Stuart’s Philosophies

Here’s Passion Directive #2: “Your Past Doesn’t Dictate Where You Are Today - It Indicates Your Choices Up Till Today.”

Many people who are seeking their passion often end up wondering why they go around in circles. You might think that your interests are your passion. Your interests are based on things that have happened in the past, and your interests will change with time.

In my previous post, I mentioned that you have to look inside yourself and explore your values and inner capabilities. That’s not enough. Sometimes, we rely too much on our past. It’s common to say “he’s like that because he used to…” or “she’s always been…” in order to explain behavior. The past is not an oracle of truth. It’s merely a snapshot of your choices.

In fact, as you judge other people about who they are and what they do, you, too, fixate around the myth that they can’t change. You have to acknowledge that changes can and will take place. Human beings grow and learn, and can create the changes for their future if they know where they need to go.

So, if you constantly encounter frustration, it’s due to the problems you used to face. Sure - but it is the clearest reason why you have to increase the choices surrounding your problem. After all, without it, your ability to find your passion is restricted. Barriers to discovering our real calling in life are based on how you perceive your past decisions.

Make changes to your choices, in order to make your passion sustainable.

If you base your passion on decision blueprints of the past, then you obviously will have to create changes to your decision blueprints. For example, you work in a place that is extremely stressful. However, you decide to quit and leave your job. You think you are happier in this workplace, but the decision blueprints that you have in your head are likely to cause you stress again.

Of course, we are looking at the dynamic influence of your external environment and your internal mental environment. You might be lucky enough to shift to a different environment that suits you better.

There have been cases where our education system in Singapore has been faulted for being too stressful, and therefore they can’t get promoted locally. However, they get sent for an overseas education, and it turns out that they end up better students. It’s the environment! Can you choose to change your environment? Sure you can!

Now, some of you might take me to task on this. You might say “isn’t it just a symptomatic change - after all, some people change jobs or careers and activate the same patterns of disaster in their lives”.

I’d agree with that insofar as you do it without thinking. I mean, if you change your environment, I’d hope that you went through some serious thinking. It is an upheaval in terms of your regular routine, and that definitely is going to need some thinking through. Look, of course you’ll see things as green if you are wearing green lenses everywhere you go. You need to take the time to change your mental lenses if you are to focus on different things.

Choose to make those changes.

Again, some people might raise up this concern.

“Stuart - I want to make changes, but I have no idea how to.”

Well, the how comes later. You can find out about creating internal change and also helping others to find their passion through the power of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. While a lot of finding your passion comes from revisiting the purpose of your being, it’s also important for you to know that there are specific strategies you can learn to enhance your capabilities.

For instance, let’s say you have gotten yourself in a position where everyone in your workplace hates you. You might go to a psychologist and he might explore your past history and explain that you are like this because:

• your mother didn’t love you as much as your younger sister;
• you had a problem with authority when you were a student;
• you were badly affected by a pay cut that evoked strong emotions against your manager and colleagues.

Okay - fine and dandy. Let’s just suppose that these are true. What difference did it make?! I’d rather have you explore your choices at the point of time when you made those decisions. You probably:

• chose to think that your sister was more special than you - and there’s nothing wrong about that. It’s simply a choice of your perception. Choose to look at things differently, with a different attitude.
• were unjustly treated by a non-representative group of authority figures. Not everyone will treat you this way. The more you expect them to, though, the more likely you will have that prediction come true. So when you made the choice to generalize the rule across every authority figure in the world, you created resentment and more problems. But you haven’t seen every authority figure in the world, and you haven’t used every strategy known to man to communicate with them. Choose to learn.
• felt that you were working hard. You chose to think that the pay cut was against you rather than for the long-term growth of the company. You could continue to keep a higher pay, but all employees could lose their job in months. Your choice to feel resentful creates links between actions and interpretations that need not be there. Why be depressed for no good reason at all? Choose to feel different.

Again, in seeking your passion, you might have to make the finer distinction between what you want and what the world wants. There are many people who are willing to make sacrifices to suit the larger world around them. Others are not so willing. It’s a choice.

Conclusion

I think I’d like to say finally that seeking your passion is like finding your true love. In  manuscripts of fairy tales of old, there’s always someone waiting for true love. You can’t get that prince if you choose not to kiss the frog. You can’t wake your sleeping beauty if you don’t express your love.

But that kind of means you must know the exact direction where you want to go. I think the ability for us to feel passion is not as important as when we evoke and release that passion.

To be so deeply involved in what you love doing that it literally becomes a way of living.  Are you up for that? When you jump into something, can you choose to feel that this is no more different than an arm or a limb to you? Then when you work that muscle, it’s going to not stick out like some kind of sore thumb. You’ll be unleashing the full capacity of you.

Tags

General, The Passion Directives