs regularly with another thing doesn’t mean one causes another to happen.

2. Is there another side?

A lot of people only take in one side of an issue or viewpoint and accept that side as true. But of course, there are often two or more sides to every issue and if you don’t take those into consideration, you’re not getting the entire story.

For example, if one person were to tell you about an argument he had with another person, you’re only getting one side of the story. Your opinion about what happened might change if you were to hear about the argument from the other person.

Final Takeaway: Has the other side had a fair representation or is it being glossed over?

3. What’s the most likely explanation?

Think about this quote from Sherlock Holmes, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Also think about the principle called Occam’s Razor which can be summed up as “when all other things are equal, the simplest solution is probably right.”

Stretching data to fit conclusions is both difficult and complex. Many conspiracy theories require you to believe in additional events or factors for which there is seldom any real proof. This makes their conclusions extremely complex and based upon too many suppositions that start with sentences like “if this happened…”

Final Takeaway: The simplest answer is most often the right answer. Don’t make things unnecessarily complex.

4. Probability or certainty?

Generally speaking, the difference between facts and truths can be summed up like this: you can be certain about facts, but truths reside in a gray area. But for some reason, a lot of people talk as if they lived in a black and white world where everything was a knowable fact.

The world is much more complex than that. In fact, I think a large part of the world operates in shades of gray. You can’t understand everything with absolute certainty.

For example, there’s the fundamental attribution error. Think of it using this scenario: What would you think about someone you saw driving a car erratically down the street nearly hitting several parked cars? Most people would yell at the person and be absolutely certain that he was an idiot or terrible driver.

However, the person could be rushing to the hospital for an emergency. He’s not really a bad driver; just in a bad situation. You can’t be completely certain that this (or something else) explains the situation.

The problem is that too few people take probability into account. They say things with absolute certainty that they really shouldn’t.

Final Takeaway: The world lives in shades of gray. Don’t be fooled by people who always say things with 100% certainty.

Using the Questions

These four questions are designed to give you a more skeptical attitude towards information. You can use them as a way to filter arguments and thoughts to make sure you aren’t misled by bad thinking. And in a world where people consume 34GB of both good and bad information every day, being able to separate the two becomes really important.

If you want to accomplish more, you need to do more. It doesn’t matter if it is starting up a business, changing jobs or just knocking a few things off your bucket list. The amount you actually get done in the future will all come down to the actions you take in the present.

With that in mind, it makes sense to take as much action as possible. In a perfect world, everyone would immediately be taking action on the things they want to do and working hard to achieve their goals. There would be no procrastination or laziness.

Of course, that’s not how things work. There are a lot of things holding people back from taking the necessary action to achieve those big goals in their lives. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to overcome those obstacles. Here are 5 tips to break out of a cycle of inaction and achieve more out of life.

1. Shorten the thinking process

Most action requires planning. But too much time in the planning process is counterproductive and just wastes time. Eventually you just start thinking about what you want to do instead of actually doing it.

It’s easy to get addicted to the planning process because making perfect plans is an endless task. But all that planning will just result in inaction and possibly a missed opportunity. Every action requires a brief period of planning and thinking, but the amount should be kept to a minimum.

2. Don’t fixate on outcomes

It’s good to have an idea of what outcome you want to have from your actions. However, you shouldn’t be completely fixated on achieving any one particular goal. This puts more of your brain power and focus on your end goal instead of what you need to do at that moment.

By fixating too closely on an end result, you might miss out on opportunities in the present. History is full of people who tried to achieve one goal, but were flexible enough to change in order to achieve something amazing, but utterly different. Those who were inflexible faced a dead-end.

3. Eliminate sources of distraction

If you’ve ever had something you need to get done only to see it unfinished hours later because of a TV show or movie, you know the danger of distractions. In fact, I think getting past distractions is one of the biggest obstacles to taking more action. It might not be a big problem for those with enough willpower, but for most of us stopping procrastination requires a lot more.

This is why it is good to periodically eliminate as many distractions as possible. Turn off things like your TV and phone on a more regular basis. Scale back your usage of other things as much as possible like social media sites and Netflix. From personal experience, I can tell you that I was never more active than when I lived without TV.

4. Don’t wait for perfect conditions

It always seems as if the perfect opportunity to do something is just around the corner. And if you wait just a little bit longer, it will arrive. At least that seems to be the thinking of many people who wait for the perfect conditions to take action.

The truth is that there will always be reasons not to do something if you look hard enough for them. So if you want to wait for conditions to be perfect, you’ll never stop waiting and you’ll never do anything. This can cause a paralysis of action as you wait for everything to be perfect.

