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What is Passion

Written by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Entrepreneurs and many others continually pursue understanding and explaining passion. This illusive thing is recognized for driving many individuals to attain the unattainable. Possibly, a different perspective on passion is needed.

What is Passion

What is passion? Recently after a presentation, I was once again thanked for my passion. The compliment was genuinely given, as was my returned thank you. However, as the day progressed, my thoughts kept returning to passion. What really is passion? For the next several days as I attempted to ponder this question, other questions surfaced. What does it mean when one has passion? What separates people with passion and those without passion? Is passion always positive? Could passion be negative? Is there a relationship between passion and purpose? How does this fit me?

Sometimes the best place to begin to define a word is with Webster. Webster's dictionary states that passion is an emotional response.

Being an intellectual conceptualizer or more simply stated a heurist, I wrote down 3 words – passion, performance and purpose.

Consider the following: imagine someone standing with out stretched arms and open hands with one hand holding the word passion and the other holding the word purpose.

What I would like you to consider is that passion is the present where others as well as ourselves see our emotions. Purpose is the future, our true north, where we constantly strive towards to reach our vision. And the performance is the individual with the outstretched hands. Performance is the collection of all past experiences and current actions where we continually apply knowledge as we hold true to our passion and purpose.

Passion exists with our purpose and performance as a partner to help achieve the present and the future that we desire for our businesses, our families, our friends, our communities and ourselves.

Now envision yourself as that person of performance. Visualize what your hands are holding. What fills the hand holding your passion? What do you see in the other hand holding your purpose? Keep that vision bright in your mind's eye. Perform each and every day with a clear focus on realizing both your passion and your purpose.

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