Finding your True Passion

Over the years we have seen many personal development gurus talking about how important it is to find what you like to do, what you are so passionate of doing. The reason is this passion will drive you to go beyond your capacity. These statements was misleading me and I was talking with few of my other friends with similar backgrounds, are you doing what you really like, and are you passionate about what you are doing. They were doing exceptionally well at their current positions and surprisingly the responses were not in line with what the famous personal development gurus were thinking.

Majority of us are not sure of what we really want out of life or what we are really passionate about. For most of us life is a mystery, which at times does not make much sense. But further analysis showed the success behind some of the young executives is not mainly due to their passion on what they do. They are challenge seekers. Generation Y unlike Generation X are driven with challenge and there is red ocean competition between young executives to prove that one is better than the other. 

Generation Y has built a lot of self-ego around them and continuous challenges has proven to become a critical motivator for these young executives representing the Generation Y. Time has come to revisit the traditional techniques and methods that were deemed to be the mantras of success.

One has to challenge himself to understand his boundaries; it may as well be limitless. Time is ripe for most of us who spend 9 hours working on the same old job, same old role to rethink and challenge our status quo. More comfortable you are in what you do, the opportunity to grow is hindered. Time has come to challenge ourselves to go beyond what we have already achieved. 

May be you could be wondering why your next promotion is not working, what to do to ensure that you get your next promotion. I was going through a motivational video and the advice was very simple. You need to “Work on  Your Work”. You need to continuously improve on the way you work, how you work, processes or tools used, invest on skill building or it could be investment on a professional qualification. Unless you are willing to challenge yourself, our horizons will always be limited.

Be Different - Be an Eagle

Eagles Fly above the Clouds when it Rains

Nature is amazing. The way nature adapts with impossible solutions to problems is amazing and there is lot to learn in all aspects. I was going through this video and the presenter was taking this amazing example to depict how different animals adapt different approaches to the same problem. 

If you look at the sky when it is raining all of you can see birds flying all around searching for shelters under trees and other shelters. But there is this special bird that adapts a different tactic to the same problem of avoiding the rain. This bird does not fly in search for shelters, this bird flies above the clouds to avoid the rain. By this simple change of approach in solving the same problem, Rain is never an obstacle for the eagle to go its destination.

Steve Jobs way

Similarly in life also we come up with so many problems but we continue with the same approach even knowing that for a fact that it is not the ultimate solution. One of the amazing innovators in our own time Steve Jobs the master mind, Master craftsmen, specialist designer had the same attitude from him it was never about trying the same solution for the same problem. For him it was always about looking for ways and means to innovate , find better and effective ways and means of doing it better. If not for Steve Jobs all of us would be carrying with us the difficult to carry walkman CD Player with less storage space for our mobile entertainment. Steve Jobs saw the world differently he came up with this amazing concept of     i-pod which has changed the mobile market like a storm.

In our lives we should also challenge our perception, we should challenge our attitudes and thinking differently think innovatively. What is innovation from a conceptual framework Innovation is having a conceptual idea, Technical knowhow to execute the idea and the ability to commercialize.  But starting point to become great innovators like Steve Jobs starts from the little changes that we do in our lives, the little things that we do to innovate and improve our normal lives.

You might Die Tomorrow

One of the greatest psychological philosophies that Steve Jobs had was he always thought what if I die tomorrow. He had that feeling everyday and wanted to ensure that he wants to live the life he did. Who knows we might die today, tomorrow or day after tomorrow. Are we living the life that we want to live.