Passion is a force that awakens you. Passion blows the lid off of your imagination, your capability and your drive. It shakes your mind free from limiting beliefs and breaks your old patterns of thinking. Passion is what gives you a sense of purpose.
Achievers with youthful exuberance can do almost anything they really have to do, but trying to make yourself do something is an energy that will never last.
Passion wakes you up to something in life that you desire so strongly that you no longer have to push yourself to do anything. You now have a different kind of drive, a force that pulls you forward.
If someone asks me, “Al, what is the single most valuable secret to success in life? How do I live life on my terms and have choices, and become the best in my field?” I’d tell them that every great leader I’ve ever had the privilege to work with — whether they are a 6 figure earner or 7 figure earner, an athlete, a musician, or a business savant — got there using one force above all others. And that’s hunger.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PASSION AND HUNGER?
Passion is first gear; it will get you going, but hunger is the ticket that will take you there.
It’s human nature to get excited about big dreams; it’s easy to spark the fires of passion, especially when you’re young. But sooner or later, when it comes time to get the job done, suddenly, our level of excitement wanes because we’re all afraid of one thing: failure.
Here’s what’s great:
| Hunger will destroy that fear of failure.
Hunger will drive you through it. Hunger will be your resolve. It is the force that locks you into a commitment, it fastens you to the outcome when you’ve decided upon a result and you won’t sleep at night until you achieve it. Hunger is irrepressible.
It’s not enough to be passionate about a result. You’ve got to want it so badly that you become uncomfortable when you’re not getting it.
That’s what hunger is, it’s a desire so strong that when you don’t get whatever it is you’re craving, you’re disturbed. You’re hangry! You’ll die trying to get what you want if you have to because there is no other alternative.
If you really want to take the island, burn the boats.
Today, In 2019, the entire world is in your pocket. It’s all yours for the taking, but listen to me…only IF you’re hungry for it.
If not, you’ll get comfortable. And life gives us two choices — you either grow, or you die. You climb, or you slide. So sometimes hunger waits to appear until your back is against the wall, when you’re at the very bottom of the well, looking up.
If you’ve got a plan to fall back on, it just means there’s more room to fall.
And that’s the reason why a lot of people have trouble sustaining their passions. They take one step forward and two steps back, until they fall flat and start all over again on something else altogether. They live in a world of stutter-steps and false starts. That’s what passion without hunger will do to you and it means only one thing – you aren’t making the jump, you’re not committing, you’re holding back because you’re afraid to fail and you’ve got a crash pad to fall back on.
When there’s a safety net beneath you – your parents, relatives, a girlfriend or boyfriend, a comfortable hometown, a decent job – there’s tremendous comfort and certainty there. But what looks like an asset can actually lock you up and paralyze you with debilitating inertia. I mean, right now the largest percentage in history – 15% – of people between the age of 25 and 34 live at home with their parents. And that’s not a judgment from me, there is nothing wrong with living at home, but when your mom is stocking the fridge there is no way you’re ever going to get hungry.
There is nothing like necessity to get you through a challenge. But nothing is really necessary until you are chasing your passion. Passion is the only true exigency of action.
So let me ask you something:
What is your passion? What are you really here for?
To be clear, I’m not asking you what you want to be. I’m asking what do you want to create? What are you here to give? What is your gift? What is the one thing you want to do better than anyone else on this planet? What is the one thing you could do every single day and not get sick of? What will you share with the world?
That is your passion.
FINDING YOUR TRUE PASSION
A lot of people — young AND old — will say, “But Al, I don’t know what my passion is. How do I find my passion?”
The fastest way to find your true passion is to commit to something you have an interest in. Really immerse yourself in the environment, don’t just dabble. Volunteer with your whole heart. Do your homework and model the people who have done it best. Follow them around. Commit every cell in your body to learning and living that life and feel where that focus takes you.
If that doesn’t work, there’s another way…
If you can’t find your career from heaven, just describe your job from hell.
Often times, when I ask people to describe what they would NOT want to do for a living — the kind of people they don’t want to work with, the office they’d hate to be penned up in, the conditions that would make them crazy — that’s when they’re able to paint a very colorful portrait.
It’s surprising to see how much energy can be generated in a person from anger. So, go crazy for five minutes, get it all out and when you’re in that passionate state, that’s when I’d ask you to describe the opposite of everything you just rattled off. And then you’ll have your job from heaven. What does that look like? How does it feel?
That simple technique is sometimes all it takes to trigger the clues you need when you’re feeling blocked.
So once you’ve zeroed in on your passion and you’re hungry to chase it down, what’s next? You must serve something greater than yourself.
The question is never, “What are you going to get?” You got it?
You can get anything you want, but the only way to greatness is to find a way to serve others.
There’s a Bible verse that says, whoever among you wishes to become great, must become a servant of many. That means, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a great, successful leader, but the only way to do that is to become a servant.
Several people who have succeeded on the highest scale interestingly enough didn’t wait until they finished college to start serving others.
They couldn’t wait.
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah, Ellen, Walt Disney, Ralph Lauren, Wolfgang Puck, John Lennon, Lady Gaga, Abe Lincoln — they didn’t drop out of school because they were lazy. They had already found their passion and they were ready to begin serving others.
They had such hunger they physically could not wait.
There is nothing quite as effective as a sense of urgency to transform the quality of a human being’s life.
The good news is, you are coming of age in an era of accelerated ideation and fast and furious innovation the likes of which the world has never seen.
The bad news is — you should’ve started five years ago!
Can you feel the pressure? Good. Internal pressure is not a bad thing. If you feel nothing but a little fire inside right now, you’ll be no worse for wear.
When I speak with great thought leaders and cultural influencers, they all seem to describe this common “feeling” inside of them. It’s a feeling of responsibility, like they must deliver something; a sense of purpose they’re here to serve.
It’s not about what life is going to give to them, it’s about what they must bring to bear.
Commit to turning your Shoulds into Musts right now.
You do anything you want with your life whether or not the avenue exists. Clear the path, pave the road, step up and make it happen.
Discover your passion. Get hungry. Design the life you want to live. With massive action, flexibility, obsessive discipline, and a sense of purpose to serve something outside of yourself, you will develop the ability to consistently produce results, and you will effectively create your own path to greatness.
Finally, when you fall upon frustrating times – and you will – remember the words my mentor told me years ago when I was at my lowest place. He said, “Al, keep working on yourself, keep improving, strengthening, and keep finding a way to serve more people. If you do that, I promise you — your gifts will make room for you.“