Find Your Passion

Passion; defined by Google as, "a strong and barely controllable emotion"

Not sure I totally agree with that definition, but it's more or less on point.

At Zambezi, "we create passion for brands," which must mean by definition, that we create a 'strong and barely controllable emotion' either within the brand, or between the brand and the consumer I would assume. But lately I've been feeling like I have been lacking passion, and I can't quite figure out why.

Passion is used to describe an emotion you feel about something, a la he's passionate about football, or she's passionate about cooking. But I've realized lately that if someone were to ask my closest friends, what's Amanda passionate about, I'm not sure someone would be able to answer that.

I'm definitely a passionate person; I don't think anyone would have a hard time saying that, but it's the what am I passionate about that has begun to eat at me a little bit lately.

As we grow up, we're constantly being forced to define ourselves. We're forced to figure out who we are, what we want in life, where we want to spend our life, with whom we want to spend it with, etc. etc. We also begin to feel the need to share these findings with the world and make it known who we are, whether it be for personal satisfaction of everyone-knowing-therefore-I-know, or whether it be our way of making sure the world knows what we're made of, I'm not sure. But either way, we're supposed to figure out who we are. We're supposed to know what we're passionate about.

I'm 23. I have a full-time job and pay my own rent and all that and a box of chocolates. I definitely know who I am better than I did a year ago and even a week ago, but in this ever-lasting game of personal trivia to figure out who I am, I can't help but stumble on the passion part. What am I truly passionate about?

Like I said, I know that I feel passion. I am an emotional person by nature, so I must have some essence of passion in me. I can speak passionately, and I can believe in something whole-heartedly. But do I love something enough to be passionate about it?

I have so many friends and acquaintances that have turned their passions into careers. Whether it be traveling that turns into a travel hacking website, book and lifestyle, or cooking that turns into a nationally-awarded food blog, so many people around me are transforming their passions into a living, and I can't help but be jealous.

That's the goal right? To love something so much, and to love to do something so much, that you are able to make it into a career and ultimately a lifestyle. What could be better than that?

It's not to say that I'm not passionate about advertising, because if I wasn't at least a little bit I probably wouldn't be in the industry. But something isn't all the way lined up with the world of advertising and my need for identifying my passion. And maybe it's because it's still very new to me in so many ways. But even outside of my job, (which I love) what is my passion? 

And more importantly, how do I find it?

There are many things that I truly love doing; running, cooking (sometimes) planning events/social functions, yoga, writing (which I've been trying to do more of) traveling, hiking, etc. etc. But I don't know that I love any of those enough to consider my feeling for it a "strong and barely controllable emotion" 

So what does that mean? Am I someone who's just going to love a lot of things but never really know what it's like to be passionate about something? Am I someone who's going to wear a lot of hats in life career-wise and never truly know where my passion is? I sure hope not.

I want to be someone that lights up and gets excited when someone asks me about whatever it is that I'm passionate about. I want to be someone that would rather do whatever it is than sleep (which for me might be a long shot...) 

But maybe that's just life, not knowing what your passion is. Or maybe that's the beauty of life, and why we get to live for about 100 years give or take, to find our passion. Some people are lucky enough to find it within 25 years, but others (like me) maybe need to try everything on the menu before we can confidentaly order an entree.

Or maybe it's just growing up. Maybe this is the part where I still can't quite answer the "who am I" question because I am 23 and I shouldn't know these answers yet...

Whether it's life or me or growing up in general, I hope that while I continue to "create passion for brands," I can start to learn how to create passion for myself, because having a "strong and barely controllable emotion" about something that could turn into a career and possibly even a lifestyle, sounds pretty cool to me.

And instead of sitting here writing about what my passion is or how to find it,  I'll be out there doing it, whatever it is.

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(Editor's Note: If you can accurately count how many times I use the word passion in this post, not counting the latter, I'll buy you a drink sometime. Unless of course I don't know you then I probably won't. Sorry.)