What is passion and how do we express it? How do we harness its power to create something amazing in our life? Can we make passion or is it something forged on the inside in total mystery? Where does passion come from and where does it go? I have had passion for so many things in my life, some instantly and some built strong over time. Passion that crept in out of nowhere until it would no longer go unnoticed and burst forth in action. I have observed my passion as it flew away, unaware and unable to stop it; stunned as I felt the feeling leave, longing for its return. I have attempted to be passionate and failed. I have decided to be passionate about something and I was successful. I have had people inspire passion within me, events, a moment; I’ve looked up and been hit with passion but how and why? What is passion and what can it do to help us succeed?
I try very hard to bring passion to everything I do, even if it can only be found in my passion to do my best it’s still there. At times it can require great restraint and control to wield such a powerful emotion. Passion is not just mere excitement or enthusiasm; it is far superior to a simple desire. Passion radiates with such intensity within us, forcing us to notice and take action. When a person is found acting out of passion they illuminate as if in total darkness, lighting up the night sky and demanding our attention. All their actions seem to attract immediate and intense results. A person who is passionate about any subject, burning with a fiery obsession in the pit of their stomach will succeed and they will go above and beyond their desired result. We have all seen this in our society due largely in part to sports and television. I want that power, I want that intensity inside me every moment of everyday and I believe it is possible. I whole heartedly believe each and every one of us can cultivate intense passion for the things we desire. I also whole heartedly believe that doing so will ensure victory! Any good, right, and true desire can and will be accomplished by the man or women who decides to build a passionate burning obsession around that desire. I think there are many ways we can begin to and eventually cultivate such a passionate desire. I have done so in many different ways and I have observed people doing so as well. Largely I believe it depends on the individual and a certain level of self-awareness and understanding to induce passion and especially a strong lasting passion. Ultimately it may come down to building an intense desire to fully understand passion and how to utilize it to achieve your goals. Some things must be learned from within through self-exploration and meditation; this may also be required to fully “get it”, even if you are picking it up easily. It is always in your best interest to focus and tune your mind to a skill, desire or character trait and intend to fully understand it at its deepest levels. Everyone can always learn more about everything and that is important to remember. So with that being said let’s focus on cultivating passion.
It is always a good idea to first understand why you want to be passionate about something or have it in your life. Take some time to meditate and look deep within yourself to find the root of your desire, this does a few things: it allows you to ensure your intentions are noble, it’s coming from a good place, and it’s Rooted in LOVE, you can find reasons that may help you intensify your passion and it allows you to really understand the process that lead you to this desire. Once you’ve done this you can really trust that your desire is coming from the right place and going in the right direction. Please I cannot emphasize enough how vital this step is to potentially saving you time, and your lasting success in building a strong passion. Now there are many different ways to build up favorable feelings, beliefs, and ideas surrounding an idea but they are all, I have found, based around the same thing: maximum mental impressions; hitting yourself with as many heartfelt statements and images as you can. You can check out our last article, Repetition for different quick and easy ways to accomplish this and a better understanding of the part repetition plays in building an intense passion for something. Think back to your youth and the first person that ever caught your interest romantically. This can be a good example of an “outta nowhere” passion or a passion forged by hours spent thinking and admiring this person. While young, we never really realize that and some of you may have just understood this for the first time. In the beginning you were just “attracted” to them or “liked” them, there was just something about them; BUT then YOU built the passionate admiration and longing for the person. They may have done nothing other than walk by you one time and then you did all the rest. I have heard people doing it, as I’m sure you have; when I was younger talking with friends as they go on and on about how wonderful someone is and they’ve never even talked to them. Do you see? That passion was planted there by hours of focused thought not by the person about whom they are passionate. Now in some cases some people arouse that passion in us, as do events or causes, with their outstanding actions in one area or another, but we have all at least witnessed this happening once in our lives. The intense passion was developed from within, over time, by direct and applicable means. We can decide to become passionate about anything we want and we can control our vocal inflection and enthusiasm to ensure it happens. We can mentally exclaim with intense excitement, “I am passionate about self-improvement.” And, we can and will eventually build that passion. We can self-speak, “Self-improvement is so amazing, and it makes me feel so good, I am so grateful I decided to better myself, I am passionate about improving myself….” By developing a set of affirmations and taking the time to recite them often, daily and with intense feeling, belief and/or enthusiasm we can begin to influence our emotions and develop passion. We can direct ourselves towards the final desired result, an intense passion and burning obsession for…
What do you long for? Obtaining it may be as simple as switching that longing to an intentional desire to possess. I have many times remembered longing for something so intensely it began to hurt whenever I thought of it. I am sure this has happened to us all at one time or another, our ability to produce extreme emotion is quite astounding really. We must learn to control and direct it, harness it for our positive expression of our desires. We must master the faculties of our mind starting with emotions and thought. Looking back and analyzing those moments in great detail I can now easily see every cause and every effect that lead to me eventually giving up hope and forgetting I ever desired such a thing in the first place. In that failure and defeat I have now found new hope, success and victory I would have never before experienced had I not spent those hours longing as a child. It allowed me to, through my own experience, prove and test some of the theories and techniques I have spent years learning and developing. It has given me data with which to accomplish complete belief in the soundness of my teachings, which is a gift I never could have imagined; the universe truly is a magical thing. Steve Jobs said it best, “…you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future”, because believe me they do…every single one of them.
This article has, for me, been just as much about exploring as I’m sure it has for you. It wasn’t until my wife expressed her desire for me to write something on passion that I had ever connected some of these dots. The passion for writing I have been cultivating over the last couple years is allowing me to see so many more of these dots connecting all across my life; so many little things have come together to make this moment and to make Mental Impressions. Sometimes to get to passion you just have to act. This article did not come from a sudden inspiration from within; it came from a sudden inspiration outside of me. My wife suddenly stated her desire to see this article and because I intend to be more passionate about writing and to write more frequently I decided to dive in. Now that it’s finished I see a new found beauty in action that leads wonderfully to more passion, seize every opportunity to expand your passion. Except every challenge, it’s a sure fire way to cultivate passion! I know in this moment my passion is significantly more intense then it was in the moments leading up to my wife and I talking. I know I was planning on watching television and not on cultivating passion but the work I did yesterday and the days before paid off in passion.
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About the Author:
Christopher A. Aseltine has over 15 years of entrepreneurial experience across several different industries. For the past 9 years he has been delving into the world of self-help and success. He has always had a passion for helping others, counseling and helping friends and family from a young age. Christopher has decided to take the knowledge and experience he has gained over the last decade and a half and present it all in one place in order to reach and help the broadest audience possible.
Christopher is married to his wife, Nicole, with two children, Ariana and Ace. He enjoys music and plays several instruments. His life’s passion is business and marketing. He is enthusiastic, fun-loving, and can sometimes be a bit over the top, although those that know him well might say always over the top. His hope and goal with Mental Impressions is to use that passion and enthusiasm to serve others well.