Secret to Success: Are You Passionate About It?

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Ernie the bunny eats his greens with passion. Do you live with passion? (Photo: peet-astn)

As you’re there, reading this now, begin­ning to wonder… let me ask you a ques­tion: are you passionate about what you’re doing right now? Reading this article right here, right now – are you passionate about it? Does learning about success and becoming a better person turn you on, or is it just some some brain snack to keep it occu­pied until the next bit of stimuli like a good consumer?

If the former, then this will be a nice exer­cise for some­thing you already have much of. If the later, then hope­fully this will be a wake-up call, so either way keep reading.

I was talking to a friend other day that I helped with a break­through session (some­what on the line of the new Tony Robbins show), and he told me about a very successful gentleman that was telling him about some of his “secrets to success”. He was saying how every year or so he would try on a new concept in life, and apply it to become a better person (sounds like my kind of guy already).

He said that there was one that stuck out above the rest in his life, the one concept that made the biggest impact in his love, busi­ness, and personal life… pretty much all areas. Something that when applied to every­thing he did, will mani­fest abun­dance in the kind of satis­fac­tion and happi­ness you’ve been looking for.

I’m sure one can guess by now… but before I tell you what he said, I want to tell you a story. This story is about a certain little rabbit named Ernie.

Now Ernie was a shy little bunny, about a modest 9lbs, with silky gray & brown fur that glis­tened under the moonlit sky. On this evening, Ernie found himself in a pecu­liar predica­ment; the sorts only a rabbit of Ernie’s curiosity was capable of. Not only was he lost in the rows and rows of carrots after a long day filled with adven­ture, but he was incred­ibly hungry. A pretty good problem to have in such a place one might say, but for this little bunny, he knew better – for his appetite was unique.

For he loved himself some good ‘ol fash­ioned cabbage, and carrots only satis­fied him momen­tarily. He wanted some­thing he loved to come back to this, day after day, week after week, that really gave him the nutri­ents that he couldn’t find in regular old carrots – even if they seemed pretty healthy and tasty.

So after exploring all the things ever further, after going down even more and more, row after row, passing by the pump­kins and carrots as he went down, all the things there were just… “meh”. But alas, he finally did stumble upon what we all had been yearning for…

The cabbage!

There it was, in all it’s dark green, leafy glory. Ernie was thrilled!

“WAIT!” a voice shut­tered, “You must deserve and truly desire this before having access!”

After an abrupt dash back­wards, Ernie coyishly looked up and saw Mr. Crow, flap­ping his way down to inter­cept him.

“Please?” Ernie said meek­ishly. “Pretty please?”

“Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids you must ask your­self why you even want this cabbage. I need to know you truly desire this before I can deter­mine your worthi­ness. Will you devour this food as if it’s the last on earth, as if the leaves them­selves aroused the core of your soul in such a way, that each hair on your silky fur coat beamed with excitement?”

“This is the way kings dine – a cele­bra­tion of life! While you many be no lion my little bunny friend” Mr. Crow said, “you can still be the king of your own feast, each and every glorious evening as this!”

With that, the crow vanished into the night as quickly as he appeared, leaving Ernie to his thoughts, as he over­looked an entire patch of the most glorious cabbage, without regard to any other bunnies only desire of carrots. He was left with wonder­ings about what this had to do with anything, but had a feeling Mr. Crow was onto some­thing regardless…

Some people go through life just doing things without thinking, while others waste waaay too much time on some­thing, deciding if it would really give them happi­ness. This is what made the idea my friend told me he learned so inter­esting. While the concept wasn’t new, the appli­ca­tion was. Not only that, but the extreme appli­ca­tion of it.

He said for every­thing he’d do, he’d ask himself a simple ques­tion: “am I passionate about this?”

If he was, he’d do it. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t. It was pretty much that simple. Now a lot of smart people do this already, on big deci­sions or activ­i­ties… but he knew to apply it to every­thing.

“Oh this watch is awesome! $2500… am I passionate about it? Yes. Okay, am I real­l­lyyy passionate about it? Yes.” Then he’d figure out a way to buy it.

“This band is epic, I want to see them live in concert. Am I passionate about this music? Yes!” Then he’d get tickets to the show.

“She’s really hot, but not really into watches and concerts like me. Am I passionate about her? Well she’s hot… Am I passionate about her? Not really.” Then he wouldn’t date her.

“This is a normal pen. Whoa THIS pen is awesome, it’s a foun­tain pen, look how fun it is to write with!”

“White Swiss chocolate-covered gourmet straw­ber­ries imported from France? Nice. Juicy red, fresh, organic straw­berry? Mmm, yes, those please!” It didn’t have to be fancier, some­times the simple ones had more raw passion.

You get the point.

Apply it to every­thing, try it out. Imagine a life where every­thing you owned, every­thing you did, excited you – brought you to life and gave you the kind of radiant passion that really satis­fied you. It doesn’t mean you have to buy Mont Blanc pens or expen­sive watches, if a plastic watch your dad gave you before he passed away has passion and value to it, by all means, of course.

Become this kind of person who cher­ishes and appre­ci­ates every­thing in his life: everyone he’s with, every­thing he owns, every­thing he does – and do it with passion! Besides making your life amazing, people will notice and they love to be around some­body that is actu­ally excited about life (which is unfor­tu­nately rare)… and how can you appre­ciate this and be excited about the big things, if you don’t even enjoy the pen you write with everyday?

Again, it’s not about the mate­rials or exclu­sivity – it’s about what­ever it is that you have or do, that genuinely excites you the most, and picking that one every time. I have a Moleskine note­book that I use to write down lots of stuff: the things I’ve healed, need to work on, and topic ideas for this site… and it’s the most awesome note­book ever! The atten­tion to details is great, and the crafts­man­ship is superb. As Seth Godin would say “it’s remarkable”.

Own things like this; things that some people would think you’re silly to get so worked up about – because the people that DO have passion, will know exactly where you’re coming from… and you want to attract more of those people into your life, don’t you?

Don’t just do passion, become passionate. Passionate people are remark­able because they are filled with life. Are you?