There is definitely more than one skills you have to acquire to achieve greatness in any field of life.
But there is one common factor, where when you lack it, nothing else will help you.
It's like trying to light a room with a bunch of lamps but not having electricity. You can have the best lamps, it won't help you a lot.
The common denominator all successful people have, in any fields of life, is passion, or you might want to call it enthusiasm.
No matter what you try to become great at, if it doesn't light a fire in you, you won't do it long enough and energetically enough to master it.
Mastery is a heavy word. It takes loads of effort and time, more than most people are willing to invest. It takes so much that the number of subjects you can become a master in is limited. You have to narrow down to one or a few. So why not choose the things that you love, the things that feel valuable and meaningful to you?
Have you ever experienced it that you worked on a project for two hours and you were completely exhausted afterwards? And then, at another project, you worked eight hours straight and afterwards you felt even more energetic than when you started?
Now guess in which project it will be more likely that you achieve great success.
There is a kind of work that depletes our energy and there is a kind of work that charges our batteries. It lights us up, it opens us up, it's fun doing.
Which kind of work that is, is different for every person.
Some people thrive on sports and can't stand to sit down for an hour of thought work. Others love to read and write and see physical labor as a drag. Others thrive in everything that has numbers in it and don't have any urge for creativity. Others love to be creative and draw and sing and find everything with numbers in it is just rigid and boring.
There is probably a person for about every task who loves doing it. So why not pick the one you are naturally excited to do and let everyone else also pick their favorite?
What we just discussed is the short-term energy curve that sways depending on which kind of work we are doing. But think about the long term too. When you do something that drains you over a longer time period, what will the result be? Burnout maybe? Boredom and a shrunken sense of fulfillment? A shrunken self-image and belief in oneself? It depends on the person and on the type of work what symptoms they get, but chances are that nothing too great comes from this kind of work.
Now, you could try to just cure the symptoms of working in the wrong thing.
Or you could look for the kind of work that sparks you energy. What do you think happens in the long term when you engage in energy giving work for hours almost every day? Increased confidence. Increased fulfillment. Raised happiness levels. A new sense of joy. A sense of meaning. Expertise. Feeling engaged and alive. And of course, a new belief is seeded in you and slowly starts growing, whispering louder and louder, that you could one day be great at this.
Let's get into the topic of passion or enthusiasm, or however you want to call that feeling.
There is one major mistake people make when looking for their passion.
They think it is a given. They think it hides somewhere and they have to go find it. And that's true for a part, there are some things or activities or situations that will naturally spark passion in you . But that's not the whole story. Because enthusiasm is also a skill. It can be trained by habit. Passion is an attitude that can be learned like any skill.
Here are three ways to find passion in your life:
1. Find what naturally sparks passion in you and get into that.
2. Build it like a muscle. Get fired up about the topic you want to have more passion for (whatever getting fired up looks like for you) and it will start to become stronger.
3. Decide for it. Activate it by will. Decide that you are going to be passionate for the things that are valuable to you. Simply make a decision.
Enthusiasm is a skill. Not everyone has acquired it. A lot of people can't get fired up for anything, no matter what crosses their way.
Here are a few common reasons why people don't have passion for anything:
- they don't look close enough
- they see passion as an effort
- they fear the intensity of the feeling
- they don't even know that they could feel passion or enthusiasm as a prime state because they were never taught that it exists
But those who do allow themselves to enjoy the feeling of enthusiasm, those who use it to drive them, those who express it, they are not only happier, they can go further.
No matter which field you want to get great in, look at those who already achieved themselves in that field. I bet you can find a quote from them that goes something along the lines of "I did it because I loved it."
When you allow your passion to become your obsession (in the healthy way, not the unhealthy one), you are set up for greatness.
Maybe passion is the most important skill of all. Because it fuels every other skill. Without the motivation, you won't use all the other skills. But if there is a topic you are so passionate about, that you will do anything to get good at it, you can learn anything.
Genuine and sincere passion is a huge leap towards greatness.
Because it's not even about how much time you are putting in. When the quality of your engagement rises, the quality of your results rises.
That is real productivity.
An In-Depth View on Passion
Perception controls everything. You can only find what you look for, so look for opportunities to be passionate.
But the real foundation has nothing to do with outside opportunities or topics you are passionate about. To really make something of that feeling of enthusiasm, you need the right belief system.
The people who live their passion full out have a few rules programmed into them about how the world works. Read closely, because now comes the most important paragraph of this whole article.
Naturally passionate people generally feel that life is worth living, effort is worth putting in and greatness is worth striving for. They don't fear work. And they have decided to only do what speaks to their heart.
Being passionate on default comes from WANTING to live full out. It's about what you desire. About the mental state you desire. When your biggest dream is to have it easy and be entertained watching TV on the couch all day, good luck engaging passionately. Naturally passionate people, their dream is to have fun performing, to have fun doing their thing they love.
They want to live on a high energy level. They don't see engagement as effort or strain. They don't try to preserve energy in the fields they are passionate about. They don't try to do the minimum required work to get through. They want to engage as deeply as possible. They want to live full out. They want to put effort in. They want to see how far they can go, how great they can become. They don't complain, they want to give 120%. They don't love comfort, they love experiences. Because they don't see doing and thinking and improving as efforts. They see those things as privileges they get to do and they have fun while doing them.
Simply put, they are finding it fun to live proactively.
Running can feel like a strain. Or it can make you feel like you are flying.
Writing can feel like an obligation. Or it can make you feel flow.
Giving can feel like a strain. Or it can feel deeply fulfilling.
This is where you have to choose your own kind of work that gives you energy. Passion is a feeling, not a logical thought. Thinking "I should be passionate now" won't work. Choose with that in mind.
Also keep in mind that passion looks differently in different people. Some engage in their passion silently, others with a huge show behind it. If you are passionate about programming, you might express your passion in a more invisible and silent way than an enthusiastic actor. It's not about running around with over-the-top energy all day for everyone. It's about the internal feeling you get when you do the activity.
So, what are you primarily looking for,? Are you trying to be adventurous or do you go for comfort? Does your heart beat up in excitement at work do or do you have a job to survive? Do you chase what you love or do you look for instant gratification? Do you want to be proud of yourself or are you saying "I am just not the type of person to work much". Do you want to relax or have fun on your own adventure?
Be extreme in engagement. You must WANT to live the most amazing life you can and you must consciously put your mind on that, or you will never have it. Take every chance for profound experiences, deep connection, fun, adventures, your own greatness.
Every time you live in a way that doesn't make you passionate, that is not your real self. That is a learned limit. Your basic state can be passion. If you raise your standards, it can become your default.
If you want to read more about how to find your own passion and about setting yourself up for a journey to greatness, check out this article: The Journey
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