Identifying what I am passionate about:

This morning I sat down for an hour with Bonnie, who heads up our ladies’ mastermind group.  I meet with these lovely ladies every Monday night for an hour, and we encourage each other to stay on track with our goals and dreams.  The mastermind group came out of our “Starting Over” retreat last November in Puerto Vallarta, and we are the 2nd group (there’s a first group who are now in their 2nd year!).

This morning I was re-doing my Passion Test – identifying my top 5 passions: “what motivates me and keeps me moving forward?” What am I truly passionate about?  The conversation started with simply identifying 10 things that make my life “ideal”.  For example – “My life is ideal when I am…”

1. Writing/ blogging
2. Growing my business
3. Spending time with family
4. Exploring the world with family & friends
5. Financially abundant
6. Healthy & energetic
7. Spiritually grounded
8. Contributing to others
9. Building a legacy
10. Resting & relaxing

I don’t know about you, but these things excite me and make me happy! Your list would probably be quite different in some ways and identical in others. But all 10 things on this list go hand in hand with my vision board: knowing where to invest my time and energy to build the life that I want to live. A life where I am thriving, rather than simply surviving.

At the end of an hour of laughing and sharing, I was clear that my life is ideal when I am:

1. Exploring the world with family & friends
2. Building a legacy
3. Spiritually grounded
4. Financially abundant &
5. Healthy & energetic

Establishing Markers:

But identifying what I am really passionate about is only the first part of the exercise.  Part 2 means that I need to identify “markers” – How will I know that I’ve “arrived”? What does it mean to be “spiritually grounded”?  What does “financially abundant” mean to me?

Because for each person, these things can mean different things! Financially abundant for one person may mean earning $50,000.00 a year, while for another person it might mean earning $50,000 a month. Being healthy and energetic may mean for someone at 20 years old might not mean the same at 45 or at 75!  What does “building a legacy” mean for me?

I know some of my markers:

• empowering women – but then, what will that mean?
• getting fit enough for a 4-day ski holiday
• running 8-10 km once a week, plus doing 5km twice a week
• having a healthy gut (after having suffered from Coeliac Disease for so long)
• getting home for Dad’s 80th birthday with friends and family!

But some are harder to identify and will require more work.

Why I love the passion test:

The beauty of the passion test for me is that it doesn’t limit me to “one passion“.  I already know that I am a “hummingbird” or “scanner”, driven by my curiosity to learn as much as possible about various things, generally all at the same time. I am constantly forcing myself to “choose” and decide, knowing that the day only has 24 hours. And once I have mastered one area, I am always looking for the next possibility of “what can I master now?”.

The passion test, by identifying 5 things I am passionate about, allows me to explore a perfect and ideal life, when I am balanced around those things that are most important to me! And all of those things then fit beautifully into my “Find Your Happy” Planner – especially since I took a moment to change “My balanced heart” to personalize it even more for me!  Yes, I took the time to copy out the section of the heart that wasn’t working for me, scan it, write up a new description, cut it out, and glue it back into the planner for each week, so that “my Balanced Heart” is perfectly balanced for me!  Sorry Rhonda! 🙂  And yes, Rhonda was at the Starting Over retreat in Puerto Vallarta in 2017 and 2016.

So this year, as I look at all the things I might be doing, all the things I could spend my time on, I take a quick look at my top 5 passions and ask myself: will spending my time doing this get me closer to living my idea life? Yes, I would love to take the Salsa dancing classes: where does it fit in with my top 5 passions? ah… there “healthy & energetic“. Oh, but I wanted to run the 10km race and I’ve already signed up for that. Do I have enough time to train for the race AND go to the classes? Maybe I need to leave the dance lessons for another day.

Another example is that there are so many online courses that I would love to be doing: but there are only so many hours in a week that I can dedicate to studying. Which courses are most aligned with my passions and building my ideal life? Which ones will take me to where I really want to be?

It’s so much easier to begin, with the end in mind!

And that’s what I love about the passion test! When I did it in November, there were some things that I identified that I was passionate about, but I was doing ZERO about when I rated myself! Now, when I compared my passions today with those from November 4th – they are basically the same, but now a little more defined than before! And whereas in November some of them were at a 0, ALL of them are things that I am working on in my life. I have incorporated all my passions into my weekly activities and what I am consistently working towards!

• I am writing consistently, for my businesses and also personally.
• I changed my attitude towards my businesses and started to see rewards for that change!
• I am studying consistently in the areas that I identified as my passions, and got certified as an mBIT Coach.
• I am working conscientiously on my health and well-being. I am studying Innergetics and applying it in my life!
• I took the trips that I said were important to me and am planning the ones that I really want for the rest of this year
• I am spiritually grounded, with mindfulness and meditation, as well as focused on my spiritual growth. I got my Ho’oponopono practitioners certification!

I have so much more energy, because I know WHAT I want to work on, and that’s the beauty of living life with passion!

If you are struggling to live your life with passion – maybe you need someone that can ask the right questions.