The view from the top doesn’t look as good when you climbed the wrong ladder!

Passion.

Passion is a word that gets thrown around here, there, and everywhere these days. Many of the world’s leading business experts and social thinkers talk about the need to figure out what you are passionate about and not to stop until you find it.

There are self-proclaimed gurus hanging on different street corners saying that they have the secret to helping you unlock your passion.

I don’t believe there is one secret, or even several secrets, to finding your passion.

I believe that the best way to find your passion is to try things, to fail, to make mistakes, and to take chances. Keep trying until you figure out what works and what doesn’t work for you. Don’t get trapped into thinking, “Well I have gone quite a few miles down this road or up this ladder and if I try harder or get busier, I will reach my golden destination.” I’m not saying don’t try to stick it out, but it’s OK to jump off that ladder or do a U-turn on that highway.

It’s the ones who are brave enough to make that leap and to turn their car around that will find their passion and they will tell you that it was definitely worth the wait and the risk.

Passion is something that I believe in. Once I found my passion, work wasn’t work anymore. It was something that I enjoyed doing not only 9 – 5 in an office, but after hours at events, or reading about on my own time. One book I highly recommend is The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson. He tells stories of passion hunting and stories of success, failure, heart-ache and triumph rather than offering the exact five secrets to unlocking your passion! The stories resonated strongly with me as they proved that no one size fits all formula for passion exists, that even the most well planned career pathway isn’t a guarantee for finding passion or success and that even attending ‘the best’ university isn’t a guarantee.

To tie this all together I’ll finish with a quote from Steven Covey:

” It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover its leaning against the wrong wall. “

When you find your passion then hold on and get ready for the ride of your life. You will be amazed where it can take you once you feel that click inside. So here’s a simple good luck post to finding your wall of passion, regardless of how many you ladders you have to climb along the way.

Let’s share some stories in the comments below about your own journey to finding your passion and the triumphs and heartbreaks along the way!