How to Find Your Passion – Foundations – Part of Chapter II of the upcoming book ”Find Your Passion”

How To Find Your Passion – Foundations – Part of Chapter II of the upcoming book ”Find Your Passion”

Develop the ‘‘Growth Mindset’’

This is fundamental. Discovering and pursuing your passion is all about your well-being and happiness. And to reach a level of true happiness in your daily life – a level of fulfillment – you have to invest in yourself and your education. By education, I don’t mean a college degree or a course to gain technical skills or the ones required by your current or prospective employer. Of course, they are important for your work, because you deliver value to your employer and the society through the company you work for. Nevertheless, self-discovery and self-awareness not only are they important, but absolutely necessary for you to find a career with more impact, profits, and fulfillment. If you don’t know your passion and who you really are, you’ll never find out the best way to serve others and to be fulfilled; day-in-day-out.

So, by education, I mean life-long learning. Why is it truly important for you to grow? Because you will change anyway in the future. Why? Because your life circumstances will change, and because you’ll learn more things about yourself and what you want. As time goes by, everything in the world, including you, change. We’re in constant motion and part of a never-ending process that we call evolution.

‘‘Everything flows’’

Heraclitus, Ancient Greek philosopher, 535 – 475 BC

Nonetheless, evolution does not mean progress. It means change. Change for the best or the worst. On the other hand, growth is all about your personal progress; and it’s a choice. Your choice. It’s your choice to become the best version of yourself. It’s also your choice to become the worst version of yourself. Your call.

Now you’re aware of the importance of life-long learning for the sake of your passion and happiness. But how can you cultivate the ‘‘Growth Mindset’’? How can you start building it?

Learn to Fail & Fail to Learn

Here’s the global myth nowadays around failure: ‘‘If you fail, even once, you are a failure’’. We have learned to draw our self-worth and confidence from the ‘‘balance’’ or the ‘‘average’’ of our total failures and successes in our ‘‘self-worth account’’. It’s also known as ‘‘success rate’’. The more achievements we’ve done, the more confident we feel. The more failures we have, the lower our self-confidence. But can really this be the truth? Can the real worth of us be measured by the number of our successes and our failures? Of course, NOT.

So, what makes us valuable and worthy if not our accomplishments? It’s how we feel about ourselves. It’s how you feel about yourself. You can choose to feel about you anything you like. Yes, you do have the right and power to choose how you feel about you. But not everyone will and has to approve. This is explained by social norms and stereotypes, as well as the fact that every person perceives the world in a different and unique way. And here’s the truth:

You don’t need anyone’s approval but yours. Because you are enough. Because you do matter. Because the most important person in your life is yourself. Although this might sound quite selfish at first, in reality, it’s not.

When you travel by plane, what instructions do they give you before the flight? Safety instructions. What do they tell you about the oxygen masks if you travel with a child? ‘‘First put the masks on your child, and then on yourself’’. Right?

Of course not. First, they tell you to put it on you, and then your children. Are they arrogant as well? Because you can’t help anyone unless you are able to help yourself first. And this applies everywhere, not just in cases of emergency. You can’t have great personal relationships, nor can you offer your gifts, your love, yourself to others if you don’t provide them for yourself. So, let’s reframe the myth of ‘‘Failing = Being a Failure’’, shall we?

Failure is invaluable learning and wisdom to come. Because the more you fail, the more things you learn, and the more insights you have. The more your new insights, the more you grow. And the more you grow, the closer you get to your inner fulfillment, day-in-day-out. Failure is the most important element of your lifelong learning. Why? Because when you experience something, instead of just understanding and knowing it intellectually and in theory, the more likely for you to store the new knowledge into your long-term memory, which is in your subconscious mind. This happens because when we have an experience, we live it. That is, we put emotion in it. And emotions are also part of our subconscious. So, the more intense the experience, positive or negative, the more likely for us to remember it for a lifetime.

This is also the reason why we love going to a live event, whether it’s a concert or a dance performance, than just listening to our favorite music in our home or watching a dance performance on Youtube.

So, when you fail, you gain a unique experience and lesson that you’re going to remember so you can be prepared for a similar situation in the future. That’s what wisdom is all about. And wisdom is crucial for your personal growth. Because if you don’t learn your lesson, life will make sure you learn it. In other words, you’ll keep on repeating the same mistakes again and again. This is what can lead you to true failure. The unwillingness to learn, improve, and move forward, although you’re aware of what serves you and what doesn’t.

‘‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’’

– Albert Einstein – 

Feel free to connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as check the upcoming book ”Find Your Passion”, by visiting my personal site JimPanos360.com