In 1999 I took an entire year off from teaching (an unpaid leave) to journey out and find my passion. I sold everything I owned at the time and took everything I had in savings and jumped in my car and began a 5000km drive across this great country of mine…CANADA!
The goal was to spend the following 9 months researching ideas on how one goes about reinventing oneself. I would spend my days at bookstores reading and taking notes and exploring possible ideas. The 9 months flew by and when it came time to return back to Toronto I was no closer to finding my passion.
So what went wrong? How can someone spend 9 months trying to discover their passion and yet return home empty handed?
Honestly, it has taken me 13 years to figure out what went wrong, but I now have the answer.
I WAS FOLLOWING CONVENTIONAL WISDOM!
The dangers of conventional wisdom…
Conventional wisdom suggests all kinds of wonderfully safe ways to go about finding your passion. There are books to read, tests to take, courses to enroll in, etc. But that line of thinking doesn’t work because it makes a fatal assumption…
To find our passion we must go out looking for it.
If this was correct, why do we meet so few people who live a life producing the art they are most passionate about?
It’s simple. THAT IS NOT HOW THIS PROCESS WORKS. This is not a quest to find a hidden treasure. Instead, I want to suggest something more bold that has been proven time and again.
The truth about passion discovery…
Here is the BIG IDEA!
We don’t find our passion. OUR PASSION FINDS US!
How?
When we take it upon ourselves to commit our daily activities to those things that will help improve the lives of others.
It truly starts by awaking each morning and asking the question, “What can I do today that will impact humanity?”
Case Study #1: Scott Harrison; Founder of Charity Water
Harrison is an interesting story. Life in his twenties was spent as a night club promoter where he was literally being paid thousands of dollars each month just to push product. He lived a luxurious life, but it was void of any meaning.
When he hit his thirties he realized he had built a life he no longer wanted to live. So he quit and took a job volunteering on a Mercy ship for the next two years.
The ship would dock on the coast of Africa and perform surgeries to those in need. The entire operation was comprised of doctors and others who donated their time and expertise to help these people in need.
It was on that journey that Harrison’s passion found him. He discovered that these people were suffering because they did not have access to clean drinking water. And Charity Water was formed. It is a charity committed to bringing clean drinking water to the 1 billion people who do not have access to it.
Case Study #2: Ed Sutt, Inventor of Hurriquake
Sutt’s passion found him while he was a graduate student visiting the Caribbean Islands after Hurricane Marilyn. Conventional wisdom in this area suggested that the best way to prevent such damage was to build structures with more expensive and stable building materials.
That solution however, was not feasible for most on an island such as the Caribbean.
It was while sifting through the immense devastation that Sutt’s passion found him. Sutt noticed that it wasn’t the building materials that failed, but rather the fasteners that held things together.
Sutt then spent the better part of 10 years working on a better nail. He eventually came up with something called the Hurriquake. This superior nail is not only preventing billions of dollars in damage, but it is saving lives and livelihoods when tropical storms do hit.
Case Study #3: Tom Affleck; Founder of School Box
Affleck has a story like many we hear about. He was not happy with the corporate path he was on so he left his job and began to do some traveling.
His itinerary took him to Nicaragua where his passion found him by arranging a chance encounter with a father in a local village. It was during this conversation that Affleck discovered that children could not attend school if they did have the necessary school supplies.
That chance encounter was the genesis behind School Box, which not only provides school supplies so children can attend school, but it has now branched out into school building across South America.
Where is your passion…
I share those stories to illustrate the point that none of these individuals knew in advance that that particular journey they were on would lead to them finding their passion.
But they all share the same theme. All 3 were committed to making a difference in the lives of others.
If we all began to view the world through that lens, the likelihood that our passion will find us increases exponentially.
I will end this by sharing a bit more about my journey
Living my unlived life…
I have spent the better part of the past 20 years trying to find my passion. But a funny thing happened a year ago. I had some great success changing how I looked and so I gave up finding my passion so that I could share what I had learned with others who I knew were struggling to change how they looked.
And I discovered some really amazing things when I made that switch to begin helping others.
The biggest was the discovery that much of my success had come by defying the conventional wisdom that I had so eagerly followed in the past.
And this got me thinking. Is it possible that conventional wisdom is holding most of us back from creating some of the really monumental changes we are hoping to make?
In a nutshell, IT IS! It’s having a devastating effect on humanity. But it doesn’t need to be this way.
I can help…
I have spent that past 18 months working on creating shift in my own life. And you know what, I have had more success in that time period than my previous 45 years combined.
- I have lost 40lbs + and kept it off for 16 months
- I’m on the verge of having 6 pack abs (at the age of 46)…will be sharing more on this in the upcoming months
- I have begun to earn an income online by sharing ideas that I know can change people’s lives (I know this because they have changed my life)
- I approached ONE book publisher and managed to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a published author
- I got invited to speak at Paleo FX in Texas this past March
- I have been interviewed by a variety of bloggers big and small
- I launched a #1 rated podcast on iTunes
And I have done all of this by going to war on conventional wisdom. It simply holds the majority of us hostage and prevents us from being who we want to be.
Conventional wisdom is a disease…
Listen I get how hard change is. It took me 45 years to figure this sh*t out. And I realize now that I was infected with conventional wisdom and the reality is so are you.
But there is a cure.
Exposure to people and ideas that are the antithesis of conventional thinking.
Voice mails to an Unlived Life…
For those who are tired of living a life that someone else has designed for them, I have created an exciting new program.
It’s called Voicemails to an Unlived Life.
Each weekday, Monday to Friday, I send a 2 to 3 minute voice mail with an unconventional idea for living your unlived life. It’s my way to help you stay focused and give you practical strategies to help you bring your unlived life to life.
I have one years worth of voice mails to send (260 in total).
For those interested, I have 3 different payment options depending on your financial situation.
I have an entire page which contains more information. On the page you will find…
- a 4-minute video explaining the concept and how devastating not living our unlived life is
- 3 sample emails you get for free
- 3 different payment options
- 5 reasons this program can help make you remarkable
- 5 important questions and answers
To learn more go to: THE UNLIVED LIFE
In closing…
Your passion is out there waiting to find you. Your unlived life is also out there, waiting to be lived. Take the necessary actions required to make both begin to happen.
Speaking from experience, amazing things begin to happen when you do.
To making shift happen,
Dean
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Wow Dean!
I have loved following you and just had to comment on this. So true about your passion finding you especially when you get up and say “what can I do for others?” That happened to me several months ago and now coming to fruition is my going back to school for a second Masters in Social Work. Going to be a counselor after that working in grief, palliative/hospice type care and addiction counseling with EAP as a major part of my “toolbox”.
You may or may not remember me from last year when I first found you. You were so great in responding to my emails and I knew then you were going to do great things. I was right….as always…LOL.
I’m in great shape thanks to your work BTW.
All the best to you and keep up the great work!
Dan
Hi from Finland! (Yes, Finland! We are here!
)
I got hooked on your show two days ago and listened this episode this morning while doing my morning walk with the dog. Who would have guessed I enjoy getting up at 5 am. to listen someone talk shift?!
Well, anyway, I got so much out of your “living the unlived life”-stuff and I’m going to start journaling after my morning walk / podcast listening thingies. Your show gives me so much to think about, thank you for that!
Hi Dean, love spending time with you each week, you’re podcasts are part of my workouts for the week. I’m on my way to making my passion happen, I’ll be graduating from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 6 months and will focus my work on many of my peers in the health care community, helping them to get back to health. This has been a dream of mine for so long and I’m finally doing something about it! Your book and podcasts will be on my list of recommended reading:)