Why am I not passionate about anything? Nothing seems to really excite me. Nothing seems to really motivate me. The good news is that your passions will find you. The bad news is that you have to get off your butt…
To be honest I detest this question. Why am I not passionate about anything? Is one of the most disempowering questions you can ask of yourself.
It assumes that you are not passionate about anything. The words we use and the language we choose has an immense impact on our minds and how we process our lives.
If you simply change this question to “what Am I passionate about” you will have a vastly different emotional state.
‘Why am I not passionate about anything’? has no answer. It is what experts call an open-ended question and the answer will never be an empowering one.
Finding out why you are not passionate about anything might give you some insights and understandings but it still won’t really help you.
What you really want is to find our passions in life. In reality you don’t even have to find. You simply have to connect with it.
Everybody is passionate about something. In fact, most people have many passions. It is as much part of you as a human being as having eyes and a brain is.
You can comfortably set aside any beliefs you may have that you are not passionate about anything. All that is missing is your awareness of what you are passionate about.
To start on this journey you will need to start by removing the language and the idea that you are not passionate about anything. For now, replace this question with a new question: What am I passionate about?
When you keep asking that question of your mind it will start coming up with answers. Pay attention to these answers and slowly but surely you will start to connect with that which you are passionate about in life.
What Is Passion Anyway?
Passion is nothing more than an emotion. It is a strong inner sense of enthusiasm or desire for something.
We often see creative people like musicians and artists who have a passion for what they do. We see sports people who have a passion for their sport. We see activists who have a passion for their cause.
All these people respond to their passion not out of obligation but because of a strong inner desire that needs no external motivation.
Your passions are always a result of strong intrinsic motivation. Nobody can coerce you into being passionate about anything. They can inspire you to find the passion within yourself but ultimately you, and only you, can find and recognize your own passions.
What most people have trouble with is this:
You don’t have to find what you love. What you love finds you.
You don’t have to go out looking for the things you ove. It is simply built-in at birth and what you are passionate about is part of your being.
So, why then do most younger people today have trouble connecting with their passion?
The biggest problem today is that we are numbed by distractions.
Numbed by Distractions
The French philosopher Blaise Pascal said that all of humanity’s troubles stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
We live in a world that is dominated by distractions. The average 24 year old now spends 3 hours a day just on social media and 2 hours per day on Netflix.
We are so distracted that we never spend time with the most important person in your life: your Self.
Having time by yourself without any distractions forces you to look inside. Having time to reflect on life to really connect with yourself and your own life path is critically important if you want to connect with your passions in life.
What these modern distractions do is to keep your focus on other people. It acts like a drug that numbs you to the pain and even the desires that you feel burning inside you.
Until and unless you turn your attention inwards, you will never connect with your passion in life.
Finding your Passion In Life
People who are depressed have no compelling future. They feel like there is nothing worth living for. They question the purpose of life and life seems like a mundane ritual.
People who are passionate about life, wake up excited. They have a compelling future and they can not wait to start the day and work towards that future.
They usually have numerous things in their life that excites them; that drives them and that they can not live without.
They live with passion. Not because they are lucky to be born like that, but because they connected with that which brings them joy. Passion is infectious and it permeates every aspect of your life.
Since we all have this passion inside us and we simply have to connect with it, here are some exercises to help you connect with your own passions.
The Detox
If you are spending your life distracted by social media, Netflix or any other entertainment that numbs you, then you need a detox.
I challenge you to limit yourself to 30 minutes of social media a day. You need to stop having your focus on other people and turn your focus inwards.
As you detox from these distractions I would strongl;y encourage you to start a daily meditation practice. Just 10 to 30 minutes a day of sitting quietly by yourself and listening to your inner Self.
The Sniff Test
The Sniff Test is great way to find out what you really love in life. Here’s the test: If you won 50 million dollars today, what would you do with your life.
Initially you may think of all the things and stuff you will buy but once you get beyond that you can really start to gain some clarity.
If you have 50 million, what will you do with your life in 1 year from now? What will you do with your life on 5 years, 10 years or 20 years from now?
When you think long term and money is no objective you can start connecting to the things that are important to you in your life.
