Find Your Passion

An easy ritual to help you find your passion by following your curiosity.

 

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I have a secret. It feels delicious, like a lover in a closet or a message from an anonymous admirer. It would probably be much more interesting to you if it were as scandalous as either. It’s not, but it’s no less vitalizing to me.

On New Year’s Eve, I chose this one thing. I blindly pulled a small rectangular white paper out of a coffee cup with three words on it.

Ten days before, I’d written ten things I was interested in exploring on a piece of paper. Then, I cut them up into individual strips. Ten desires would make up the ten days leading up to New Year’s Eve.

Each day, I would scramble up the strips and choose one to burn. On the last day, I would be left with only one. The desire I was left with would be what I would commit to for the rest of the year. As they say, “Let go and let the Goddess”.

Once I unfolded the last paper, I realized it was the most impractical of the ten original desires. At least part of me was actively trying not to choose this one. It made absolutely no sense, as it was something I had no previous knowledge or experience in and it did not serve any practical function in my life.

The Puzzle of Desire

That’s the whole thing with desire, though, isn’t it? If we think about it in a strictly romantic way, how many of our previous or current partners made absolutely no sense? The liaison always starts with curiosity. Then, an urge. And all of a sudden you find yourself dreaming about what it would be like to hold their hand (or smoosh their face in a deserted stairwell).

When I look back at the beginning of my yoga journey, it’s how I ended up here today – having a personal practice I can turn to on the good days and the not-so-great. For years, I didn’t have a clear path set out in front of me and initially, I had no intention of teaching.

As archetypal mastermind Joseph Campbell once said, “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”

Who will you be in a year from now?

I chose yoga fifteen years ago in a similar way that I’d chosen this year’s focus. I’d also committed to yoga for a full year. One year turned into a full-on fifteen-year affair. As I step onto this new twist in the road, I’m comforted knowing that whatever happens at the end of this year, I will gain something valuable.

In the meantime, this new thing has brought me unexpected peace and renewed patience each day. I have something to look forward to that is just for me and serves nothing and no one but myself (at least for now).

Which is why I’m not ready to share what it is yet. In this day in age, so much of our lives is up for public consumption and comment. It feels sacred to keep this under wraps.

One of the unintended benefits is also the opportunity to step into expanded time. When we engage in an activity that has a remote expiration date, we free ourselves from our culture’s need for immediacy as a requirement for everything we do.

Committing to our curiosity with the earnestness of a marriage vow is a gift to our Soul. I hope you’ll take the journey.

The Ritual

How to find this year’s curiosity.

-On a sheet of paper, write ten things you’re curious about. Let them be things you’d like to do or learn that have no connection to your work or potential future work.

-Cut them into ten rectangles and fold them so you can no longer see what is written on them and place them in a mug or small bowl.

-Each day for nine days, choose one paper and burn it without seeing what was written on it.* If you don’t have a safe way to burn paper, you may bury it or discard it in another creative way.

-When you are left with only one paper, unfold the paper to learn what the universe has chosen for you. Commit to the desire for one calendar year.

*Always practice fire safety

If you choose to tell others, only choose folks you are sure will support your year-long experiment.

Most importantly, engage with a heart of curiosity.

Then, come back here and tell me all about it.