The Room Changes. The Fire Doesn't.
On passion, autopilot, and why your Tesla might be taking you somewhere you never actually wanted to go
No matter the room, if it is your bedroom or boardroom, if you are not passionate in what you are doing, you will be doing it bad. And very rarely we give a chance to a bad lover, or in the second case to an employee who did not managed to leave a mark. The one that did not manage to take the center stage even for a moment.
If you have ever been to coaching you already know how important it is to connect with your passion. We explore the past, the future, the self, until we find the spark, the fire inside us, the force that moves the machine.
Have you ever considered what is in fact your passion? What makes the difference that for certain things in life you grab like your life depends on it and for certain things you are just meh.. Why some projects at work engage you and others are just part of your job. Well that thing, the thing that makes the difference is the only thing that can bring you success in any area of your life, not just work.
For if you don’t have fuel in your engine, if the spark is missing, then you shall be in low energy mode. And low energy mode employees are never invited at important meetings, never asked for advice, never rise in their roles. Low energy employees do not have the aura of a leader. For if they cannot motivate themselves, how can they motivate others? How can they make people around them follow their quests in projects, ideas, follow them in greatness. People without passion do not dream of greatness. They dream of challenges, of problems, they are simply stuck in the mundane.
By now you must wonder, OK, what is my passion. Very easy, you can find your passion in things you love to do most. Cooking, climbing mountains, singing, connecting with other people, reading. Not every person that reads this post will resonate with all the activities I’ve mentioned. For some, climbing mountains is just not their cup of tea, and it never was. Even as children they did not particularly like climbing trees or participating in extreme sport activities. But maybe if you gave these children a book, then you would have seen a person transfixed. That there is the passion. And I can almost be sure that adventure, high stakes environment, is not something that will inspire these people. But being creative in what they do, a job that allows them to dream and create, will bring the best out of them. It will bring fuel that even people around them can feel, they will be inspiring.
I often wonder why it is so easy for people to start operating in “robot mode” and not even notice it. We go to work, we are successful, as per society’s expectations, have the white fence house dream family situation, yet we live like in a dream, never fully awakened, not connected with the things we do, never truly there. How is it that we become numb to our internal desires just because on paper we have everything together. Have you ever felt that? Like you are living in the Truman Show, everybody tells you that all is fine, but it’s not. Something in the back of your mind just feels off. Yet we never explore this something. We continue driving our Tesla that does not even require a driver. It just takes us where we programmed it to take us 10 years ago. But destinations change, and the only compass towards our true destination comes from our passion. We can only be truly fulfilled when we do what we love, genuinely, honestly, with all our heart.
And no, the colleague that is climbing the corporate ladder faster than you is not doing that because he is smarter than you, better than you, or more cunning than you. He is just simply more passionate. Hell, he just might be the child that loved climbing trees, so now going up is what gives him fuel and energy. And maybe the top is not the place for you. Maybe you are the kid that loved books. And maybe your greatest contribution to any team, any project, any room you walk into, is not climbing to the top, but being the one who dreams up where the top even is. The one who sees the map when everyone else is just following the road.
So before you spend another day wondering why the engine feels slow, why the meetings feel long, why Sunday evenings carry that quiet dread, ask yourself when was the last time you did something that made you forget to check your phone. That thing. That’s your compass. Follow it, even an inch. Because an inch in the right direction is worth a thousand miles on autopilot.
Love,
Diana
