Real Passion Will Never Die Out? False.

Passion is “a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything.” It starts as a simple curiosity or a feeling of falling off of Niagara Falls. It rushes in and completely takes over every decision you make and fuels you each and every day.

Yet over time, you start to feel like you are leaving pieces of yourself behind and you feel more drained and lost than ever before. You become bored with what is in front of you and the career you chose is not meeting your expectations. The first job out of college no longer seems worthy of your time and the true meaning of what you are meant to do becomes a shadow over your head.

The passion that once flamed your career path is gone, leaving barely an ember of hope.

It is the day to day routines that slowly allows that flame to burn out. Routines are great when building self discipline and learning how to show up everyday. But when you become complacent within those routines, your mind loses focuses. When your brain doesn’t have enough energy, you start to wander.^[1]

The Journey to Discovering Passion

I was 16 when I graduated high school, after three different high schools in three different states, I finally made the decision to be done. This one choice led me on a path of discovery.

I started out in the military and getting hired at nineteen in a prison as an officer. I thought it was what I wanted, I knew I wanted to be in law enforcement because making a difference was where my heart was at.

Over time, that passion seemed to fade. The expectations from what the job would give me failed dramatically and I sat back down at the drawing board.

Again I was on my path of discovery and I made a practical choice. After six years of working in my first career, I began what would be my second career. I became an accountant with no clear passion.

Over time my passion showed up again, and it turns out it was still a passion for making a difference.

It became clearer to me that my passion was not changing, it was the method in which I wanted to achieve my passion that was wandering.

From Wandering to Getting Clear on Your Passion

Getting clear on my passion was a discovery process of its own. I thought when my passion for the career I chose faded, it was my passion that was gone.

I have come to know that the passion is always there as long as I stoke that fire. The tools, methods and paths may change as situations change.

As a mom to four kiddos, I no longer have a desire to work in a dangerous environment but I do have a desire to make a difference for other parents that are struggling. I took steps to ensure that my passion was always burning in the background instead of letting my brain take over and wander.

Start with Self Care

Remember to build in breaks daily and over long time periods. Learning to meditate or going for a walk will help you show up fully each day. Taking weekends to unplug or longer vacations will help you stay on track long term.

I had to take care of myself so my brain wasn’t losing focus. Take breaks and allow yourself to unplug. By unplugging, you allow your mind, body and spirit to refuel itself. Those breaks also allow you to work in sprints and produce better results.

Connect With “Why” Each Day

Write down your goals for the quarter. Doing this keeps your mind focused on what you are creating and why you are doing it. This gives you enough motivation to show up on the hardest days.

Recognize what it is you want to create and why; connect with this daily. Connecting daily to your why will help you stoke that fire.

Look into Your Past

What were your goals and achievements? Identify your themes in passion. Write out what drives you today, include any curiosities. Look past the surface of your answers and note any themes from the past and future that are similar.

Passion Doesn’t Die, You’ve Just Got Bored Sometimes

A lot of times, your passion doesn’t just die all out. It’s the day to day routine that has bored you and burned out your motivation.

You are in charge of stoking your own fire of passion. It comes from within you, it is not an external source.

Once you are clear about your passion, always be flexible about your methods. If your first approach doesn’t work, change it. If your second approach doesn’t work again, think of new methods. Don’t let your passion die while getting stuck in an approach that doesn’t work.

Reference

[1]

^

Fast Company: Wait, What’s That? The Science Behind Why Your Mind Keeps Wandering

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Knowing My Values Has Filled up the Long-Existed Missing Gap in My Life

Your values make you who you are, yet many people don’t fully know how to even define or explain their values. Your values dictate how you act, respond to situations, and where you place your time and energy in life.

For example, someone who places high value on career success will be driven to work more hours, spend greater time toward making advances at work, perhaps at the sacrifice of time with family and friends. A person who places a high value on family may chose to forgo a better job placement or position because it will impede on evenings and weekend time with their family. What you value dictates the course of your day to day life, but also your future.

Do you know what you truly value in your life and the world around you? If you don’t, you may be a person who is unhappy in life or feeling dissatisfied with your current life status, yet you can’t put your finger on why you are feeling this way.

Everyone should know their values, because research shows that there are specific values that can make you happier and satisfied with life in the long term. Conversely there are values, that although they may seem good, will ultimately lead to life dissatisfaction.

Below I will explain how to identify which of these values are beneficial for long term life satisfaction and which are not.

