Learning from Power

I learned two important facts about myself last summer. I didn’t learn these insights on the road, but here at home.

1. I am very good at power washing a deck.
2. I am not good at staining a freshly power-washed deck.

At one point, I found myself standing in the middle of a large home improvement store believing they had teamed up with the local deck staining companies to fool me into thinking I could do it myself.  And after a failed attempt at restoring beauty to the deck, I would be forced to call the pros to come out and fix my work while stifling their laughter and charging double the normal rate. I’m pretty sure Pinterest is in cahoots with them too.

With my head clear of this conspiracy theory, I went back to work. My mind wandered with each brush stroke, “Why am I so thorough and particular about the cleaning process yet so sloppy when applying a new shine?”

Why can you zip through Excel spreadsheets yet struggle to craft a single sentence in Word? The answer isn’t overly complex. We do our best work when our passion is activated. Our accounting manager at work is passionate about numbers and can wiz her way around a spreadsheet like my sons catapult through every video game they play. Ask her to answer customer service calls for eight hours and she would willingly do so, but the results would be clunky, and she may leave the experience feeling drained.

We do our best work when our passion is activated.

Leadership experts regularly claim you should work in your area of passion. But what if you don’t feel passionate about anything? To realize our passions, we must be able to answer the following questions.

1. What types of tasks and people make me smile?
2. When do I feel like I’ve accomplished something significant?
3. In what environments do I find myself most prone to success?
4. When do I feel most alive?

If you currently feel like you’re haphazardly “staining your deck,” take time today to answer these three questions. With the answers in hand, identify the common thread that connects your answers. If you’re struggling with this exercise, elicit help from a close friend or mentor. Your community of care will most likely see a passion paradigm before you do. For instance, earlier this year a colleague casually mentioned seeing me “in my wheelhouse.” She noticed me performing in the middle of my passion paradigm.

Once you’ve identified the paradigm, it is time for activation.

1. Look for opportunities at work and at home which align with your passion paradigm.
2. Seek out a mentor already thriving within the passion paradigm who is willing to guide you toward success as well.
3. Develop yourself within the passion paradigm. Read relevant books and blogs. If possible, attend seminars to learn more about the life application of your passion.
4. Take action (even the smallest) within the paradigm. For instance, if you dream about scrapbooking professionally, create a handmade card for a friend or relative. You’ll be surprised by the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel and the momentum you will build.

Regardless of the steps you take toward activation, the important part is moving beyond the stagnancy that comes from living outside your passion. A stagnate pond grows algae, but flowing water can power cities. Activate and move today!

One more thing- I’ll gladly come power wash your deck this spring, but please hire professionals to stain it.

This post, written by Nathan A. Claycomb, first appeared on From Where I Sit on January 6, 2015.