Even bad conditions might not really be so bad in the long run. For example, many people wouldn’t open a business in a depression. Yet there is a long list of extremely successful businesses that originated during the 1930s such as HP and Pepperidge Farms. You can’t let bad conditions stop you from taking action.

5. Find a purpose

All good actions have a reason and purpose behind it. If you find something that gives you purpose, finding motivation to do it will be easy. Purpose is like fuel for the motivation that keeps you taking action.

It’s those things that seem most meaningful to you that really get you excited and breathe life into what you do. With a good sense of purpose to what you’re doing, you can easily find the time and effort to get it done. Just imagine those people who feel no passion whatsoever for what they’re doing. All their actions must feel like a constant struggle.

Take Action Now

Everyone has goals and dreams for their lives. Without doubt, the success you have reaching those things will be determined by the action you take now in order to get there. Better to take action and do the things you want now rather than wait and risk it never happening at all.
photo credit: andreaffm

A lot of people seem to have a hard time finding something to be passionate about. They think that if they just wait long enough something will eventually come along. But I think this is the wrong approach. Finding your greatest passions requires you to be a lot more active.

In fact, I think you can build up as many passions in your life as you want. I’ve always found it funny that people seem to limit themselves to just one or two. Personally speaking, I have several. All it takes is the right steps to make it happen.

Build a Passion

Obviously the first thing you need is to find something you’re interested in becoming passionate about. This could be anything like surfing, traveling, chess, reading, movies; the list could go on. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never tried it before, you can still make it work.

You can try this with something you don’t like, but really why would you waste your time on something you hate? The point of having a passion is for it to enhance your life and make it better. Don’t try and force something that doesn’t really fit.

These steps are here to integrate this passion into your life. As you go through each step, the goal is to make your choice something you do more, understand in a deeper way and genuinely care about. And really, that’s what a passion is.

Here are the four steps:

1. Start doing it

You can’t be passionate about something without actually doing it. So you need to try it out right away. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at it or not, just do it.

The good thing about starting it right away is that you get a feel for what the activity is all about. If you’ve never tried it before, you might have pre-conceived notions. So instead of seeing it for what it might be, you see it for what it really is.

Once you’ve tried it a few times, you can decide if it really is something that’s right for you. I’d only give up on it if you really dislike it. It’s natural to not be too excited about something the first few times so you really need to keep going as long as you’re having fun.

Make time for your new passion and do it on a regular basis. As soon as you’ve made it a regular part of your routine, move on to step two.

2. Learn everything about it

A big part of becoming passionate about something is learning everything about it. This will increase your knowledge and understanding of the activity in a very deep way. As you learn, you integrate the activity into who you are and make it a general part of your life.

No matter what activity it is you’re trying to become passionate about, there are always books websites, videos or magazines to read and explore. Just about everything from rock climbing to chess has videos and magazines. Check them out and absorb as much of the content as you can.

Learn the lingo and history about the activity. Figure out if there are any notable people associated with it. For example, there are notable mountain climbers, surfers, travelers, writers and chess players. Whatever passion you’re pursuing, there is probably someone famous for doing it.

3. Become obsessed

If you’ve made this activity something you regularly do and learn about, you’ll eventually find that you become a little obsessed with it. You’ll naturally start to think about it all the time. You might start to talk about it to people you know and even make friends with people who have that same interest.

I consider this the key moment when turning something into a passion becomes much easier. Because you’ve started to think about it more, you’re more intrinsically motivated to seek it out and make it a part of your life. Once you’ve reached this point, the next step becomes much easier.

4. Integrate it into your life

The final step is to integrate your passion into your life. At this point it’s become a part of who you are. If you’ve integrated it fully enough, this passion will probably be something people associate with you.

Just make sure that it doesn’t take over who you are. Your passion should be enhancing your life and bringing you a lot of joy. Keep it all balanced. Your passions should always be something that makes your life better; not something that takes over your life. I know too many people who have had their passions take over their lives and it isn’t a good thing.

Finding Your Passion

I consider myself very fortunate to have found so many passions in my life. And I attribute that to the approach I take to getting them. You don’t get more passions by finding them; you get more passions by integrating them into your life. It can be a simple, but effective change.

Finding passions in life is important. They’re what make you excited about waking up in the morning and are the foundation of a well-lived life. Think of this quote by T. Alan Armstrong, “If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived?”
photo credit: Frank Wuestefeld