Most of the times when we think about what we will do with our lives we filter it through the idea of making money or having a career. This never passes the sniff test.
You have to move beyond the money and find the purpose and the passion.
The Rear-view Mirror
Hindsight can be a great teacher. As we grow older we tend to lose touch with the things we love. When we start shifting our focus to carers and “making a living” our thinking can be very distorted.
To find what you are passionate about you sometimes need to look back at your life – often way back.
When you were really young (some of your oldest memories), how did you spend your days?
When you were a teenager, how did you append your days? What were you drawn to naturally?
Looking back at a time in your life where you did not have to worry about making a living you tend to see clear patterns emerge of what you truly loved and what you where truly drawn to.
These are often great clues of what you are passionate about.
The Bookshop
If you walk into a bookshop and you know you are going to be stuck there for 1 hour, where would you go?
What section of the bookshop are you naturally drawn to and which books or magazines would you happily page through for an hour?
If you are not sure, go to a bookshop and spend an hour there. See what you are drawn to.
This usually is a very clear indication of the things you love and have a passion for.
The Best Friend
One really strange thing about being a human being is that we are often oblivious to the most obvious characteristics about ourselves.
Everybody else sees it and knows it, but you don’t.
If you have really close friends or family that know you intimately you can ask them what they think you are great at.
Most of the time they will tell you without missing a beat.
You can also think back to some childhood nicknames that you may have had. Oftentimes they are really accurate in pointing out some of your characteristics.
Everybody called me professor when I was a child. This is because I always “knew everything” and I was always learning and reading – trying to understand how everything works.
Remembering that nickname was really revealing to me and helped me understand and clarify my passion for trying to understand and figure out the metaphysical world.
The Three Things
Our passion is not just about things that we love to do. It is often closely related to issues that really resonate with you at a deep level.
If there are 3 things that you can change about the world, what would it be?
When you really think about the things that really p!ss you off and the things that you feel are massive injustices to humanity or the planet then you often awaken a passion inside you.
If you go one step further and ask yourself WHY you want to change these things you start connecting the dots and see what is most important to your in life.
The Hero
Who are your heroes? Who are the people you admire? We often admire others because we recognize in them some aspect that we strive for or that resonates with us at the highest level.
Its not always the most obvious association to our heroes that reveal our passions. You may admire a famous musician not because they make great music but because they are a champion for social justice.
Pay very close attention in those moments when you see someone who inspires you. When you feel the emotions stir up inside you recognize that something in that other person’s actions reflect some of your innermost ambitions.
This can hold some great clues in your own quest to connect with that which inspires you.
How to Let Your Passion Find You
If you spend your days playing Fortnight, binge watching Netflix and rarely leave the house then your passion is not going to come knocking on your door.
You have to live your life. You have to experience life.
Your passions want to be found.
The easiest way to let your passions find you is to get your head out of your own life. Find a way to be of service to others.
When you do something selfless you automatically relieve your ego of its duties.
Find a way to volunteer your time in service of others. It may not directly reveal your passions to you but indirectly it will start to open your heart and mind.
Why Am I Not Passionate About Anything – Conclusion
Pondering the question “why am I not passionate about anything?” is a really debilitating exercise in and of itself. Start by changing this question to something more empowering like “what Am I passionate about?”
Changing this question will start steering your mind to find the things you are passionate about and you WILL be shown what you are passionate about.
We all have a passion for something. One of the first and most important steps to reconnect with our passions is to unplug from the modern drug called distraction.
Make time for yourself. Make time to be by yourself and to go within through meditation or reflection.
This will help you to become aware of what you are passionate about. It is in the stillness where you can really hear that still small voice inside that is the real you; your higher Self.
By finding ways to serve others and to give selflessly of your time and your energy allows you to silence your ego. This can be incredibly valuable to help you reconnect with what you feel passionate about.
If you’re great at only one thing, make it everything.
– Roger Federer
Having something that you are passionate about permeates all areas of your life. Find just one thing and let that grow and shine in your life. As that one thing grows, passion will become something that you bring to everything you do.
Life is worth living. It was always meant to be a joyous experience of self discovery – not a struggle, a bore or a process of surviving.
Live with passion!
