“Every civilization is, among other things, an arrangement for domesticating the passions and setting them to do useful work.”
Passion always sounds like good fuel for chasing dreams. We’ve all heard of those people who describe their work as their passion, and those rare but real stories where folks “followed their passion and the money followed.” But I suspect there are even more people in the world who aren’t so sure what their passions are, even if they have modest dreams.
The idea of “following your passion” is so ingrained in the start-up and entrepreneurial culture that it leaves little room for the alternative: Easing into the dream. This story of accomplishment and success takes a different path. Here are some beginnings you may recognize:
“I had a problem I wanted to solve for myself and soon discovered other people had the same problem.”
“I wanted to answer a question, and over time my search for an answer lead me in unexpected directions.”
“At first, it was just a part-time job. I just wanted to be social and maybe supplement our household income. I never thought it would become a full-time lifestyle.”
Despite the proliferation of email signatures which say “Real estate is my passion!” there are many more stories in real estate that began gradually and lead to greatness.
If you don’t have a passion and find yourself searching for a way to make your dreams come true, here are some ways you might begin your journey:
1. Make more room for things you’d like to explore. This means unburdening yourself from a few of the tedious tasks in your life which can be reasonably cut. You don’t need a full-time commitment from the start.
2. Look for patterns in your life you’d like to change. Find the easiest one to tackle and make a change that disrupts or eliminates the pattern. This can go a long way to making the room you need to explore new ideas.
3. Ask yourself what the person you want to become would do. Imagine how they would act, what they would say no to, and what they might accept as a new challenge.
You don’t have to fake your passion and you don’t have to be rabid about chasing your goals. There is plenty of room for meaning and fulfillment through easing into your dreams.
