The Women in Medicine Badass Radioshow

Episode #12: Passions That Pay and Passions You Play

Show Notes:

Hello my WIMBAS. Welcome to another episode with me, Dr. Sharon Grossman. I’m so glad that you’re here because today I want to talk to you about passion. 

I am very fortunate to be passionate about my work as a coach and about other things in life, so I make sure to check the boxes of my passions and create a lifestyle that allows for both.

So today, we’re going to talk about what passion is, what you can do if you aren’t sure about your passion, and I have a personal challenge for you at the end.

As we begin, I like to first define what passion is to clear the weeds. Think of passion as something over which you feel a ton of enthusiasm. It can be toward an activity, a person, or a cause. 

Oprah Winfrey said, Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”  So when we focus on the things that we are enthusiastic about, we feel a surge of energy and this is your personal power. 

Sometimes people say, “I can’t find a passion or something I’m good at.” If that’s you, hear this: Passion is closer to interest than it is to talent or ability. If you don’t know what you want from life, you might be experiencing an identity crisis in which case you just need to spend more time getting to know yourself. Perhaps it’s your inner critic that gets in the way, always telling you can’t possibly pursue something because you’re no good at it or that you don’t deserve to feel happy and therefore keeps you from pursuing an area that you really are passionate about.

If you find that you don’t want to do anything, this doesn’t mean you’re not passionate. It just means you aren’t motivated. You might be depressed. To find out, see if there are any thoughts going through your mind that sound like “What’s the point?”

For those of you who are a bit disconnected from yourselves, sometimes you can find your passion simply by being with someone else. That’s when you start talking about things in your life and they can often recognize passion in you. I’ve had this happen to me on several occasions where I was talking about something I was passionate about and the person said to me, “I can see you’re all lit up about this!”

Also, recognize that passion doesn’t have to be an activity. It can be a form of engagement. Maybe you are passionate about deep conversations with a good friend. You might feel passionate about problem-solving when someone you care about is stuck, which gets your creative juices flowing. Maybe your passion is the end-result after cleaning or organizing your space. You feel passionate about creating organization out of chaos. 

In other words, passion can be anything, but the clearer you are about what gives you that jolt in life, the more intentional you can be about spending time doing that thing. 

And if you’re curious about how to find your inner self, I recommend you read The 7E Solution to Burnout, even though you aren’t necessarily burning out. That’s because I walk you through an entire section on getting acquainted with yourself and by building up your self-awareness, you’ll discover who you truly are.

I want to leave you with 2 quotes on the subject. The first is by comedian Wanda Sykes. She says: “If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.

The second is by the admirable Mark Twain who said, “Years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by things you did do.

And now it’s your turn. If you want to discover what your passion is, follow these 3 steps:

  1. Think back to your childhood and early adulthood and list everything you were passionate about then. Maybe you loved riding your bike or bouncing on a trampoline. Maybe you loved helping your mom cook or traveling abroad to foreign countries. It can be anything.
  2. Take a look at your list and see how you can combine your passions. Let’s say you loved writing and movies, perhaps you would enjoy reviewing movies for a blog. I actually know someone who is an author and loves movies. She now reviews movies for Netflix!
  3. Now consider the future and how you might incorporate this passion into your life. If it is something you can make money from, perhaps you can start a side gig. But you don’t have to monetize it. Give yourself permission to just enjoy it, maybe after work or on weekends or holidays. 

If you take this challenge on and discover something cool about yourself, please share it with me by leaving a comment on the podcast. And if you found anything I said valuable, please rate and review this episode and don’t forget to subscribe in your favorite podcast app. I’ll see you next week.

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