Have you found your passions?
Live a passionate life. This is what many motivational books have been telling me over and over again. Live with passions and you’ll enjoy it more.
But what is passion? How can we live a passionate life when we don’t even know what we are passionate about? When I asked my friends what are their passions or what matters to them most? They would say things like family, friends, money, etc. Amazingly…..money is in nearly everyone’s list, including myself.
There’s nothing wrong if you are passionate about money. Nothing wrong at all. But do you think you are really passionate about money………or you just want money to survive or to give your family a better life?
If that’s the case, what are your true passions then?
If you don’t know, then I advise you to spend some time to do some soul searching. It’s never too late to do that…but the earlier you do that, the better it is I believe.
Firstly, find out what do you like to do when you are free. Anything. It could be playing computer games, reading novels, writing stories, cooking, sleeping (not really relevant though), eating, etc. Things that you enjoy doing, and won’t feel tired about it. That’s your passion.
Also, it could be something that you like to do when you were a kid. Something which you’ve spent a lot of time doing it years ago. That could also be one of your passions.
Mmm, or it could also be something you are really good at and something which you are being praised for. People tend to do more of something they are good at because they feel they are recognized….than to do something which nobody really bother if he is doing it or not.
Those are the 3 basics one. I know that some of you will say that passions cannot bring you food. Well, right and wrong. Right because it cannot bring you food if your passion is sleeping or staring aimlessly at the sky. Wrong because you CAN make a living out of everything, including your passions. It’s just a matter of doing it in the right way. That, is the difficult part and also something which I am trying to find out myself. 
But i always believe in one thing. If you are smart, money will come no matter what you do. And if you are doing it the right way, your passions will bring you a lot more fortune than something you don’t like at all.
So, have you found your passions yet?
The links below might help you a little
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/how-to-find-your-passion.html
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/homeofficemagcom/2001/march/38294.html
Related posts:
- Go for what you’re really interested in, not just the money “How to get rich?” is a very common question. Actually,...
- Is money the root of all evil? I doubt so. The saying “money is the root of all evil” has...
- Life is fragile, appreciate what you have I was chatting with my ex-colleague the other day. He...
Alvin,
I have to disagree with you on this : “They would say things like family, friends, money, etc. Amazingly…..money is in nearly everyone’s list, including myself.”
Most of the richest people in the world like Gates, and Buffet did not set out to find $. A lot of times these people are so passionate in exploring the unknown, they have to set up the journey to confirm their belief, they stretch their limits, and along the way, they confirm their beliefs.
Gate was so intrigued by the bites and bytes, I think he and Alan were so intrigued by what they thought they could conquered. Buffet wanted to be the best stock picker. Their passions in finding their beliefs lead them to fortune.
$ is not necessary the factor that caused these people to have plenty of $ but along the way their success help them to get $ follow them. Money love company. The more money you have, the more you find money follow you because they love companies just like human.
I think people who are passionate about what they believe often times are some what eccentric and not follow the norms. They love the unknown, they take risk and if they fail, they try again and because they believe what they believe, so they keep trying and eventually they either give up or try some more
.
I do believe the environment that you live in either potentate your passion or depress your passion. Environment is the soil that breed either success of failure in one’s passion. I think what make America so great a country is that our education here teach us to explore the unknown and a lot of times these explorations will bring up lots of money if we found out the answers to our exploration but not go to explore because of $.
Some of the passions that I have is to piss off people, convince people they are wrong and I am right, ha ha ha ha ha. I pissed off my parents, I pissed off my culture, I pissed off my bosses and sometimes they think I am crazy. I am so what eccentric and love to take risk and I am some what wealthy and I see making $ is one of the easiest thing in life. I became a millionaire at 35. They said I got heart disease, I parachuted when I was 20’s. They said I cannot have baby, I had my first at 42. [ I think the reasons why I like to piss off people is because indirectly I am telling them they are wrong
:):).]
$ does not motivate me a lot but to find out the unknown motivate me. For eg., I love to find out how we can fly from US to Malaysia within 1 hour ? What are the caustic factors of having cancer and etc etc…
I do believe we will be the nation that will find out the cure for cancer and I believe it will be sooner than most people think…And it is a pity that I was not born there but immigrate in later in life.
But, no matter how much money we have, how clever we are, we are mortal, we can only eat so much meat, so much fish, have so many diamonds, wear so many branded clothes and underwear, have so many bfs before we get AIS
:), but at the end, we still near to go on the lonely journey of DEATH…
When my dad breath its last, his face turned colorless within few seconds, all the riches he acquired were left behind.
Js.
@Jamy
actually, what i meant was that i asked a lot of my friends, and nearly every single one of them have $$$ as part of their passions. I do know great and successful people (and normally the richest people) dont really care about money. what they care about is their passion and their thirst, their desire to do what they believe in.
this ’strong will’ of theirs is what kept them running and overcoming obstacles. i think things would be a lot different if you prioritize $$$ over what you truly believe in.
and i must agree with u that our upbringing somehow influence us quite a bit. our own education system. our gov. our friends n family. everything.
but for me, myself…..i really wanna make a difference. i believe money will come if you are smart. this is what you taught me, and this is what i still believe in. i seriously want to try n push for what i believe in.
after all…..when we leave this world, we bring nothing but memories (maybe)…..and leave nothing but memories.
