Keep Trying to Find Your Passion While You Get to Work

I think we’re agreeing, Alexis. (I love your bit about me “sort of” agreeing with Les.)

Like most of my positions, it’s the middle-ground, yes/and that I’m looking for. Passion is great – but it does not make a thriving business. At the same time, pure know-how doesn’t do the trick as well.

We all know of passionate people who’ll struggle in biz because they can’t get their business wired right. (Isn’t that what LIFT is about?)

We also all know plenty of people who are smart and savvy enough to get it done but who’ll never have a successful business because they lack the heart & courage to take the first and hard steps along the way.

I’m saying passion isn’t sufficient & is instrumental to biz success. Depending on what we mean by “passion,” it might be necessary. At times I wish I had a more provocative either/or position than that, but I don’t.

Interesting subject. My take is it depends what you mean by “passion.”

In my experience, passion is not a reliable source of motivation – it is emotional, exhausting, and comprised of a lot of pushing and forcing. So in that sense, I might go so far as to say passion is actually a counterproductive factor in business. It results in attachment, emotionality, and force — when really a kind of neutrality, clear-headedness, nonattachment, and deliberate, calm persistence are where you’d want to be coming from.

Googling “define:passion,” the top definitions returned are: a strong feeling or emotion; heat: the trait of being intensely emotional; rage: something that is desired intensely; mania: an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action.

None of these seem like a good place to be coming from when building a business.

On the other hand, you may be referring to something else — and that is, a sense of alignment with Source, a sense of inner integrity, a sense that you are doing that which you are here to do. This is a non-emotional place to be and it is rock solid. From this place, I find I’m able to move forward deliberately, calmly, with at least some detachment that enables me to make better decisions and approach things in a more simple, clear-eyed fashion.

Thanks for this discussion. Super helpful.

With blessings,
Francesco

I absolutely agree with you, Alexis, when you say “In my experience, when the money-making endeavor is not fueled passion, it is simply not sustainable.”
When passion is not part of the business building equation, the energy it takes to keep pushing forward is exhausting. And that can only go on for so long before burnout occurs. When we build our businesses from a place of passion, then the activity is energizing. In the flow, we are fueled by the business growth, not burdened by it.

Wow, this is an absolutely FASCINATING discussion! Not only that, but a really important one for our times. Thanks for starting such a GREAT conversation Alexis!

I’m struggling a bit with how to reply, because I have so many feelings and thoughts about this, AND I’m a bit brain-dead from a hardcore workout this morning! So pardon me if I don’t get this out as eloquently as I could.

First, Christina, I LOVE what you wrote, and have had similar experiences around life, money, flow and ‘passion.’ I love that you used the word Distinctions, because making distinctions in any field of thought is extremely important for grounding it in reality. I agree there is a MASSIVE difference in Airy Fairy passion and Fire in the Belly Passion (oh, how I love that phrase!)

I am a very passionate person, very heart-centered and was never interested in taking the well trodden path of college, job, career. I wanted my life to have meaning! (And still do). Like Christina, I couch-surfed quite a lot, traveled, had some amazing life experiences and followed my whims…and in between struggled enormously with my finances! It wasn’t until I discovered Tony Robbins and took his Personal Power II course by the horns that I fully understood how to HARNESS my passion and drive and channel it into action. And I also consciously decided to study marketing, business and systems, and most importantly not to let things that frustrate or confuse me stop me from taking action or pursuing my dreams, something I am still working on.

Second. Human beings are not all on the same level, are not all playing the same game, and I honestly believe it would be inappropriate (not to mention impossible) evolution-wise for us ALL to reach the same consciousness at the same time or era in history. Right now we are at the VERY beginnings of the New Paradigm, there are murmurs and ripples but I believe there is MUCH more to this Story, and its unfolding, that has yet to be fully realized or experienced.

I think MANY people right now are fueled by the desire to make money in a New way; they want the freedom, lifestyle and happiness that they see all their Guru’s enjoying. They sense a shift, but aren’t sure what it means or where they or their dreams fit in.

Then there are people who are purely motivated by money itself, will only pursue businesses that show obvious potential, the numbers have to Speak. There is no passion, and no caring who or what contributes or suffers, as long as the numbers increase the bottom line. Sure, they’re competent, and maybe you could say they are passionate about making money, but…at what cost?

For me, the New Paradigm means allowing ourselves to be passionate about our unique gifts, talents or desires, to fully explore this, but to GROUND it in reality; it means establishing a concrete relationship to money, what money IS, it’s history and evolution and then asking what the world needs of US, what Mother Earth needs, what our fellow human beings need, and creating the New Paradigm out of hindsight, foresight, acknowledging our weaknesses and temptations where money is concerned and anchoring our passions and dreams in reality, fully aware that we can CREATE this reality, and consciously pursue our own evolution.

So yes…it’s a BOTH/and. The pendulum swings first towards one pole, then its opposite…somewhere in there is the balance that will sustain, nurture, and nourish dreams, passion, businesses and competence.

(Sorry for such a long response! Loving this topic).

