Welcome to day 5 of Five Days to Discovering
Your Passion! Congratulations on making it to the final day! You’ve made some
amazing progress so far.
Yesterday we looked at ways to explore and
assess areas of passion. On this final day, we’ll look at benefits and outcomes
- the varied paths where your passion can take you.
Reflection:
No one gets to the end of their life and
wishes they had led a more boring existence. Imagine how satisfying it is to
uncover sources of joy that you hadn’t identified before.
Adopt a mindset that opens the door for
adventure!
The benefits of stepping out, exploring new
interests, and finding passion are plentiful. New friendships will form. You
become a more interesting person and less dependent on others’ opinions.
This isn’t selfishness. Becoming more
satisfied, focused, and content makes you a better partner, parent, and friend.
Passionate people are good role models!
Physical benefits occur too. Trying new things
leads to a release of the “feel good” hormone called dopamine. Turning around
and doing good in the world is a reward in itself too.
A guide from the UK mental health foundation, Doing Good Does You Good states: “Doing
things for others helps maintain good health. Positive emotions reduce stress
and boost our immune system, and in turn, can protect us against disease.”
In addition to all these benefits, your
passion can indeed bring you to career possibilities. You could end up in a
dream job that grows out of a passion.
It’s important to follow the path to see
where it leads. Avoid putting pressure on yourself or
being afraid to make mistakes. There simply are no wrong ways to pursue your
passion.
Action:
Narrowing your interests to a specific passion
is often a series of small increments.
Name three interests that have kept your
attention, brought satisfaction, given you energy, or made you lose track of
time.
What is the very next incremental step you
can take to nurture each interest? Be willing to step
out of your comfort zone.
●
Do you see ways that each interest
could become income-producing or a career opportunity, even part-time?
●
Are there indicators that your
interests are related? If so, how could they be combined?
●
Could you be satisfied if your
interests don’t lead to a career change?
●
How could you pursue them anyway
for your own fulfillment?
Think in small steps. Your goal is simply to nurture your interests and see
which offer the most rewards. With each step you take, you’ll be closer to
both discovering and doing the things that give you the most joy.
Congratulations on completing the 5-day
challenge!
Tomorrow we’ll do a quick wrap up and bring
everything together.
Great job!
