It’s what drives us, what gives us the ability to achieve great things and to do so with extraordinary zeal and effort. The word is often considered a synonym of ‘desire’ but I believe passion means much more than that.

I heard a definition of passion yesterday attributed to someone named John Ritter (not the actor). His definition of passion is clearly purpose driven. Passion he says, is the degree of difficulty we are willing to endure in order to accomplish a goal.
(If anyone knows of the exact quote please let me know…)

Matt Richey briefly reflected on this definition of passion and wrote about watching a video of people climbing Mt. Everest willing to sacrifice both limbs and life.

Where does this sort of passion come from? And like Matt asks, how do you cultivate it?

Intense passion can indeed help pull us to the top of the mountain. In our privileged culture however, I think all too often we look for passion to pull us to the base of the mountain as well. This line of thinking can manifest itself in a multitude of iterations both personally and professionally but in the context of daily professional life, one in particular comes to mind..

Sometimes it becomes a daily struggle to work on things that don’t get you excited. Our focus shifts to our lack of excitement, our lack of passion toward the task. This is natural of course, but it’s also a cognitive pitfall. As our focus increases on our lack of passion, it lessens of course on the task before us. In severe situations it can lessen to a degree that we no longer even consider the implications of not climbing or tackling that task simply because our focus on passion has taken over.

Don’t ask yourself, ‘Why don’t I want to climb this mountain?’ Focus on the mountain, and focus on being a great climber. The passion will come. Think of it like smiling when you’re not happy for the sole purpose of increasing your happiness. Sound silly? Maybe.. but give it a try and tell me otherwise.