Dude. I’ve sabotaged EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS or J.O.B. I ever started that I wasn’t passionate about.

Especially when I feigned passion in them (hyped myself up) because I convinced myself that it would ultimately fuel my purpose, which I truly was passionate about.

When I unplugged for 6 months and just let that old way of working bleed out of my system, “drained the swamp” so to speak, my passion finally caught fire and I’ve never felt so alive. I rode through the financial challenges of this period to arrive at a place where I’m doing really well doing something I’m 100% passionate about.

It’s a trip worth taking.

Feel there fear… do it anyway ;-]

YES! Love the loving responses to this question. The very problem I had (and many of my peers still face) is the desire to follow passion and having no idea what that is. How do we differentiate between interests and hobbies and passion? AND does my passion bring value to the world, can I make a living following this passion?

Six months ago I just knew what my passions was NOT and I took a freelance job that I prayed was a step in the right direction. Working with Alexis Neely 🙂 Watching her passion and working with people who know their Great Work and share it has helped me find my own.

So I see both sides. I know there’s a point when you need to take action, try something different and pursue the work you think you’re meant to do. Even if it’s not the work that you feel called to do for the rest of your life, get moving. Do something. Work with someone you admire. Don’t settle for a job that doesn’t feed your spirit.

All hail FIRE IN THE BELLY passion. And Elisha we are SO on the same page re money. My work is to help people see money the same way they see fuel for their car. The gas tank gets low, we don’t freak out, we get in our car and drive to the gas station. Money is the exact same kind of fuel, not a symbol of success or anything else for that matter. It’s a fuel, an energy. Looking forward to exploring this more with you!

Kelly, this is a great point – how do we differentiate between hobbies, interests and passions? The holy grail, to me, is when we can combine all three of these things into a venture that provides tremendous value to the world and supports our lifestyle at the same time. I’m SO grateful you took a step in the direction of working with me! Keep following your heart and seein what feels right and what doesn’t. There are no mistakes.

Yes, you’ve got it Nanette!

I wonder what would shift for you if you were willing to bring a little more emotion into your life and your work than feels comfortable. Let’s explore that sometime. Sending you tremendous love.

Thank you for this discussion, Alexis!! I read Les’ post and, I have to say, there is something about it that brings sadness to my heart as well. I will grant him one major point he makes which is that passion is not sufficient for guaranteed business success, and anyone who simplifies entrepreneurialism to that factor alone is not painting an accurate picture. Fair enough, I agree.

You and I and countless other passionate entrepreneurs have invested countless hours and huge sums of money to continue to improve our knowledge and skills to be able to exemplify the highest possible level of competency (excellence, even?) in our fields. Passion alone is not enough.

However, to me, passion is absolutely an essential ingredient for sustainable business success coupled with a sense of deep personal satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment on a relatively consistent basis.

In other words, by what are we measuring “success”? The bottom line? The profitability of the company, the satisfaction of the shareholders, the number of satisfied customers, the reputation of the company in the market among not only customers but even by competitors? How widely are proponents of “competency” including in those more commonly-held measures of success taking into account a regularly- experienced sense of personal fulfillment, meaning and happiness by the business owner as well as his or her team members?

Have there been entrepreneurs who have been successful in the long-run without the kind of passion we are talking about, primarily built on “competency” without a deep sense of passion for what they are doing and why? Yes, there are.

But how physically and emotionally healthy are those people? How much buoyant energy do they have when they get out of bed in the morning and when they are in the last hours of their day? How enjoyable are they to work with? If they were truly honest with themselves, what would be their self-assessed level of happiness and fulfillment on a daily basis?

These are the kinds of measures that are, for me, sorely lacking from typical measures of business success and the “competency” of the people who run those businesses. The new paradigm of business engages the heart and a sense of individual and organizational well-being and not just intellect and standard measures of competency.

I would add that I recently got a new Mac computer after working on PC’s all my life. Yes, no question, Steve Jobs and his merry band of geniuses are highly competent at what they do. But I paid more than double what I needed to for my machine (had I chosen to buy another PC instead) and have invested precious time to move through the learning curve involved in changing systems. Why? Functionally, I could have stayed with another “highly competent” PC, had the same basic functions I needed to do my work, and saved myself a few dollars and a bunch of time and effort.

But the tangible passion that Steve Jobs has infused into that company and its culture is infectious, and it shows in every last detail of the product and the service I have received, from every phone call I’ve made to an Apple store, to every online order made, to every trainer who’s taught me how to make the switch, to the “Genius” technicians who transferred all my files.

I (and we all) get to choose between countless competent product and service providers of all kinds every day, and I’ll take that kind of competence infused with genuine and unquenchable passion any day. I’ll shout from the rooftops alongside you to all entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs to ABSOLUTELY ensure that passion is central to your business, alongside all the other things you need to learn and develop in terms of business know-how and skill to thrive in your field and make a difference to the people you serve.

Thanks for the discussion, and to all who’ve contributed!

Love this video! I can feel your truth, authenticity and yes…passion! :O)

Thanks for the inspiring message.