What You Value Determines Your Life

In my 20’s, I was very driven to get my education completed and also attain wealth/a comfortable lifestyle. I had once been a person of devout faith and thus it was formerly a core value in my life. Life circumstances and a series of unfortunate events changed my values and I instead focused my time, energy, and life purposes on getting my doctorate and attaining wealth. I ended up marrying into the wealth and did complete my doctorate. I lived a life of comfort, that I thought I wanted. I also experienced great successes in my educational pursuits including post doctorate studies at Harvard; yet I was still feeling unsatisfied. I knew that there was something missing in my life. My value in my faith had been put to the wayside.

After a divorce at age 30, I reassessed my values. I decided wealth was no longer high on the list of my personal values. I also determined that faith/religion and family were going to be my top priorities. My life changed for the positive and I have experienced life satisfaction beyond measure. I no longer live in a 10,000 square foot home on the beach, but it doesn’t matter to me because I have faith and family.

My life satisfaction is now much higher than those years in my 20’s. In my 20’s, it appeared outwardly to the world that I had it all, yet I was feeling a gaping hole of something missing in my life. What I didn’t realize when I made that personal decision to make such dramatic life changes at the age of 30 was that research supported my decision to find greater meaning through faith and family and not career success and wealth. It took me 10 years to figure this out.

A Fulfilling Life Comes from What’s Within You

Some people struggle their entire life with finding life satisfaction and meaning and it all comes down to choosing values that create meaning in life. Do your core values support long term life satisfaction and meaning in life or are they wrapped up in temporary happiness and material things?

Research in Scientific America examined a plethora of studies on the subject of happiness, life satisfaction, and values to assess what makes people happy in life.^[1] Their findings found that people who had meaningful interpersonal relationships reported higher life satisfaction. They also reported that increased wealth has not made people happier in the long term.

Faith/religion also play a very important role in life satisfaction, as the following was stated in this article regarding research on the topic of faith and religion:

One Gallup survey found that highly religious people were twice as likely as those lowest in spiritual commitment to declare themselves very happy. Other surveys including a 16-nation collaborative study of 166,000 people in 14 nations, have found that reported happiness and life satisfaction rise with strength of religious affiliation and frequency of attendance at worship services.

Placing value in your faith, religious practices, and worship service attendance therefore is highly likely to increase your satisfaction in life. 

I personally know that my faith is what has given me the greatest satisfaction in life and my family comes in a close second. Research supports this emphasis on interpersonal relationships and faith as a way to increase satisfaction in life. The pursuit of increased wealth or income did not increase life satisfaction long term, according to these research studies. My personal life is a testament of this, and research also supports these views on values.

The Benefit of Defining Your Values

In my 20’s, I hadn’t formally defined my values. I allowed them to be shaped according to my life experiences, rather than consciously making a decision to define my values. Therefore, I didn’t really have an understanding of why I was making the decisions that I was making. I was basing my decisions on thoughts and feelings as my driving force, rather than having an understanding of the need for core values to be defined in my life.

Research in Psychological Sciences showed that people who had defined their cored values experiences lower stress levels:^[2]

These findings suggest that reflecting on personal values can keep neuroendocrine and psychological responses to stress at low levels.

Knowing your values helps you increase life satisfaction and decrease life stress. Had I defined my values I may have chosen a different path. I would have experienced lower stress during that period of life in my 20’s, if I had clearly defined values.

How to Know Your Values

Examine the list below and see if any of the values stand out to you as most important. Then follow the set of instructions below to help you narrow down your values to determine what is truly important to you in life.

• Accountability
• Achievement
• Adventure
• Ambition
• Balance
• Beauty
• Belonging
• Boldness
• Calmness
• Career Success
• Compassion
• Community Involvement
• Competency
• Contribution
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Determination
• Education
• Elegance
• Empathy
• Excellence
• Excitement
• Expertise
• Fairness
• Faith
• Fame
• Family-oriented
• Friendship
• Fun
• Giving back to others
• Goodness
• Grit
• Growth
• Happiness
• Health
• Honesty
• Honor
• Humor
• Influence
• Intelligence
• Joy
• Justice
• Kindness
• Knowledge
• Leadership
• Learning
• Legacy
• Love
• Loyalty
• Manners
• Mastery
• Meaningful Work
• Openness
• Optimism
• Order
• Patriotism
• Peace
• Pleasure
• Poise
• Popularity
• Recognition
• Religion
• Reputation
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Security
• Self-Respect
• Sensitivity
• Service
• Simplicity
• Spirituality
• Stability
• Status
• Success
• Stability
• Status
• Strength
• Structure
• Teamwork
• Tolerance
• Thankfulness
• Thoughtfulness
• Tradition
• Trustworthiness
• Uniqueness
• Vision
• Wealth
• Wisdom

As you follow the instructions below, feel free to add your own values that may not be on the above list, as it is not comprehensive. The list of values could be endless, but these were simply some of the most common.

