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Alden Tan is a blogger that makes his way to Kingpin Lifestyle all the way from Signapore. Alden Tan is a passionate BBoy and he started his own blog with the intention of spreading the word: life can be easy. Life can be enjoyable. Life can be lived with good emotions. Alden Tan’s blog is all about spreading the word of passion with uncensored, real talk on how to make your life better. Check out Alden Tan’s blog here. In the meantime… enjoy his first post on Kingpin Lifestyle.
Today we are going to talk about a simple yet powerful topic called Passion. This is an extremely important aspect of life that is most often swept under the rug by most people, and that of course is really sad because not many know of the art of passion and how it can actually bring you a long way in life.
Strong, powerful words bordering on metaphysical stuff? Indeed. Passion is on a whole new level. Read on to see why passion, when sparked in the individual can make a huge difference in his or her life and why passion isn’t just about doing what you love or dabbling in something you think is fun and cool.
Definition of Passion
“Any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate”
-Dictionary.com
That’s the straight-up meaning of it, should you flip open a book for it. But go ahead and ask anyone who has a real passion in life.
If you ask me, it goes something like this:
“Passion is that very thing in your body and soul that can take over within seconds. It burns with a fire so strong that you know it’s ‘right’”
It ain’t just something you love…
When people think of passion they are mostly like, “Oh just something I really love doing”.
Take it a little deeper.
With passion, there is feeling. With feeling, there are your senses being erupted. Passion allows you to actually follow your heart and when you go along with it, everything just feels right.
All the clichés in the world, Follow your Heart, Chase your dreams, Pursue your Passion, Do what you Love, Never Give Up, all stem from one thing, and that of course is passion.
Things will never go wrong.
It’s my personal belief that good things will automatically manifest in your life as long as you stay true to yourself and do what you love.
Maybe you think that’s hard to believe. After all, the world is a tough place where people are constantly competing against each other and also, you got to live up to societal expectations and all that.
Well, call it the law of attraction, having a good aura, creating good positive vibrations, karma or some deity making you feel blessed. Call it whatever you want! But you definitely cannot go wrong with this: It’s a damn good feeling.
When there is passion, it feels good. It gives you that major sense of belonging and ultimately, an identity. Passion is what burns inside of you that makes everything in life feel right. The world may be a crazy place for us to live in, but what makes us unique and special in this constantly-moving world is our feelings. NOTHING, and I mean nothing or anyone else on this planet can dictate that for you and take that away from you.
So, instil some passion inside of you, get some good feelings, have some fun, and just live happily.
The beauty of it all? It doesn’t matter what your passion is. Your favourite thing to do could be sitting at home playing Skyrim non-stop or heading out to do volunteer work. The difference ultimately come together and achieves the same thing in that person, which is feeling right; feeling totally awesome about it.
Because life isn’t that bad.
More clichés now: Life is unfair, it’s a Dog Eat Dog world out there, You Snooze You Lose, Survival of the Fittest, Good guys finish last. The list can go on!
Passion can trump all of that (I love how this works)
With all that I have written above, you can easily see how passion makes you feel good. Find your passion, go with it, fall in love with it and just feel totally awesome about life.
Passion (to be more dramatic about it) actually gives you hope in life.
Get some passion in you and you indulge in your whole being on a new level that is unique to you. With this special feeling, things will go right. Why?
Because life isn’t that bad.
Hell, if you can tell yourself that, you are pretty much right track in having passion; in life.
Life is Short.
For real.
Life is simply too short to be doing things you don’t even feel like doing. It’s a sad fact in life that people are caught in the “matrix” where they are bounded by rules of society and others’ expectations. Many hence, fail to follow their passion or worse, don’t even get to find theirs’. It’s an even sadder fact in life people don’t get to live their own life, thanks to diseases, bad people and stuff.
It’s all real. So why wait? Get your passion now, and start feeling good.
Having trouble finding your passion?
I wrote a guide here. In short, it goes a little something like this:
Step 1) Ask yourself what do you think you are good at.
Step 2) Ask yourself what makes you excited.
Step 3) Find out what makes you feel like you belong to something else.
Step 4) Try out all sorts of different stuff.
Start now. Don’t delay. It will be worth it.
Great article Alden. 🙂
Agreeed. Money in the bank!
Love your style of writing Alden, and your article really reinforces many of the ideas I hold about passion as well!
Hey Homie great post.
Thanks guys!
