Discover Your Passion. Make an Impact.

Do you want to make a greater impact in the world? If your answer is yes, whether it’s about your local community, your country, continent, or the entire world, then this article is for you!

Given the COVID-19 pandemic and its severe social and economic consequences, the world needs us more than ever before. The world needs YOU more than ever. Because it’s in times of uncertainty, fear and chaos that the world needs people like you; people who care about others; people who want to step up, inspire, give hope and direction; people who are a force for good. And, although there are many ways for you to make a positive impact in the world, today I’ll share with you my way and perspective, which radically changed my life and career for the better. I’m talking about passion.

By passion, I mean the specific activity/activities that put you in a state of flow, while serving something greater than yourself. When you discover what you’re really passionate about, and turn it into your dream career, you make a greater impact. So, doing your passion and work one and the same not only will it skyrocket your career, but it’ll also be a powerful driving force for change for the people and communities you serve through your work.

But why turning your passion into a career can make such a big difference in the world? There are 3 main factors to consider: 

1. Value 
2. Purpose 
3. Influence 

1. Value

When you do work you’re really passionate about, you add much greater value; to your employer, your colleagues and business partners, your investors and your customers. Why? Because you love what you do, and work stops being something that you ”need to do”, an obligation or a form of enforcement. On the contrary, it’s fun! And when you do have fun, you become much more relaxed and energized at the same time. As a result, two things happen:

a) You significantly boost your creativity. That is, your creative problem-solving skills. You get inspired, hence you start becoming more efficient in finding solutions and making a product or a service better; whether that means faster, more effective, or/and more useful. And the more you feel your work as fun, rather than a mere obligation, the more you get inspired, and the more value you add to others by finding faster and better solutions. So, your passion gives you the inspiration you need to become more valuable in the market. And when you become more valuable, a.k.a. serving others more and better, you make a greater impact.

b) Following the previous point, when you make your work and passion one and the same, you have more fun, and not only do you develop your creativity, but you also go for the extra mile; for your employer, colleagues, business partners, investors and clients. Why? Because you spend more time and energy in what you do. Remember, it’s fun and you’re in a state flow, thus you loose track of time! And when you go for the extra mile, you do add even greater value than before. The difference here, in comparison to the work norms, is that you don’t have to force yourself or find external motivations (e.g. money, promotion, vacation time etc) to go for the extra mile. You do it because you love what you do, ending up with the question ”Oh, s***, when the time passed?” – instead of ”Oh, s***, is it still Monday?”.

2. Purpose

Once you discover your passion and turn it into your dream career, you’ll make a greater impact, not only thanks to the inconceivable value that you’ll be adding to people, but also thanks to the fact that you’ll be serving something greater than yourself: a purpose, your purpose. Because your passion does include your purpose. By purpose, I mean your mission, your greater cause, your calling, your destiny to fulfill in this world. No matter how you call it, one thing is true: Your purpose is your bigger ”Why”. By bigger, I mean something greater than yourself and your personal interest. This is about others. It’s your social contribution, the legacy you want to bequeath to this world and the next generations. It’s a unique way, your way, to play a role in human progress; whether you want to change the world for the better through art, science, spirituality, the environment, governance or in any other way, you have your own mission, your own purpose in this world. Although serving any purpose is definitely worth your time and energy, serving the world through your purpose is even more fulfilling than serving a purpose that does not resonate with you, your values, your interests and your being.

But why your purpose is a part of your passion? Before explaining this, we do need to make an important distinction between purpose and passion: Your purpose is your ”Why” and your passion is your ”What”. In other words, Your purpose has a broader meaning than your passion. For example, my purpose (Why) is to ”Inspire people to go above and beyond their limits”. My passion (What I do to serve my purpose in this period of my life) is to inspire people to discover their passion and turn it into a career with more meaning, fulfillment and impact. As you can see, my passion is more specific than my purpose. There are many ways to serve my purpose to inspire people to go above and beyond their limits, such as through technology, governance, medicine, peak performance, but I chose to focus on what resonates most with me right now, which is inspiring others to discover and turn their passion into career!

This distinction is important not only for explaining why your purpose is part of your passion, but it also has a unique practical value: Clarifying your passion will give you both the clarity and the focus you need to have in your career and your job research. Consequently, you’ll save much more time, money, and energy than in the case of trying to apply your purpose to a role, a job description, or a business idea by jumping from one role to another and through trial and error; because there’s a big implementation gap between your purpose and your dream career, and the way to bridge that gap is by getting crystal clear on what you’re really passionate about (a.k.a. how you want to serve your purpose in this period of your life).

Now that we’ve made the distinction between passion and purpose, it’s time to explain why your purpose is part of your passion. It comes down to the following model I’ve created, the Passion Awareness Model:

Your passion consists of 6 key elements:

1. Your Values
2. Your Purpose 
3. Your Vision
4. Your Interests
5. Your Favorite Strengths 
6. Your Favorite Skills 

When you clarify and integrate all the above, you discover your passion. So, your passion comprises your personal values, your personal and professional vision, your interests, your favorite strengths and skills, as well as your purpose. Because one cannot reach their true potential if their passion does not serve their purpose.

That’s why purpose is an inextricable part of passion. And when you follow your passion, you honor your purpose and serve the world in your own unique way; and when you serve others in the way that inspires you most, you make a greater impact.

3. Influence

Last but not least, when you discover and follow your passion, you become more influential, making this way a bigger difference. Why? Because emotion is the most powerful driving force of human behavior. In other words, although we do use our intellect to make better decisions, the majority of our decisions are made by our subconscious mind, which is in charge both of our emotions and our intellect. We are emotional beings, not machines.

So, what this has to do with your passion? Everything. Your passion is not only the specific activity/activities that put you in a state of flow, while serving something greater than yourself. That was the first definition, but there’s another one: Passion is the powerful emotion you experience when you do a specific activity/activities that put you in a state of flow, while serving something greater than yourself. It’s an emotion; and a powerful one. And given that we are emotional beings, we are most influenced by others’ emotions. That’s why one’s excitement or sadness are contagious. Therefore, your passion, as a powerful emotion, can have a tremendous impact on others and the way they feel and think about you, which determines whether they’re going to listen to you and support you on your goals and aspirations.

If you really want to make a positive impact in the world during these uncertain and challenging times, discover your passion and turn it into your dream career. You’ll add inconceivable value to the people you work with, serve the world via your own unique purpose and improve your ability to influence others in order to create a better world, together.

Feel free to connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn by visiting my personal site here JimPanos360.com