Alvin,
Go ahead and believe in what you believe : “but for me, myself…..i really wanna make a difference. i believe money will come if you are smart. this is what you taught me, and this is what i still believe in. i seriously want to try n push for what i believe in.”
When the right time comes along, you can pursue me to be your angel investor. But, you have to convince me that your products sell, ie why your cartoons will sell better than other cartoonists. Yes, I do have some money to invest when I think it is worthwhile
. I am not sugar mummy but I love to invest and make money 
.
There is only 1 strategy in my investment. I invest when others do not see values. A business is filling the void when others do not see.
I thought of you when I bought a “Spider man” coloring book for my son on Sunday. In fact, that coloring book teach a person how to draw different actions of “Spider man”.
Children products are very lucrative, high margin but you have to constantly looks at trend because toddlers and children change their minds so fast that today toys can be tomorrow trashes
.
Js.
Money will come when you are smart… well some might argue that if money is the root of all evil, then by being smart you are on your way to being evil, hahaha. People who say their passion is money who are not avid coin collectors are too shallow to notice the difference between and end and a means to an end. What they mean is they’re passionate about things they think money can buy. On that score I recommend precious metals. They hold long term value better than currency can.
Its admirable to want to make a difference doing something one truly believes in but for 99% of us, we eventually find that the world works differently. We make a difference doing things that the market puts value in, rarely what we put value in. It may mean having to do something you are completely dispassionate about like going to some lousy office every day for years on end.
We can of course go ahead and do the things we are passionate, the world be damned. Leonardo Da Vinci is a fine example of how some works will only be appreciated long after we’re gone.
@Jamy
thanks for the offer. hehe. good la u, helping me with advice n stuff, now angel investor (if i can prove myself of course).
as of now, i am still trying to improve my drawings. not easy since my work has been piling up nowadays. =_=
i also saved up some money (not much to start a business though….). trying to save more so that i can be my own sponsor next time.
children stuff are VERY lucrative…and its getting more n more lucrative. people can stop going to pubs, shopping, games, etc……but 3 things they cannot avoid even if recession hits – their kids welfare, basic necessities and food
mmm, maybe i’ll try to write out my ideas in the next post.
@Brendan
hey, thanks for dropping by my humble blog.
you have very interesting points there. the things that you think, i am sure, are what most people are thinking.
world does work differently. let’s face the fact. it’s a reality that nobody can escape. and it’s something that everyone is feeling.
so, why should us, be the same with all other people?
what people see as shortcomings, see them as opportunities. i know it’s easier to say than to do…but well, i guess starting with THAT kind of mindset is better than nothing.
you can always choose not to struggle thru the things you dislike. most people will say it’s for survival. but well, 2008 u’re trying to survive…….2010…same thing, survival……2040, same thing. so when you’re leaving this world, all you did was to try and survive.
that’s why i am trying to change my mindset differently. not to follow the average people. i rather be the person at the end of the group……it could be the lower end, or the upper end. preferably the upper end of course.
but that’s just me and my talk.
in 2008, i will walk my talk.
Hello again, you are spot on – out of shortcomings come opportunity and the first man to capitalize on that can be very rich. Personally I’ve yet to meet anyone who became intensely wealthy out of passionate activity. Some hobbyists do make money but when you’re making things other people want rather than what you want, you tend to grow detached. What starts off as passion can deteriorate into a passionless chore.
There is opportunity at fringe markets if you are at the extreme left or right of the bell curve. In fact niche markets are one of the most lucrative. Its just a matter of finding like-minded people and being first to market with something they value.
Here’s wishing you all the best in the year of the rat. Just don’t be evil, bwahahahaha….
@Brendan
Thanks for dropping by again.
Yeap, i think in Malaysia (or maybe in asia), it’s very hard to find someone who became rich due to his passions (besides, of coz, the passion for money). most of the people that we’ve seen or hear…..are those in US or UK….people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc.
Hobbyists, IMHO, will be facing a difficult time trying to achieve that kind of greatness because as you said, their hobbies only cater for them and a small group of people. and when they switch to cater for most people, they might end up doing something they hate.
The key point here is that, rather than just focusing on a particular hobby of yours, maybe you can tweak a little to cater for a wider range of market…….the important thing when we talk about PASSION is not just something you like to do (A LOT), but something that you believe strongly in. like “love” or “caring” kind of thing.
For myself, i believe in “imagination”, “creative thinking” and also “caring”. and how am i going to do that? i feel that writing stories using images will somehow bring me towards that direction. Tat’s just my gut feeling though.
Let’s hope i am right. LOL.
ahem, i wanna save the world (Hiro Nakamura). being evil is out of my list of TODOs