I love the idea of passion and meeting people who are passionate in life, whatever aspect of it. When there’s passion, there’s love. WIth love, everything’s just super awesome 🙂
Mike Shark: Cool! How do you feel about passion mostly?
Awesome post Alden, still searching for my own passion, but sooner or later I will find it.
Thanks for the additional inspiration you’ve provided, besides the one I already gained here on kingpin lifestyle (:
Alden, that is a very interesting question.
I think that describing how I feel about passion would definitely negate some aspect and trivialize others, so I will discuss what it does for me in the hopes that you may understand the emotion embedded within each word.
For myself, two of my principle dogmas are purpose and passion. Passion without purpose is a prairie wildfire, powerful, but destructive. Yet purpose without passion is a mission or journey wrought with apathy and lethargy, doomed to fail from the beginning (if it begins at all).
I live passion as my fire that I harness to give me energy towards my activities, and each individual activity is the fuel for that fire. I have been competitively swimming for 12 years, and without a doubt it is one of my greatest passions in life. My own journey of improving and understanding how unlimited I can truly become has taught me so many lessons, and without a doubt swimming is one of my most treasured relationships. However, from my experiences during my 12 years of competition, I have found that at least 95% of all athletes at an elite level within the Canadian swimming
Don’t
give
a
fuck
Considering swimmers will typically spend 20 hours per week physically training, with a total of 35-40 hours a week if additional recovery time is included (6 hours of sleep a night doesn’t really cut it : /), that is a lot of not giving a fuck. The majority of swimmers sleepwalks in a cold an unfeeling circuit of training and performance…having supplanted desire and growth with apathy and complacency. No one questions their environment, their relationship with their swimming, if their training regimen is right for them, or even why they are doing it. When asked about why these people even swim, their answers usually fall somewhere between the range of “I don’t know…its just something I do” or “It’s hard to think about it when you have to wake up at 5 am every morning.” And as a result, their lives suffer. The symptomatic affliction of their lack of passion in swimming spreads to other areas of their lives, quickly stagnating and causing any other plethora of negative emotions one might experience.
However.
There are the few that work with passion in their relationship with swimming. They continue to improve in swimming, academia, family, etc. and they are a genuine joy to be around. Unbounded enthusiasm flows from these individuals, and it can be felt within even a great proximity just from they way they bring up their environment with their unique energy. In their personal lives, these people have blooming interests and curiosities which drive them to learn and grow. They constantly explore different areas of what is possible within the realm of their own lives, and the fruits of this pursuit are founded in their rounded and holistic development as individuals. These are the people that have profound impacts on other’s lives, and leave a mark upon your memory that are not to be soon forgotten.
Alden, I don’t know if I answered your question, but hopefully the juxtaposition allows you to see one facet of my view on passion.
Mike,
Very interesting and passionate answer indeed!
I know where you are coming from when you talked about purpose and passion.
If I were to put it in my own words, it would be called having balance in life. Balance in life is also EXTREMELY important. Like, it allows you to be real, take a step back and also re-analyze from time to time why you do what you do. Balance isn’t just for your heart and mind, but face it, with society’s expectations, reality sets in ALL THE TIME and you got to play by the rules outside too.
I think balance also complements to the simple truth in life: Too much of anything is never good.
I really believe in that. Even for whatever passion one might have, following it everyday, every second just can’t work it! I love Bboying, but I don’t practice everyday else I will feel burn out. I love writing and blogging, but I don’t do it everyday. I love partying, but I can’t drink everyday! (I actually tried that for a week once and I felt like my body was dying).
I love how you described people with passion and how they are a joy to be around. They inspire me! Since young, I always wondered how the class clown in school got to be the way they are. Being that passionate person now, I kind of understand now.
Peace
Awesome discussion guys. 🙂
Of course Alden!
I actually found my (virtually identical) belief within my study and understanding of sciences. It was there that I made my own observation that nothing in the world is ever black or white…and when organisms do decide to pursue that absolutism they not only don’t achieve it, they sacrifice great amounts of their lives for that negligible potentiation. Balance is an absolutely vital and crucial component to life, there is no doubt.
However, I would ask you the following question.
Have you ever thought about the application of balance to the concept of balance?
Alden! I love how much of a discussion you’re getting going on our comments! You’re welcome to guest post again on a topic if you’re passionate about it 🙂 We welcome your content.
Mike Shark! How do you balance balance? Kind of like the question how do you feel feelings. There’s not really an exact definition for the application of the concept… you do the best you can based on the definition of balance.