1. As you look over the list, write down 5-10 values that you believe helped you during a difficult time in life.
2. Next, look over the list again and write down another 5-10 values that you believe have helped you in your most successful times in life.
3. Finally, of the 10-20 values that you wrote down, look them over and think of a time in your life when you felt most satisfied. Now circle the top 5 values that you believe helped you during that period of your life when you felt most satisfied.

Don’t discount the other values you wrote down, as they are still top values to you. It is helpful to recognize the top five though, as these will significantly shape your decision making and the course of your life.

Aligning Life with Your Core

Now that you recognize what you value most in this world, it is time to test out these values. Here is a practical way to begin aligning your life with the top five values you outlined: write down five sentences for each value that begins as follows.

I value (Fill in the blank), so I will (fill in the blank with something that aligns with that value).

Try to think of 3-5 statements for each of your top five values. Write these statements clearly and with intention of acting on them. Post your statements in a place this is clearly visible for you to see each day, such as a the front of your refrigerator or your bathroom mirror.

Here is an example of three statements for the value of faith:

• I value faith, so I will attend weekly worship services.
• I value faith, so I will commit to reading a daily religious devotional.
• I value faith, so I will pray often every day.

Proof Is in Your Actions

The way to show your values matter is by acting on them. If you don’t take action on your values, they are of no worth or benefit to you.

If you value honesty, yet you have a habit of being dishonest in business practices, then you need to assess your actions. Take an honest look at yourself and what you value. Are you practicing those values or do you simply admire that value and wish you put it into practice? Set yourself up for success in your values by finding ways to practice your values in everyday life. For example, if you value your health, then you should have exercising and eating right as priorities in your everyday life.

Values are only effective and useful if you put them into practice daily. Living a satisfied life has a great deal to do with the values you hold in your mind and heart along with how well you put those values into practice consistently.

Reference

[1]	^	Scientific America: The Pursuit of Happiness
[2]	^	Psychological Sciences: Affirmation of Personal Values Buffers Neuroendocrine and Psychological Stress Responses

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The Power of Mind Map: Get More Things Done & Make Creativity Easy

You have a big project coming up, or a bunch of tasks, and are overwhelmed by the thought of it. This overload happens to me way too often,^[1] but once I began using a mind map to clarify the direction, the project and tasks don’t seem so frightening.

Whatever your position or place of work is, it is natural that you will have more than one task to handle at any given moment. This could be due to hectic deadlines, a large project made up of many different tasks, or simply you’re loading more and more on yourself in hopes to get more done; how’s the latter been working out for you?

Prior to mind mapping, I jotted all tasks I knew of onto my notepad or in workflowy. On one hand, this is great for as you complete a task, you cross it over and have the amazing feeling of getting things done.^[2] On the other hand, I continuously felt that I wasn’t getting ‘the right things’ done. I was crossing off tasks left and right, but are they in line with my overall goals and targets? Or am I just listing tasks in order to cross them off?

With a mind map, I had a more organized process to follow, which helped me avoid missing tasks, while also keeping in line with overall needs.

The Purpose of a Mind Map

Mind mapping is a simple organization process using diagrams to list the information, ideas, and details and assess the big picture.

You begin with a blank page, write the main subject, project, or idea in the middle of the page, and then like a web or branches, expand from it to additional ideas connected to it, and smaller branches to those connected to it, and so on. Think of a family or decision tree, but to help you organize a large project.

How to Start Mind Mapping from Scratch

The best way to begin mind mapping is with a blank page. Write down the main subject in the middle and begin brainstorming and breaking it down into more-focused categories that aren’t as abstract. This can be done in your notebook, printer paper, and for those that cannot disconnect.

As you progress, you expand out more branches from the categories and subcategories, in order to make sure to ‘cross your t’s and dot your i’s’ and that nothing is forgotten.

Note: this is to organize project needs, not a manifesto which you begin attending every task within the map. In other words, if there is a branch under content for ‘product pages’, you don’t branch out and start adding the actual text/context of any specific page. We want to keep it clean and clear; completing individual tasks is external from the map.

