by Joseph Wardy

Created on: October 02, 2010   Last Updated: October 04, 2010

Living every day with passion is a reflection of the practical and the spiritual. Passion is a balance of purpose and meaning. The former is a creation of how we meet the world externally.

Passion externally does not start but ends with goals and a daily plan. Passion begins with our personal mission or the " end in mind" as best author Stephan Coveys says in his book " The Seven Habits of Effective People". The mission is our vision that creates the compass of passion. This mission I'm suggesting is accomplished by a creative exercise. Here a few ideas:

1) Ask a person to deliver your eulogy at your funeral. What do you want them to say about you? How would you like to be remembered? What action are they using that describe your life?

2) A best writer approaches you to ask permission to write your biography. What do you want to read in that biography that exemplifies your passion?

3) Your gravestone allows you to be remembered by one word as the dash represents your passion. What will that word be?

If you have difficulty with writing a mission, try a linear exercise of identifying your values like accomplishment, money, creativity, family, friends, honesty, helping others, religion, spirituality, integrity, fame, power etc. Prioritize them and them write a mission from your values.

Meaning is the spiritual side balancing the practical and working within it. Meaningis living life to its fullest by not thinking about the past or anticipating the future. It is passion from living in the now. Some achievers would challenge this claim by indicating that it is about the future. True but the future is determined by what is performed in the moment. People with passion who are successful have more successful moments than other people. People with passion also combine purposewith meaning by doing each task not to complete it in order to move on. Each task is done with mindfulness, concentration and attention. The result is balance with the process that creates it.

Finally, people with passion avoid the Western cliche of " been there, done that". This is viewing challenge as no challenge. People of passion see their mission with what the Japanese call "fresh eyes. If it is always new then we are experiencing and not repeating the experience that creates the attitude of knowing. If I know, how can I be passionate?

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