The Value of Peace for Career Clarity – Part of Chapter IV of the upcoming book Find Your Passion

The Value of Peace in Career Clarity – Part of Chapter IV of the upcoming book “Find Your Passion”

Find Your P.A.S.S.I.O.N Method 

Many congrats! Now, you’re all set for the clarity and insights you want. You have taken away the “clouds” in the sky of your potential, by applying the “F.E.A.R.S Release System” and releasing yourself from fear, and now you’re ready to go as far as possible to the brightest star in the sky. Your star, your passion.

The “Find Your P.A.S.S.I.O.N method” stands for seven steps for your passion discovery:

Peace

Awareness

Secret Revelation

Strategy

Implementation

Observation

Never Give Up

 Peace

For you to discover your passion, you need to get inspired. To get inspired, you need to take a step back and reflect on yourself. That is away from distractions. Away from the news, social media, friends, family, significant other, colleagues, anyone, and anything. You need to step out of the noise and your rut. You need peace. By “peace”, I mean inner peace. It’s the serenity you feel when you give time and space to yourself. That is the time and space required for you to reflect on your needs, as well as the six passion components: Your values, vision, purpose, interests, favorite strengths, and favorite skills.

How? By remoting yourself in any place that will make you relax for at least two consecutive days. No distractions and complete focus on yourself! Put it in another way. Why do you think so many people decided to make a career transition during the pandemic? Yes, unemployment is high, but it’s not the only reason, as I’ve met quite a few people who decided to clarify and go for what they love during and in spite of the pandemic.

Another reason is that they took the time and space necessary to reflect on themselves because of the quarantine! The only difference here is that you need to go to a place where you’ll have privacy, be fully relaxed, and out of your comfort zone. A typical place where you feel comfortable is your home. There’s nothing wrong with that, except for one thing: It’s too comfortable! Too much comfort is not a source of inspiration, but procrastination!

“Too much comfort is not a source of inspiration, but procrastination!”

How do I know? Not only because the “Peace Time” and the “Find Your P.A.S.S.I.O.N method” have worked successfully for people from all over the world, but because they also worked for me! In fact, my very personal experience gave me the inspiration to create this method.

December 23, 2014

I’m in my city of studies. It’s dark and cloudy outside. Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve. I’m sitting on my dark brown couch. I’m studying civil procedure law; and I want to throw up. Exams are coming next month. I really don’t care. Because in two months, I’ll take my gap year! In February, I’ll be in Liège, in Belgium through the international student exchange program “Erasmus”! Yes, I was still studying, just in a different college and country. At least, that was the case on paper. For me, it’s clear: Not studying law for a whole academic year and start really enjoying myself!!!!!!! It’s exactly the break I need. My extra oxygen supplies.

But why I keep studying? I don’t know. I just feel the need to be alone. In fact, I don’t want to visit my friends and family this Christmas. They are 500 miles away.

I love them and Christmas is for family time…But I keep finding excuses. “Want to focus on my exams to avoid an overload when the studies break ends”, “It’s far away”, “Have my own apartment, my freedom here”, and so on. I literally force myself to study as an excuse to stay alone.

But why? What’s the real reason? Suddenly, I hear a voice within. It’s screaming. My gut’s shaking. “I need to breathe! I need air!”, it screamed. Then, I finally got it.

It was a desperate call for help. By myself. That night, I decided to stay alone for Christmas. I really wanted my time and space. It was one of the best decisions that I made in my life.

You need to be away from anything that can distract you from reflecting on yourself. Children and family obligations, professional responsibilities, your friends and significant other, your hobbies, and the like. Think about it. We live in a world of distraction, where we’re constantly being bombarded by information. That’s why our era is called the “Information era”. You have access to any information by the click of a button.

Why can info overload create distractions? Every piece of info is a message. A message has two participants in the communication process. The sender and the recipient. Every sender has a goal and a motive to create and send their message to you. From entertainment, promotion, education, and inspiration to manipulation and brainwashing, senders’ drives vary. When you spend your time, little by little, consuming content from others, your focus is on others and what they want, not what you want. Your attention is toward the outer world, not your inner world.

Although there are moments when you look into yourself, this is definitely not the norm. The norm is being the recipient, not the sender; the consumer, not the creator. Besides that, the sources of all the input you take don’t derive from your drive, but others’ drives. Another problem is that it’s dubious how useful this info will be for you. Of course, there are many strategies and tools that are tested and proven and can help you achieve your goals. On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that others know you, who you really are. Because you’re unique and one of a kind. Are there people in and out of your life who want the best for you? Absolutely. Do they know the best for you? Not necessarily.

Therefore, if you don’t devote the time and space you need to discover yourself, you’ll be constantly feeling overwhelmed, satisfying others’ needs, and neglecting yours. And for you to be able to satisfy your needs, your goals, your dream career transition, you need to be aware of them first. Although self-awareness is an ever-going process, you’ll be surprised how many insights, how much “gold” you can find within you in a very short period of time – and under the right guidance. That’s what we’ll do. But to have unique insights in a short period, remoting yourself is necessary. That is being alone. Just you and yourself. Makes sense, right? When you are alone, you do spend more time with yourself, whether you like it or not! This way, you enormously increase your opportunities to focus on yourself. So far, you might not have done that for all the previous reasons; or you might be just stuck (you call it “comfortable”) in a rut.

Remember that peace is a state of mind, but sometimes we need to change our environment to get unstuck. Why? Because every place you are in makes you feel in a specific way. If you go to your favorite restaurant, you feel relaxed, excited about the food, and captivated by its unique ambiance. If you’re in your bedroom and home in general, you feel comfortable, no matter what you do. But this comfort actually discourages you from trying out anything different from the rut you’re stuck into. More precisely, your brain associates places with feelings, because of your memory.