Let’s take for example a project of a new website. Depending on your needs, this may be a simple or very complex project, but whatever your needs are, with a mind map, you can easily break it down.

You begin in the middle with the project “New Website” and can expand the various branches to it such as: “design”, “development”, “content”, and so on. But it doesn’t stop there, as each subject can be broken down further; with design, it can go into ‘specifications’ (wishes of the new site), ‘characterization’ (behaviors and experience), ‘branding’ (color schemes, themes, style) and much more.

Breaking down a main project into separate categories (and then sub-categories) allows us to take a huge project and make it digestible and tangible. What began as an abstract wish is now clear with real direction and is broken down into bite-sized tasks.

From there, we can create a separate mind-map for each of the main categories to further clarify (if needed), as well as actually prioritize and set timetables to fit across complimentary and awaited tasks.

What began as the preliminary plan of the new website design expanded to all various corners which go beyond design but the actual context as well, i.e new site content, and its own extension into type of content, such as product pages, company pages, support pages, blog and more.

The mind mapping process allowed me to think bigger and organize the project a lot clearer, making sure I don’t proceed until the entire scope of the project is organized in front of me. From there, I prioritize the tasks, so I am well aware if any task is dependent on another, or is attended to in parallel to another, and where I stand in the entire process.

There are plenty of applications, sites, and more to get you on the mind mapping wagon. The latter may include various features such as color-coding, sharing/collaborating, linking (to notes, sites, imagery), design/style extras, and more bells and whistles to help you create the map needed to organize your thoughts, brainstorming, task breakdown and more.

Whichever tool or mind mapping method floats your boat is great, but it is best to begin simple, realize the benefits, and only after such a process proves beneficial for you, then upgrade to all the extras.

At the end of the day, mind mapping is aimed to help you organize thoughts, tasks, ideas, and such to get you closer to the main goal, which is getting things done. If the extra features are making your map prettier but don’r bring you closer to the goal, you haven’t yet benefited from such an amazing process.

I found myself going back to Coggle, as it is very easy to use, the free offering would be sufficient for most, and collaboration is available to allow your team to expand. Still, a regular piece of paper offline always does the trick, granting your pen the freedom it deserves.

The Power of Mind Mapping

There are so many different tools, methods, processes, and more which individuals can use when attempting to organize their thoughts or brainstorm toward a new project. I find that mind-mapping is a very simple process to follow, and is rather natural to use and expand upon.

Its practice helps the individual get the big picture visually and clearly without too much effort. Its flexibility makes it easy to grow, so we’re allowing ideas to flow while maintaining a singular focus which stares at you from the beginning to the end.

As always, adapting to a new tool or process isn’t an easy thing; you may realize the benefit but feel it is time-consuming and you could have already been submerged in the project, or you’re unable to clarify which is a category or a task, and more.

I had some difficulties when I began to adapt to a freehand style and draw a diagram, rather than listing an outline on my computer. But as it clarified the project, organized my thoughts and tasks, as well as helped me avoid missing any crucial steps along the way, I was hooked.

Since I began, I also realized that I am ending up getting more done, as every project is clear, all tasks listed, and I can better manoeuvre through items and multi-tasks effectively (not just for the sake of multi-tasking).^[3]

I can take more upon myself, and while at it, complete things towards my goals and targets in a more effective and efficient way.

Reference

[1]	^	Knowmail: A simple approach to task or project overload
[2]	^	Craig Jarrow: Why Checking Things Off Your List Feels So Good
[3]	^	Knowmail: Can multitasking produce results?

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Shining by Csekk István I’m a media designer, visual...

Shining by  Csekk István  

I’m a media designer, visual artist and art director… or simply a hopeless daydreamer based in Budapest, Hungary. I will probably never quite figure out what qualifies me for all these, and will forever doubt if anything I do is any good. But I will keep on doing them. Why?
Let’s say the voices tell me to. ( Motion Graphics,Illustration,Art Direction )

Thanks optically aroused | & | everythingstarstuff

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Shining by Csekk István I’m a media designer, visual... crss

Shining by  Csekk István  

I’m a media designer, visual artist and art director… or simply a hopeless daydreamer based in Budapest, Hungary. I will probably never quite figure out what qualifies me for all these, and will forever doubt if anything I do is any good. But I will keep on doing them. Why?
Let’s say the voices tell me to. ( Motion Graphics,Illustration,Art Direction )

Thanks optically aroused | & | everythingstarstuff

---

More unique art on Cross Connect Magazine:

Twitter || Facebook|| Instagram

Posted by Andrew

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