Hey Mike,
Whoa this is getting deep!
I honestly never thought about having balance to balance. I always felt once you sort of know you have achieved balance in your life, it is perfectly proportioned. Should you even need to think about having balance to balance, then well I guess there’s no balance in the first place no?
Me being me, in order to check if you are actually balanced, just see if it makes you feel good. If yes, go for it!
Thanks Brian! I definitely will!
Get ready for the word balance, many times.
Brian,
I think balancing balance it is a much different question than how do you feel feelings, although it may be similar in creative syntax.
Balancing balance by not always being balanced is important because even balance itself needs to be taken in moderation. There are times where you have to go harder with some areas of your life more than others, and these will require you “throw off your balance” in favour of potentiation or optimization of one’s lifestyle.
Take my school for example.
During the year, I strike a “balance” by studying about 3 hours every day without exception. This works really well for me, and it is a level I can maintain without burning out. However, when exams roll around, it would be foolish to not optimize myself and my lifestyle for better performance and results, *even if this lifestyle is not balanced and NOT sustainable, this potentiation is crucial for maximizing my marks and therefore my success.* These periods of great work or sometimes stress can and will exist in any area or aspect of one’s life, and to be “balanced all the time” suggests a loss of meaning of the lifestyle merely by the implicit lack of juxtaposition with periods of great stress or disequilibrium.
I think that what is important is that these periods of balance and unbalance are both respected in their due time, and that balance is returned to after periods of unbalance. As a normative statement regarding general society, the focus *should* be on balance, but the next level up is to respect that balance and be able to deviate to go hard in certain areas of your life that maybe aren’t sustainable but are without a doubt necessary.
Awesome discussion!
Mr Shark, Alden, I love the insight and depth you’re bringing to the table. I would simply like to leave my perspective. Perhaps in addition or simplification of the things that you guys are saying because I believe you’re right on the money!
When I hear the phrase balancing balance I tend to get a bit confused. I think to simplify this we could just call this re-balancing. This is what I believe balancing balance to be. I think that many people are after the “Balanced life”, without actually thinking of what balance actually is, or how you achieve it, or the benefits to imbalance. Another important factor to consider in all this re-balancing is that just because something is the “norm” doesn’t mean it’s balanced. I believe balance varies based on each and every individual.
Rather then thinking of re-balancing in moderation I prefer to use the perspective of re-balancing with direction. There needs to be purpose with your re-balancing. If you’re looking to push yourself, get better grades, learn a new dance move, etc. you may be forced to throw yourself out of balance. Working out and developing your muscles, as an example, is creating imbalances in your body. Your muscles will grow and stretch past what they find to be in balance and will ultimately re-balance to best suit the weight or movement you’re trying to push. With dancing, a very similar approach exists. Sometimes you need to learn how to fall before you can actually learn to land. Just like in some cases you need to experience imbalance before you can experience balance. To be in control of the direction and what you get out of it is very important. Knowing your limits is just as important.
I’d love to hear what you guys think about my perspective and/or other areas that require some serious direction when re-balancing! I feel like this is an art and we all have a lot to learn!
Kevin,
I really like (and even have started adopting) your concept of rebalancing in the direction you wish to see your life progress/grow (I prefer directional rebalancing as term of choice, but credit goes to you for inspiration :)). I think that your way of putting it allows the concept to be more easily understood and its application more readily implemented. That being said though, we are absolutely on the same page when it comes to the content and our views upon the subject of re-balancing. So, I guess a logical next step is:
How do we know the steps to take to rebalance ourselves past our current limits, or in any area we wish to grow where we might not have experience from others to build off of?
I will be honest here. I am kind of lost because this discussion is getting really deep!
Not that I am dismissing your arguments or ideas, but like I mentioned before, I bring it back to the point of feeling. Whatever it is in life, if you feel for it, go for it.
I guess that’s just for me on a personal level, cause I tend to NOT want to think so much about things otherwise I fall into inaction. NOT taking action is the blight among all of us.
I hope that doesn’t stray too much from the main topic, which is passion!
Love this, and I fully agree.
1 of Ryze’s main messages:
“Luxury + good-karma go hand-in-hand” totally mirrors this.
Follow your passion and a wealthy, easy, luxury life is on it’s way.
The only question is, when do you wanna get started? After years of wasting away in a cubicle or doing something else you dont enjoy — or now?
Jason,
I agree. The answer is always now. People look for the easy way out of the work that must be done but the answer is always now.