4 Ways To Ignite Your Personal Passion

By Brian Heat 

Personal passion is the explosive flame you possess inside in the form of strong ideas, gifts and fascinations. It is this passion that propels you towards your very own unique forms of creative expression, fields of interests and adventurous curiosity.

It is also your passion that drives you to push beyond obstacles and self-limitation.

The question then becomes, how do we tap into this enormous power?

1. “You Are a Walking Phenomenon”

As of right now there are over 7.1 billion people on the planet, but only one of you. Down to your very DNA you are a walking phenomenon, an anomaly of sorts…a unique deviation from every other person the world. You were born for reason, designed for a purpose and meant to be here. Embrace your individuality and know that your dormant talents were given to you as a gift. Determine your uniqueness, your strength and your voice…then begin to introduce it to the world.

2. “Chasing The Rush of Fascination”

I’ve often described the feeling your personal passions give you as “The Rush”, or that fiery exhilaration you sense inside while engaged. For some, it may be the excitement of competition that comes from playing sports, while for others the relaxation and creative outlet artist experience while performing.

Starting right now, feel yourself returning to those certain experiences that captivated you and moved your heart once before. Reflect back to reawaken the passions you once possessed assures that where you presently direct your time, efforts and focus is directly connected to the youthful spirit you were from the beginning.

3. The “MASSIVE Power of Mentors”

Now once you’ve taken the time to identify what gifts, talents and experiences that once sparked within you, your next move is to place yourself in situations where you can accelerate your learning and explore everything your passion has to offer. At this point, mentors become invaluable resources because in most cases they’ve already walked the road you are embarking on and now possess the essential expertise needed to point you in the right direction towards more opportunities for growth, resources and access to other like minded individuals. Now, in those cases where the mentors you require are not within your immediate circle of influence, I recommend using the web to profile those accomplished game changers in your fields through their bios, interviews and wisdom filled back stories.

4. “Build a Storm Ready Vision”

What continues to ignite the strength behind your passion as you travel your journey is your ability to create and hold an explosive vision that reflects everything that passion encompasses. This vision is nothing more than a crystal clear mental picture of what exactly you desire to accomplish or become. Just like a beacon in the storm this inspired vision helps you navigate your thoughts, actions and behaviours to stay focused. But in order to keep this vision realistic and grounded you must build into your vision the possibility of adverse circumstances and obstacles that will come along the way. With this in mind, as circumstances occur that attempt to deter your efforts you will already be prepared with contingency plans and alternatives routes to keep progressing forward.

Increasing Your Influence

Alignment

This is one of the great buzzwords of our time. When used consciously, it's also the key to building solid relationships as well as the foundation for being influential. When you are able to show how someone else's needs can be met through your idea or process, you both stand a chance of walking away satisfied. 

The question: How do you do it?

Five Styles to Help You Influence

1. Demonstrate. Give a successful example of your idea. 

How? Highlight related examples of the same idea already taking place in your organization or in another business. 

2. Cost-Focus. Show how problems and costs can be minimized. 

How?  Run through the numbers to reveal, factually, the cost benefits of your approach. Do this on paper and hand the other person(s) a copy to hold in their grubby little paws. This makes it real. Don't just say it; print out the math.

3. Values-based consistency. Show that your solution is consistent with, and strongly supports, the other person's values. 

How? Do your homework and find out the non negotiables in the business lives of those listening. Then, clearly point out the values-alignment that your solution brings.

4. Time Awareness. Demonstrate how the plan will unfold over a specific period of time.

How? My favorite--because it is low risk and high payoff--is to do a trial project implemented in stages with "client" review at designated points. It is very powerful because the other person is actively involved, shares likes and dislikes at each step, and is part of the successes and problem-solving. Ownership emerges rather quickly.

5. Testimonials. Show that your idea already has the support of other respected people. 

How? Ask others who have used the idea to give you a blurb or, internally, to come to the meeting. Nothing succeeds like someone else showing how successful you have been with them. You hardly have to say a word except "thank you" to those who have helped.

Some Other Thoughts

• Listen to what sound like objections and acknowledge them. You'll gain respect. You'll lose respect if you don't treat feedback to your ideas as being legitimate. 

• Stay focused on your theme and not everything you know about the idea or proposal. Too many details will distract your listeners. However, if they ask for details, be prepared to respond. It means they are interested. 

• Consistent with #4 above: People are more likely to accept a smaller proposal if they've just rejected a larger one. Keep the pilot program in your back pocket as a reasonable alternative to implementing the entire idea. It will seem sensible to the individual or group.

I found this great Blog posted by Steve Roesler! Thanks for the info!

