What Are You Passionate About?
Knowing your core values and passions is crucial to living a life of purpose with your family. << Click to Tweet
As I had mentioned before when my husband and I sat down to write out mission statement the first things we discussed was our values and passions. Both of us identified them individually and then came together to decide which ones we would embrace as a couple and a family.
I admit that it wasn’t easy for me to come up with a list of things I was passionate about. The responsibilities of work and taking care of a family replaced what I loved as a child and even a young adult. I had a few ideas in mind but was hesitant to write them down because I was scared to compare the life I was living the life I wanted.
But change starts with awareness. If I wanted to live with intention, for myself and my family, it was crucial that I explore the desires and passions that were inside me.
Your values and passions are part of what makes you and your family unique. << Click to Tweet
So what are passions?
Passions are what sparks your interest; they are the things that fire up your emotions.
When you are passionate about something you could talk about it for hours, or you lose track of time when participating in it.
Passions can push you through difficulty because it’s what you love.
Unlike values, passions are not always acted upon, but they are something that you are highly motivated to pursue them.
Passions allow you be the best person you can be. That’s because people who know what they are passionate about and actively make those things apart of their lives are fulfilled and connected with their work, family, and life in general.
In the context of family culture, we’ve found that passions do one of 3 things:
They inform your values. When Carl and I listed out passions I wrote: Manage money well and teach our kids to manage money well, follow God’s plan for stewardship. Carl wrote: Being diligent with finances and spending wisely. Our passions were similar so we felt strongly that our values should reflect this. So we chose generosity as one of our family’s top 5 values.
They express your values. One of our values is Creativity. We love games. However, we don’t just play them; we create new ones. Many times we design them to celebrate holidays, milestones, and the people we love. We bring creativity to our passion for connecting with other games.
They inform your cultural practices, the things we do together. Our family is passionate about food. So as a family we invite others to cook with us. We host cooking club and play dates which revolve around food. When we travel we visit Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and try new foods and restaurants that are specific to the area we are visiting. Those who know us well know that we can talk about food for hours.
Creating a list of passions did more than help us craft our mission statement. It gave us a sense of purpose and pointed us in the direction our family would go.
The work of family culture building includes creating alignment between your values and passions.
There may be seasons of participation for your passions. You may want to live and breathe passions, but obstacles can get in the way. For example, you may be passionate about running, but you have an injury that doesn’t allow you to participate for a particular time. Or maybe it’s long work hours, a new addition to the family or too many responsibilities with too little time prevents you from your passions. For many, it may be not taking the time to discover what they are passionate about, or just not making room in their life in their life.
If you haven’t taken the time to figure out what you are passionate about, here’s how you can:
First, forget the word “passion.” Then, ask yourself the following questions:
What are you curious about?
What makes your heart sing?
What could you talk about for hours?
What makes you lose track of time?
What would you do if money was no object?
Still stumped? Here are a few the practical things you can do to find your passion:
Take assessments
Get additional training
Hire a coach
Read books
Do research
Engage in activities you find interesting and valuable.
While you're doing these things, actively look for clues to your life passion.
Once we identified and discussed what we were passionate about, became excited about the things we wanted to share with our kids. We caught a glimpse of what our family could become, which looked far better than survival mode.
Prefer the ease of listening to reading? No problem! Just click play to hear this episode of The Family Culture Project.