Put it simply, your brain is designed to save as much energy as possible. How? By your habits, which happen automatically, thus very little energy is required on your behalf. That’s why our subconscious mind is in charge of 97% of our daily activities, and that’s why we did the “F.E.A.R.S Release System”. That’s also why you need to change your environment. To make your brain spend energy on conscious thinking. Because it’s necessary for you to work on the upcoming exercises. That’s right. You might give different answers in different places! The key criterion here is inspiration, not comfort.

Furthermore, there’s one more trap that you should pay attention to. Do not take your solo career retreat (Yes, I named it this way, as I’ve organized for the people I’ve worked with quite a few solo career retreats) if you don’t have inspiration as your primary intention. Why? Because any different intention from the main goal, inspiration, will set the pace for a completely different outcome. In other words, it’ll be a distraction. Just remember the “butterfly effect”, the “law of sensitive dependence on initial conditions”. Even the tiniest changes at the beginning can generate an entirely different outcome.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you remote yourself for one day, a weekend, one week, one month, or even take a career break for six months, one, five, or ten years if your primary intention is to relax and travel for leisure. For this, you have vacations. Can you use your vacation days for your solo career retreat? Absolutely. But remember that for a specific timeframe you need to lock dates in your calendar for inspiration. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be relaxed or have fun while working on yourself!

In fact, fun and relaxation are necessary to shift your brain from the work, “focused” mode to your “diffused”, your relaxed mode. I just don’t want you to use your peace and inspiration time as a way to temporarily escape from your routine and work, run away from your problems, or have “some” fun, ending up watching a movie, surfing on Youtube, having a few more drinks, or being a tourist, instead of working on yourself. In this case, all of these are distractions.

By the way, if you don’t love what you do, it’s far more likely for you to have the need to take a vacation. That’s right. Following your passion skyrockets your energy levels, but the further you are from it, the faster your energy is drained! Think about it. You go on vacation to “recharge your batteries” and when you get back to work, how much do they last? A few hours? Days? Months? After a short period, there it is again. Your need to “recharge”. Here’s the problem. Taking vacation more often to relax from work is like trying to constantly recharge a battery that’s about to die soon. It has reached its life expectancy and now it’s time to get a new one. But this time, it’ll be a super battery. You won’t even need to recharge it. It’s self-charging! This is your passion. So, don’t fall into the trap of vacation or traveling. I definitely fell for that. I took a gap year to live abroad and visited 36 cities in 18 different countries! Was it fun? Definitely! Did I meet great people and learn more about new cultures? Yes! Did I improve my money management skills? Of course! Did I get clarity on my career?

Not even close! Although I did learn a few things about myself, I was far away from the level of clarity and awareness you will be by the end of this book. So, you’ll save by this strategy so much time, energy, and money. Yes, career breaks cost, a lot. Trust me. Now, if you want to travel for all the great things traveling gives us, great.

But please. Never travel again to run away from work or your problems. Because when you get back, sooner or later, they’ll still be there; because wherever you go, you bring your problems with you. Yes, you hid them well at the back of your mind, but let me ask you this: Do you want to be an escapee or a pursuer for the rest of your life? A prey or a predator? Enslaved or free? Your call.

“Ok, Jim. Got it. So, what am I supposed to do? We are in quarantine!”, you might object. Let me tell you this straight: Quarantine is just another excuse! Justification for the results you (don’t) have. Go to Google Maps and check places in nature, such as parks and beaches, that are relatively close to you and not overcrowded. I’m sure you’re going to find something!

“Ok, Jim. But where should I stay? Hotels are not that safe because of covid.”, you might add. Check Airbnb, rent an RV, or go camping if possible. Another alternative is to take a day trip. You’ll leave in the morning and come back in the evening. This way, you’ll have enough time to work on yourself and get inspired. Only when you give time and space to yourself, will you be able to think clearly, learn more about yourself, and find your passion.

Last but not least, I want you to know one more thing: You deserve your space and time. You deserve to relax, reflect, and get the clarity you want on your passion and next career steps. If not now, when? The pandemic reminded us that life is indeed too short. So, the best time for you is now!

Passion-work:

1. In the next 3 days:
2. Schedule the dates of your “Peace Time” and lock them in your calendar.
3. Then, you have 4 days to secure the location (e.g. book a place, buy/rent camping equipment, or an RV). Pick a place where you could stay ALONE for at least two consecutive days. YOU and YOURSELF. No friends, intimate partner, family, or anyone else. Alternatively, plan your day trip outdoors, ideally in nature. Having privacy to reflect is compulsory. Overall, you have 7 days to book your dates and place.
4. Make sure during your “Peace Time”, you have at least 5 hours per day to work on and be with yourself, exclusively. That is at least 5 hours the first day and at least 5 hours the second day.
5. Take only your phone with you, which will be switched off during your reflection and “passion-work” time. If you do a day trip, then it’ll be switched off for the whole day! Do not take with you any other devices (e.g. laptop, tablet, second phone, etc).
6. Do not try to explain to anyone about that. Just let your loved ones know that you need to spend some time alone. PERIOD. The more you’ll try to explain, the more persons will be involved, and the more distractions from your main goal you’ll have.
7. Inform only your very loved ones about the location you’ll be for safety reasons – Just make sure that they’ll not make you any surprise visits!
8. Once you do the previous steps, keep reading. 

Feel free to connect with me on social media by visiting my personal site JimPanos360.com, or check out and pre-order (50% off) the “Find Your Passion” book to transform your career and life here.