Secrets to Habit Change

The Willpower Books of 2012

Weak willpower muscles? These books will pump you up!

by Meg Selig in Changepower

While 2012 is still visible in the rear-view mirror, let’s take a look at a trio of books about will power published, and/or publicized, in 2012. If you feel poor in willpower, you will get rich quick from perusing these three engaging and helpful books. Bulleted tips will help you decide which one(s) might be useful for your personal willpower challenge.

The phrase “willpower challenge” is from Dr. Kelly McGonigal. McGonigal, a fellow PT blogger, has written The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.  McGonigal teaches a 10-week course, “The Science of Willpower,” at Stanford University; her 10-chapter book mirrors that course, complete with willpower experiments and chapter summaries. McGonigal combines a deep grounding in the willpower research with a compassionate and light-hearted take on our struggles with ourselves as we strive to reach goals that matter. The three skills that, in her view, serve as the foundation of willpower are: (1) self-awareness; (2) self-care; and (3) remembering the goals or values that matter most to you.

Takeaway tips from The Willpower Instinct:

• The “willpower instinct,” aka, “self-control,” evolved so that we could all cooperate, control our baser impulses, and refrain from shouting, “I hate you,” at an annoying colleague. So you DO have willpower!
• It takes self-awareness to change a habit. Alcohol, sleep-deprivation, distraction, and stress are enemies of willpower because they make us less self-aware and more prone to impulsiveness.
• To train the part of your brain that’s in charge of willpower, take care of yourself in healthy ways, such as exercising, taking brain breaks, talking to supportive people, eating better, and practicing mindfulness.  
• Remind yourself that you are using your willpower to get something you want.
• When you slip up, self-compassion will help more than self-criticism, shame, and guilt.

If you wish you could take a fun and helpful class about willpower, read this book. Wish granted!

Super-researcher Roy Baumeister, with science writer John Tierney, has co-authored Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.  Baumeister’s research is the source of the much-discussed idea that willpower is a limited resource.  According to this theory, willpower is like a muscle which tires with over-use. Willpower, decision-making, and being nice when you don’t want to all drain the same cognitive pool in the short run.  But in the long run, practicing willpower, like exercising your muscles regularly, will strengthen it.

One practical benefit of this view of willpower is that it helps you set priorities. If you only have so much willpower energy on a given day, how do you want to spend that energy? Once you decide, you can budget your willpower and spend it where you need it the most.

Takeaway tips from Willpower:

• Willpower and IQ are the two best predictors of success in life.  Since you can’t do much about IQ, strengthen your willpower.
• Willpower is like a muscle.  Exercise it, and it will get stronger.  But be aware that, like a muscle, it will get fatigued if over-used.
• Using willpower, making decisions, and dealing with difficult people all drain the same reservoir of self-control.  Avoid hard decisions when energy is low.
• Arrange your life to minimize the need for willpower. Remove temptations. Save willpower for challenging situations.
• The first step to self-control is to set a goal; the second step is to monitor your progress along the way. 
• The best use of self-control is to form habits that you can eventually do automatically—without willpower.

Baumeister and Tierney’s willpower insights are embedded in riveting stories of personal transformation.  Unputdownable!

The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg, is now a habitual resident on the New York Times best-seller list. Duhigg also stresses that the best way to strengthen willpower is to make it into a habit. To do this, know the habit loop—the cues that trigger your habit, your resulting habit routine, and the rewards you get from your habit.  Duhigg argues that you can change a habit successfully by keeping the cues and rewards the same, while changing the routine. This model seems too simple to me, in part because it ignores the "why" of a person's habit change, but Duhigg’s talent for story-telling makes his argument very persuasive. 

Takeaway tips from The Power of Habit:

• If you change one critical habit pattern—a “keystone habit”—you may be able to transform other related habits. Example: The decision to exercise regularly may trigger positive changes in eating routines, spending patterns, and productivity. 
• To save your willpower, create habits that allow your brain to work on automatic pilot. 
• Fight a bad habit by replacing an old routine with a new one.  
• Organizations and businesses can deliberately create routines that nourish good habits.  For example, Starbucks employees are trained to respond calmly to complaining customers, using a method dubbed, appropriately enough, the LATTE method: Listen to the customer; Acknowledge the complaint; Take action by solving the problem; Thank them; and Explain why the problem occurred.

I had never thought of recommending a job at Starbucks as an anger management technique, but after reading the success story of a young man in one of Duhigg’s anecdotes, I now will! 

I love books which are both worthwhile AND entertaining, and these three books all fit that bill admirably. I’ve bought them all for my “willpower collection," and I recommend them all to you.

Now, off to get--or give--a LATTE!