Crimes of Passion
There is nothing more motivating in this world than your passion. When I lie awake at night fantasizing, I realize that in those fantasies are the things that motivate me the most. They’re literally the stuff that dreams are made of. What you fantasize about can and should become your true internal motivation in life, your true passion.
For me, this passion is energy. The biggest rush I find in my life is that totally 
awake feeling I get in my brain when I’m doing something I absolutely love. It could be writing about a topic that’s just begging to bust a hole right out of me, or it could be figuring out how to write some basic HTML to get the blog or Squidoo lens looking just right. But when I’m working on something like that, I feel the energy level in my brain go to eleven.
For one thing, it reminds me how powerful the brain really is. Tiredness is a purely mental state of feeling – only true physical exhaustion means you have to sleep. Tiredness – that drained “blah” you feel that makes you want to close your eyes – is triggered by chemicals in your brain, not a physical need. What this means is that you can make it go away. You can turn your brain back on.
Sometimes it’s hard to see exactly what it is you need to do to jumpstart your mental process, but the answer always comes down to passion. Just imagine being tired. All of a sudden your husband, or wife, or lover comes home after a long business trip. They’re probably “tired” too, but we all know how that feeling will just evaporate when you get into a situation where your passions take control. What you don’t realize is that the level of mental arousal and stimulation you feel in that situation can be brought to your life as a whole.
All it takes is finding something you’re passionate about, and doing it. How do you think famous and successful people regularly wake up at 5:30? Run marathons? Have 18-hour days? Ignore jet lag? I’ll let you in on a secret. They’re not superhumans. There’s no “magic diet.” They have connected with their passions in life and pursue them at every opportunity.
And if you’re doing something that you’re not passionate about, you may not even know. 
You may say “I love my job. It has all these great benefits…” But stop. If you don’t wake up in the morning rearing to go to work – in fact, so excited about your work that you’d rather go to work than hit the snooze button for even five more minutes – then you’re not following your passion.
I realized this the moment I actually got out of bed to write. I had gone to bed “tired” and all of a sudden I had an idea I wanted to write about. Many times before I’d let the urge pass, thought “I’ll do it in the morning,” and proceeded to go to sleep. But this time was different. I decided to make a change, to use the surge of mental energy that an engaging thought process gives me, and write. Life hasn’t been the same since.
Now I am able to recognize when my passion is lit and when it’s not. I’m able to feel in my core whether or not I’m doing what I ought to be. Are you?
(Photo credit: RichSeattle, turbojoe, and gtove)
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