Passion: Passion is a feeling of intense enthusiasm towards or compelling desire for someone or something.
Strong and barely controllable emotion. That which excites you and/or inspires you into action. Willingness to suffer for something you love.
Passion can range from eager interest in or admiration for an idea, proposal, or cause; to enthusiastic enjoyment of an interest or activity; to strong attraction, excitement, or emotion towards a person.
The “willingness to suffer for something you love” meaning of passion is one that is not very popular today or even that well known. Most of us have come to associate the word passion with the first definition.
However, passion is something that goes much deeper into simply having a strong interest or desire in some area or someone.
Passion is about yearning for something so deeply that you lose yourself in it while doing it.
You lose all sense of time. Time just passes by like nothing. Nothing else matters. It is your North Star. You forget to eat, drink, pee. It is all you think about all day long.
While you are going about your daily life it constantly consumes your every thought. You are willing to give up sleep, give up food, give up drink, give up time with loved ones, give up pleasure, fight through pain, blood, sweat, tears, etc.
It’s beautiful. It’s messy. It’s dirty. It’s heartbreaking. It’s awe inspiring. It’s real.
You are willing to do anything to do the thing that you love you so much. And you suffocate if you are not doing that thing you love so deeply.
This is passion.
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from none other than Les Brown,
If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, to work day and night for it, to give up your time, your peace and sleep for it.
If all that you dream and scheme is about it, and life seems useless and worthless without it.
If you gladly sweat for it and fret for it and plan for it and lose all your terror of the opposition for it.
If you simply go after that thing that you want with all your capacity, strength and sagacity, faith hope and confidence and stern pertinacity.
If neither cold, poverty, famine, nor gout, sickness nor pain, of body and brain, can keep you away from the thing that you want.
If dogged and grim you beseech and beset it, with the help of God, YOU WILL GET IT!
This is passion.
For me, one of my biggest passions in life since I was a young boy has been Basketball.
Basketball was my first true love, my best friend, my everything.
The Basketball court was my safe haven, my sanctuary, my place of escape. It represented the good that was in my life and something I could always turn to when I was feeling down.
In fact, Basketball is what allowed me to travel overseas, see different cultures, and live out of my dream of playing Professional Basketball.
You see, as a kid, Basketball for me was like a religion.
I ate, slept and breathed Basketball. I would even sleep with a basketball some nights. It consumed my every thought, decision and move in life.
In the summer time, I would play from sun up til’ sun down at 4th Street Park aka “Church Square Park” in my hometown, Hoboken, New Jersey.
This would be 8–10 hours a day, every day of the summer when I wasn’t playing AAU games or at practice.
As I got into high school and playing Varsity, I would dribble a blue handball in between classes at St. Peter’s Prep to improve my ballhandling since legend has it that Steve Nash did as well — so I did too.
I would play in my khakis, shirt, tie, cardigan, dress shoes during recess and lunch dominating the courts and putting on shows in front of my classmates getting the craziest, loudest “oohs” and “aahs” you wouldn’t believe from my classmates.
I bought jump soles, which are a type of shoe with a rubber “platform” underneath it to improve my vertical leap. I did sprints and jumping exercises in the pool to jump higher. I bought countless programs to improve my shooting, scoring, vertical leap, etc.
I even spent $2,000 of my own money to fly out to two Pro Basketball Camps/Showcases in Las Vegas (Bridgewater Academy and Euro Basket) to perform in front of Pro scouts, coaches and agents in hopes of securing a pro contract.
At Bridgewater, I got selected to the Top 20 All Start Team among 300 hundred or so players. From this, I got my first agent, who informed me about a Pro tryout at the Aviator Center in Brooklyn, NY for the Mongolian Basketball League called MNBA.
I figured since I was Asian and specifically of Sherpa/Tibetan descent that it would be a good start for me in Mongolia as our cultures and people are very similar.
I was right and as luck would have it, I was able to secure my 1st ever Pro contract playing ball in beautiful, yet super cold Mongolia.
Basketball for me was not just a passion it was an obsession. And guess what…
I loved it. I loved every, single moment. The ups, downs, blood, sweat and tears.
Why?
Because it was the love of my life, my passion. And I still love it to this day.
But today as a grown man at 31 years of age, I have developed several other passions as well.
One of which you are witnessing right now — writing, specifically, storytelling, as a way to convey a message that would somehow inspire others to take action on their dreams and pursue that which sets their soul on fire.
The late Kobe Bryant, mentioned in an interview,
From age 21–33, I looked and looked inside myself and in the outside world for my “next” great passion that was equal to or even greater than Basketball. After much reflection and introspection, I was finally able to come to the realization that this passion that was equal to or even greater than Basketball was — storytelling. Ever since I was a kid, I loved to write and tell stories. I want to be remembered as a person that was able to create stories that inspired their children and families to bond together
Can you believe that? An Oscar? Come on man, that is incredible.
But even more incredible was the fact that he was one of the greatest players in Basketball history and then as his “Second Act” goes on to win an Oscar.
Take a second to let that sink in…
You see what I mean?
Ok now let’s move on.
So, you see, one can have several passions in life. Mine just happened to be Basketball early on in my young life and I am forever grateful for finding it so early as I know many people search an entire lifetime and don’t find their passions.
However, somehow through self awareness and much introspection I have come to realize and develop several of my passions other than Basketball, which are: helping others (our Motto at my alma mater, St. Peter’s Prep: “Being a man for and with others”), storytelling, writing, creating (ie. Youtube, videos, writing), Entrepreneurship, meditation, staying still with my thoughts, Fitness, athletic performance, Basketball skills training, athletic performance training, strength training, freedom in every sense of the word (time freedom, financial freedom, emotional freedom, etc.), philosophy, music, traveling, reading, visualization, and several other passions as well.
Above all is my passion for my family.
My passion to be a loving, caring and supportive son, brother, husband, father, friend.
Without my family I am nothing.
My family is my deepest inspiration in life and for them I would do and give anything. Anything.
This is passion.
Also, I am an Alpha male. And as an Alpha it is my duty and greatest desire to love, provide and protect my family at all costs.
As you can see throughout this short story and glimpse into my life, of who I am as a person, you will see that on a “Hero’s Journey” one may have one, several or many passions.
The amount does not matter. What does matter is that you find your passion, your true calling in life and give yourself to your passion — mind, body and soul.
For your passion is your life force, your purpose, your reason for being. If you feel a higher purpose in life, please follow your passion. Please follow your bliss.
We, your brothers and sisters of the world need you and your passion more than you’ll ever know.
I hope this different perspective of passion inspired you or helped you aspire to take action on your passion.
What is it that you cannot help but do?
What sets your soul on fire?
What is your passion?
What is your definition of passion?
Also, how did you like this post? Please provide your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below so we can discuss this topic on passion, how it relates to you and what we can all do to live out our passions as we live out our days here together on Earth.
I’ll leave you with this message from, Steve Jobs, one of the most influential entrepreneurs of all time,
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it
Love,
Sonam