It’s Not Over: How to Keep Your Passion Fire Alive
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a blog post. I was busy writing resumes, planning an HR event, being an HR Generalist by day and honestly just having lots of fun with my friends. While I was doing all that, I did not blog or really work on my klanehr.com action items, although the plan was to write blog posts and work on my action items every week. This week’s topic is pertinent to me because I admit, I did what many people do, I put my passion on the back burner. I did some reflection and came up with some tips that I hope you will find very helpful.
Take a Break
Every once in a while, we have to just take a break from our passion and regroup. Essentially, you need to take a vacation day or two (okay maybe three) from your passion to recharge your battery and remember why you love what you do so much. It is natural to need a break. Just because something is your passion, it doesn’t mean you enjoy it all the time. Sometimes your passion just feels like work that is no longer fun and energizing. We all need a break sometimes.
Schedule Time
We tend to manage every area of our lives and have calendar items for everything in Outlook. The same kind of careful planning and scheduling is required to successfully pursue our passions. We must schedule time to work and develop our passions. We also need to be disciplined and follow the schedule. Additionally, it is good to set long-term goals and create smaller, bite-sized goals that can be tackled on the way to the long-term ones.
Surround Yourself with Passionate Energy
A big part of keeping your passion flame alive is to surround yourself with passionate people. These people can be passionate about anything, it does not have to be the same things you are passionate about. It is their passionate energy that will inspire and motivate you to keep pursuing your passion. Surrounding yourself with doubters, complainers and overall demotivated people will only drain the energy you have and extinguish your passion flame. Please be very mindful of that.
Keep Learning
Passionate people are also curious people. We want to learn as much about what we are passionate about. To keep your passion flame burning, I would encourage you to keep learning by reading publications, following blogs, watching tutorials and videos and interacting with others who share the same passion for your interests. Forming relationships with people who share the passion for your interest is priceless. There is nothing better than being around people who speak the same “language” as you and can relate to the passion you feel for your shared interest.
Challenge Yourself
Make it your mission to be constantly thinking of ways to take things to the next level. If you have mastered one task, consider trying a more difficult task. Mixing it up keep things interesting. Remember, nothing great ever happens in your comfort zone so keep that passion fire alive by keeping things interesting.