Evolve U

Misplaced, Displaced Passion

21st January, 2010 - Posted by Shaunice Hawkins - No Comments

It’s 2:00am. You are sitting in front of your computer…staring into cyberspace…contemplating  your life’s purpose…again.

Everything you know…once knew has changed.  Until today, your life was planned.

You knew what you were supposed to be when you grew up, what you would do with your life, when all your hopes and dreams would be fulfilled, which milestones you would make, how you were going to retire early, when you’d travel the world, where you’d meet your soul mate, what you’d say if you had 15 minutes of fame or perhaps what you would do if you won $15 million.  Yup…you have (had) a plan, but:

 

What happens when circumstances change and your plan was no longer in effect?

What happens when you no longer know who you’re supposed to be,
what you’re supposed to do, where you’re supposed to go
or how you’re supposed to get there?

What happens to the enthusiasm and zeal you had regarding
 your career or that milestone or those hopes and dreams?

 What happens to you? Your mindset? Your fervor?

 

Understand that a plan is just that…a plan.  It is nothing more than a map or diagram that indicates the best path or course of action to take along a desired route.  Passion?  That’s another story. 

“Passion” can best be defined as “any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling; a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything”.  It’s that “joie de vivre (joy of living)” that wakes you up in the mornings ready to conquer the world.  It’s that drive that challenges you not to settle for incompetence and/or complacency.  It’s the pride you feel with every accomplishment.  It’s what makes you stand out from the crowd.

If your plan fails, you can always draft a new one.  If your passion fails, how do you get more?  Thankfully, passion doesn’t “fail” (per se).  It is merely misplaced or displaced.

While both “misplace” and “displace” share a similar definition (”to put something in a different place from where it should be”) each has a distinctive characteristic. When something is displaced, it means that that otherwise solid and immovable thing was shifted, deposed, ousted and supplanted from its original place to a new location that is most likely difficult to find.  When something has been misplaced, that thing has been put in a wrong place and forgotten about. 

Misplacement occurs because of happenstance. Displacement occurs because of intent.  Misplaced passion is passion lost.  Displaced passion is passion discarded. 

If you dread getting up in the mornings to go to the job, you probably have lost your drive.  You’ve (most likely) misplaced the passion you once had to work into the wee hours of the morning and/or sacrifice  lunches to meet with your manager. You’ve looked all around and don’t know where to find it but you’re willing to go through the motions of the job until you do.  You still have a modicum of hope.

If you find yourself uncreative and unproductive while on the job, then your passion has been displaced.  Subconsciously, you’ve intentionally relocated all the enthusiasm and pride you once held about your position and your work to a place that is hard to reach or difficult to reignite. You’ve completely checked out.  You resent your job, manager, co-workers, cafeteria worker – everyone.  There is NO hope.

If similar scenarios are what’s causing you to lose sleep, you are not alone.  To exist without passion is to live monochromatically.  It is to pass through life rather than experience it.  So, what does it take to reignite the flames of passion?  A paradigm shift. 

Dr. Thomas Kuhn, an American scholar who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions in the sociology and philosophy of science, defined the concept of “paradigm shift” as a “series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions”, and in those revolutions “one conceptual world view is replaced by another”.  In other words, a paradigm shift is a ” revolutionary, transformative and metamorphic but sudden shift from one way of thinking to another” that has been “driven by change” rather than chance.

Whereas misplaced and displaced passion caused a gradual shift in you towards one direction, a paradigm shift – a radical new way of thinking – will rapidly move you in another more positive, productive, direction resulting in renewed passion, purpose and pride.

To evolve your mindset and reboot your passion, check out these resources on motivation and reinvention.

• “The Art of Re-Invention” by Debra Dixon
• “How to Tap into What Really Motivates You” by Daniel H. Pink
• “Two Questions” by Daniel H. Pink
• “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” by Randy Pausch
• “Ten Steps to Personal Reinvention” by Dr. Nancy Irwin
• The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Sir Ken Robinson
• Vision Board & Gratitude Journal iPhone Apps by Happy Tapper

 

FINAL THOUGHT

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.  And then go and do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  ~ Howard Thurman