I don’t know how you feel about coaching. Personally, I’m one of the skeptical types. However, my father has always taught me that you cannot say no to something unless you have tried it (sometimes that meant trying out his experiments in the kitchen – some better than others). Therefore I invited passion coach Lars Damkiær to an informal chat about passion. I was skeptical when we first sat down but when we finished an hour and a half later I had learned a lot, which I will share with you in three blog posts.
- What are you passionate about?
- How to get started finding your passion
- Things to be careful about
Piece of advice
If you are also one of the skeptical types, put aside your pre-judgment of coaching for the next 5 minutes. You might learn something. If not you will be reaffirmed that coaching does not appeal to you.
What is passion really?
Passion can mean different things to different people. It can be sewing to some; cooking thai-food or working as a Lean consultant. Passion is what we simply cannot stop doing. Lars added to this that passion is what makes us feel genuinely happy.
But why is it so important to find our passion? In his work with his clients Lars draws on years of research within positive psychology. One of the findings is that happiness is determined by our genes, the environment and factors that we can influence ourselves. Research has proved that the things we can influence ourselves that affect our happiness are:
- Feeling good. To feel happy we need to do things that feel good
- Being engaged. To feel happy we need to be willing to invest ourselves in the things we do. We can’t simply do things with our left hand and expect to love it at the same time. It takes commitment and engagement
- Doing something meaningful. If the sole purpose of our work-life is to get paid in order to afford the things we do in our free-time we will most likely live less happy lives. We need to find meaning in the things we do.
I am sure that you all agree that the three bullets above make sense. However, you might ask if we can really make it big (if that is what we are dreaming about) simply by living our passion? The simple answer is yes. If you do not believe me I’d recommend that you read Gary Vaynerchuck’s book, “Crush It”. He himself has made a living from living his passion.
Also, in this movie with Jan Duckert he talks about how doing what you really love will make you an extremely valuable asset to your company. Of course it takes hard work, focus, etc. – I will unfold all eight factors that Richard St. John believes make people successful in a later blogpost – but passion is absolutely key in becoming successful in life.
