Finding My Passion
As we continue to grow our community, it feels important to periodically revisit our purpose and practices. A Second Rodeo is our term for a purposeful lifestyle characterized by deep satisfaction in how I spend my time and energy. A Second Rodeo is usually driven by a desire for more freedom and control, while intentionally investing our time and energy in things that give us a sense of significance. These priorities create a contrast to a primary career that’s more often driven by a desire for success and financial reward. While those desires are important, they often leave us depleted and dissatisfied. A Second Rodeo is a chance to realign our lives around our deepest values and passions.
To get to a Second Rodeo, we lead clients through a self-discovery process known as Investigative Life Planning. We deeply explore three areas of life–Passion, Skills, and Need (both personal needs and the needs around us). Let’s start with passion and discover what that means, as well as what it doesn’t mean.
When I’m engaged in an area of passion, I usually experience:
• High levels of satisfaction
• A desire to learn and grow
• An increase in emotional energy
One of the simplest definitions of pursuing passion is “do what you love.” We’ve all heard the advice, “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Like most clichés, there is a kernel of truth here, but it’s often misapplied. For example, our hobbies are often expressions of what we love. Turning a hobby into a “job” is almost guaranteed to lessen, not increase our passion. I meet a lot of people who anticipated that a lifestyle of golf, or fishing, or travel (all areas of passion) would be their path to satisfaction after a primary career. Unfortunately, they may discover that unlimited access to the golf course can actually lead to a decline in passion for their hobby. I find that a hobby makes a great side dish or dessert, but it can be pretty unsatisfying as a main course.
From my experience, a passion that only benefits self may be too small to sustain a Second Rodeo. At least that’s true for people who have experienced the satisfaction that comes from an outwardly focused passion. Only a few people want to change the world by engaging the massive, systemic challenges we face. But a lot of us want to make a difference in some smaller way.
We’ve seen over and over that passion, at least as a precursor to purpose, can be discovered and developed through attention and engagement. I’ve been passionate about many things and will likely be passionate about many more before I’m done.
Passion can be discovered through
• An inventory of natural abilities–At Second Rodeo, we often begin a coaching engagement with one of our favorite assessments, The Highlands Ability Battery (HAB). Skills are learned. But natural abilities are those things that just come easily. It’s one of the things that makes us unique. By using an objective tool that measures timed performance, we understand ourselves with a reliability that self-perception or opinion can’t give us.
• An audit of past experiences–We’ve all had experiences that left us energized and fulfilled. By recalling and reliving those experiences, we often find common denominators that we could call passion.
• A sampling of potential possibilities– I can often tell just from a person’s energy and expression when we identify a passion strong enough to sustain a Second Rodeo. Sometimes that connection is so strong, the impulse to move ahead with no restraint so compelling, I have to advise people to tap the brakes! The discovery phase is exciting, but after identifying a few possibilities, we recommend engaging in what a friend calls “low-cost probes.” As an example, instead of opening your own bookstore or restaurant or other enterprise, start with a part-time job at a similar business and experience the actual work while also exploring the full implications of such a business. In other words, “try before you buy.”
It’s never too early to start discovering or rediscovering your passion. Doing this hard work before closing the door on a primary career is a great way to avoid the almost inevitable disenchantment that so many experience six to twelve months after leaving.
We’ve been down this road many times. Having a guide by your side can keep you from experiencing the most common pitfalls experienced during a season of transition. Contact me for a free discovery call. I’d love to hear your story!
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