Through the winter season, we experience months of dark, cold, and rainy mornings. Even when we sit at the edge of spring, there are still forecasted downpours. It is during these seasons that many people feel the lull of winter and their passion for work and motivation for extracurricular activities wane. What do we do when we lose our passion and motivation for things we used to love, like work or hobbies?
It occurs to me that we often think that once we lose passion for something, that passion is gone forever. What once was, is no longer, and all we can do is move forward onto something else shiny and new. We live in a world with an immense amount of career turnover – how much of that do you think is caused by lost passion and motivation for work? Should we leave that lost passion as it is and continue to pick up new jobs and new passions just to drop them after a matter of months?
When we are lost in a perpetual cycle of gaining and losing passion for our roles, we lose all sense of gratitude, contentment, progress, and our passion becomes dependent on external forces. Contrary to popular belief, passion is not dependent on external factors, nor is it a feeling. Passion is a choice. It is a belief. It is a discipline and/or practice. The latin root definition of the word passion is “to suffer”. To be passionate about something is to suffer for it. This is not to mean that your passions should pain you, but that regardless of the pain you may endure in pursuit of your passion, you would continue to pursue it. Are you painfully pursuing a burning passion to do good work in your role at work?
Consider the Passion of the Christ–Jesus suffered and died on earth, not because he was excited about it, but because we are worth it and he was focused on an outcome bigger than himself and his feelings.
I want to intentionally make the point that this does not mean that you must stay in toxic situations that you need to remove yourself from. Suffering passionately for your work does not mean you or your mental health need to be a martyr on behalf of your role. But, in moments of doubt, frustration, and distaste for a job that you were once passionate about, you can push forth and re-ignite that lost passion because that passion is found within you.
Passion from within, which means that we do not have to uphaul the entire workplace or change careers, but we get to choose how we think about or frame our role at work. Passion is like a muscle that we can learn to use when we reset our mindset.
How can you reset your mindset today to reignite your lost passion for your role? What are you complaining about that you can recast and overcome?
The only thing standing between you and a reignited passion is yourself. Choose to reset your mindset today and dive head first into the burning fires of your re-found passion.