Are You Living Your Life?

I know on the surface that this can seem like an odd question.  In many respects of course we are all living our own lives.  Until you look a little closer and start asking people if the are doing something for a living that they are passionate about.  Some articles report up to 80% of people in jobs doing something that they are not passionate about.

Alison Shontel describes it well in this quote below:

“Simply bringing people back into careers that they are lukewarm about isn’t the answer to sustainable job creation,” “In a world of mounting economic pressure driven by intensifying global competition, passion is essential to the kind of performance improvement needed to succeed.” Without passion, people will be choosing between the lesser of two stresses: stress from being unemployed versus the stress of being in a dead-end job.

What kind of passion though? Karen Gillespie from MEWS Wellbeing talks about Harmonious passion as distinct from other kinds of passion.

‘Harmonious passion is associated with the sort of satisfaction that comes from voluntarily committing to something that is meaningful, where we experience:

• Higher levels of positive emotion
• Increased flow and intrinsic interest
• Heightened and sustained concentration
• A sense of mastery
• A feeling that we are on the right path towards achieving our full potential.’

So the questions to ask yourself are below to determine if you are living your best life or if you have been caught up with the shoulds, coulds, the musts and a list of other ways that we like to please other people.

Am I passionate about what I do for a living?
Do I find myself complaining a lot about the job, the people, the conditions?
Do I jump out of bed in the morning feeling motivated and excited?
What would I be doing if money was no issue?
When I get to the end of my life how do I want to feel?

These are just a select few of the kinds of questions you can ask to really check in with whether your passions are aligned to your work.

We wish you the best finding your most passionate life!