P is for Pursuing Your Passion

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There are many ways to do fine work. One approach is to start by pursuing your passion and translating this into a clear purpose.

Clarifying your picture of success, you can follow your chosen principles to perform satisfying work. You can keep working, find solutions to problems and achieve peak performance.

Some people stop at this point, but you may wish go further and share what you have learned. You can pass on knowledge to other people and sometimes enjoy a sense of peace.

Looking back, can you think of a time when you have followed some of these steps in your own way? You may have been pursuing an interest, playing a sport, working for a cause, teaching a seminar, leading a project or whatever.

How did you choose the passion you wanted to follow? How did you translate this into a clear goal? What principles did you follow to do satisfying work?

How did you solve problems along the way? How did you do your best to reach the goal? If appropriate, how did you pass on what you had learned? What feelings did you get after completing the journey?

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to do the following things.

Describe a specific time when you followed your passion, did satisfying work and enjoyed a sense of peace.

Describe the specific things you did to follow these steps in your own way.

Describe the specific things that happened as a result of taking these steps.

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Imagine that you may want to follow some of these steps in the future. Let’s explore how to make this happen.

Passion

Great workers pursue a passion in which they have the ability to achieve peak performance. They may focus on encouraging people, designing gardens, playing a musical instrument, finding a medical cure, fighting for justice, caring for animals or whatever.

How to choose such an activity? One approach is to ask some of the following questions.

What are the activities that give me positive energy, even when I think about them? What are the things I feel passionately about?

Looking at these activities, which are the ones in which I have the ability to achieve at least 8+/10? Bearing this in mind, which one would I like to pursue?

Great workers focus on a specific activity in which they have the potential to do superb work. They choose one that fulfils the following qualities.

They find the activity fascinating.

They have a feeling for the activity and are good at it.

They have a track record of finishing in the activity.

You can discover more about finding such an activity via the following link.

https://www.thepositiveencourager.global/f-focusing-chosen-field/

Purpose

Great workers translate their passion into a clear purpose. They may aim to write an article, climb a mountain, finish a marathon, teach an inspiring course, lead a team to success, build a certain kind of culture of whatever.

People like to have a sense of purpose. They love to work towards achieving a compelling goal. This can provide meaning and structure to their days.

Looking at your passions, which of these can you translate into a clear purpose? What is the goal you would like to achieve? What would be the benefits of achieving this picture of success?

“That sounds fine,” somebody may say. “But how do I know that following a particular path will help me to develop my career?”

Great workers often start out by focusing on the activities that give them positive energy. They then sometimes follow what are called Squiggly Careers.

Some Managing Directors I work with, for example, started out studying chemistry, maths or another specialist subject. They eventually went on to run companies.

At first sight this appears a big jump. After some questioning, however, such individuals say things like:

“I always wanted to know how things worked. Once I had discovered that, I wanted to make them work better.”

Such workers have a history of pursuing their passions and developing an encyclopaedic knowledge in a particular topic. They become life long learners, an approach they later applied in other fields.

Imagine that you want to follow one of your passions and translate this into a clear purpose. You may want to express this purpose by working to achieve a specific goal.

You may want to write an article, teach a seminar, create a website for people with a particular illness or do some other project. What will be the benefits of achieving this purpose – both for you and for other people?

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to do the following things.

Describe one of your passions that you want to translate into a clear purpose.

Describe the specific goal you would like to achieve that will be an expression of this purpose and, if appropriate, make a drawing of what will be happening when you achieve this picture of success.

Describe the specific benefits – both for you and other people – of achieving this goal.

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Principles

Great workers choose to follow certain principles to achieve their goal. Imagine you have set a specific goal. What are the key principles you can follow to give yourself the greatest chance of success?

How can you build on your strengths and manage the consequences of any weaknesses? How can you follow your successful style of working? If you are leading a team, how can you get the right people around you who will complement your strengths?

Great workers have elements of OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Discipline, rather than Disorder. They love to make lists and get a kick when crossing off tasks they have achieved.

How can you maintain good habits? How can you keep doing the right things in the right way every day? How can you make sure you are still on the road to achieving your picture of success?

Problem Solving

Great workers find solutions to challenges. How can you anticipate and prevent potential difficulties? How can you manage these difficulties if they do happen?

You will have your way of staying calm and finding solutions to difficulties. One approach is to use the 3C model. It is to focus on clarity, creativity and concrete results.

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Peak Performance

Great workers deliver the goods. How can you do whatever is necessary to reach the goals? How can you always do the basics and then add the brilliance?

How can you encourage yourself on the journey? How can you manage your energy properly? How can you make good use of your prime times – the times of the day when you have most energy? How can you build in time to rest, reflect and refocus?

How can you use mental rehearsal when appropriate? How can you rehearse following your successful strategies, managing any setbacks and doing what is required to achieve success?

How can you keep improving? How can you keep focusing on: a) The specific things you are doing well and how you can do more of these; b) The specific things you can do better and how?

How can you be a good finisher? How can you flow, focus and finish? How can add that touch of class? How can you achieve peak performance?

Passing On Knowledge

Great workers sometimes go beyond doing fine work. They want to share what they have learned with other people. How can you do this in your own way? It can be useful to start by focusing on the What, Why, Who, How and When.

What is the knowledge you want to pass on? This may depend on the project or other activity you have been pursuing. You may have learned lessons from gardening, counselling, building houses, managing crises, coding, leading teams, solving particular problems or whatever.

Why would you like to pass on this knowledge? What would be the benefits for people? What are the practical tools they could take away and use in their daily lives and work? How could these things help them to succeed?

Who would you like to reach with the knowledge? Would they be young people, those with learning difficulties, budding entrepreneurs, athletes, leaders, scientists, social entrepreneurs, therapists or other people? What would be the characteristics of these people?

How would you like to share your knowledge with these people? You may prefer, for example:

To act a positive model and show what good looks like on a daily basis by, for example, running a business.

To act as a mentor, coach or trusted advisor.

To run teaching sessions, seminars, workshops or other forms of education.

To write articles, create websites, write blogs, produce learning materials, make videos, make television programmes or whatever.

When do you want to share the ideas with people? What would be your preferred setting? Would you like to run a seminar, produce a blog, run a coaching session or whatever? What is your action plan for sharing your knowledge?

Peace

Great workers love to do their best. This can lead to them feeling positively exhausted and, sometimes, enjoying a sense of peace.

Looking back on your life, when have you had this feeling? You may have enjoyed it after playing a sport, completing a project, encouraging people during the day or whatever.

What did you do right to give your best? How can you follow those principles – plus maybe add other skills – to enjoy a sense of peace in the future?

Great workers rest for a while. Reflecting in what they have learned, they also do things that give them positive energy. This can lead to them embarking on the next stimulating project.

Looking ahead, can you think of a situation when you may want to pursue your passion? You may want to encourage people, nurture a garden, design a house, direct a play, build a prototype, pass on knowledge or whatever.

How can you translate this passion into a clear purpose? How can you perform satisfying work, solve problems and achieve your version of peak performance? How can you pass on knowledge to people?

If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to do the following things.

Describe a specific time when you may want to follow your passion, do satisfying work and enjoy a sense of peace.

Describe the specific things you can do to follow these steps in your own way.

Describe the specific things that may happen as a result of taking these steps.

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