It Starts with Passion

Do What You Love and Love What You Do

Keith Abraham

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780730369479
• eBook ISBN: 9780730369486
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

Bring more energy to everything in your life.

It Starts with Passion will help you ignite the purpose in your life, as well as in the lives of your colleagues, employees, and associates. In-depth research, practical concepts, inspirational stories, and clear visual models will show you how to find out what's meaningful to you and pursue it with passion. For three decades, Keith Abraham has been helping people around the world to harnass their passion, achieve their goals and focus on what's most important to bring the best out of themselves and their business. It's time to embark on a life of certainty, clarity and confidence and It Starts with Passion. Originally published in 2013, this book has been reviewed and redesigned to become part of the Wiley Be Your Best series - aimed at helping readers acheive professional and personal success.

Part I
Meaningful: creating certainty in your life

CHAPTER 1
Find your way

It is not what or how or when or where that is important. What really matters is WHY you want to do something in your life or seek to achieve a goal. The premise of this book, the foundation for a great life, rests on this quote:

When the why becomes clear the how becomes easy!

When you are clear on why you want to do something, you will find how to do it or often, in some strange and mysterious way, the how will find you. You will meet a person who knows a person, or you will read an article that gives you an idea about how to achieve your goal.

The challenge is that most of us don’t start with the why; we start with WHAT we want — and all too often we stop at the what. We don’t progress any further or even go after a lot of whats. The challenge is that after some time our soul and spirit require that we pursue what is meaningful and what really matters to us.

WHY COMES AFTER WHAT.
THE WHAT IS WHAT YOU GO FOR
WHEN YOU ARE DISCOVERING YOUR WAY.

Think of it like this. When you were a kid leaving school or a young adult at university, everyone would ask you, ‘So what type of job do you want? What are you going to do now? What career are you going to pursue?’ Later in life, when you are employed or pursuing your own business, people keep on asking you what questions: ‘What project are you working on now? What is your target for the month? What do you want to achieve this year? What is your career goal?’

Rarely does anyone ask you why. My belief is that the whats that make up our lives result from our search for the why. Our whats are what we do when we are looking for our why. The challenge for most of us is that we stop at what because it is easy to measure — we don’t have to think about it as long as we do when trying to determine our why. So we get stuck at what, as it is easy to find in status, titles, material gains, financial milestones and comparisons with how well our friends and colleagues are doing. How is what we need to do to get to our why.

For each of us, the why represents our reasons, what’s important to us, our life’s purpose. It’s about what matters most to us — our core values that form the fabric of our being. The why, in part, is what we stand for and what we want to be known or famous for as we live a meaningful life.

WHY RELATES TO YOUR PASSION, PURPOSE,
REASON, DRIVERS, DESIRE, VISION,
BIG PICTURE & INTENTION.

Your why is that one thing that is wanting, and often waiting, to burst out of you. It is the passion that you have put off as everyday life has taken over and consumed you. It is what is in your heart, that voice telling you that this is the right thing to do both for you and for those around you, yet sometimes it is hard to determine as there is no logic to your thinking.

I am not saying you will achieve nothing if you are not clear on your why. You see, when you are focused so much on the what you will achieve a great deal, more than most people in your circle of friends, family and colleagues. But after a time you will wonder why you are doing it. You will experience a weird sense of unreasonable disenchantment. You know you have achieved and are still achieving, so why are you feeling so disillusioned, disengaged, disappointed or detached? You don’t have any right to feel that way! Compared with others you are doing so well, you really don’t have any logical reason to feel this way, and yet you do.

WHAT RELATES TO THE SPECIFIC GOAL, THE
CLEARLY DEFINED OBJECTIVE, THE DESIRED
TARGET & THE ACHIEVABLE MILESTONE.

Once again, deciding on your why is infinitely harder than determining what you want or how or when you are going to achieve it.

HOW RELATES TO MECHANISM METHOD,
STRATEGY, TACTICS, PROCESS, MILESTONES,
BLUEPRINT OR PLANS.

Why tends to depend on an emotion-based decision that reflects your true self, the essence of you as a person. What is logically based and is determined by your thought processes, past experiences and learning from those who have gone before you. How is about action, making progress, implementing ideas and being open to attaining rather than just thinking about the goal. When is the timeframe within which you desire to achieve the goal. Look at it this way …

Most people rarely cross the mental and physical divide that exists between what their goals are and why they really want them. Let’s face it, most people don’t set goals for the week, month or year, and now we are asking them to determine why they exist — their purpose — and the contribution they will make to those close to them, those who know them and those who may never know them but will benefit from their legacy.

WHEN RELATES TO THE TIMEFRAME YOU
SET FOR ACHIEVING IT.

It is not that people don’t want to discover their why; rather, either they don’t allow themselves the time to indulge in what is possible or life becomes too all-consuming to take time out to sit down and think about the big picture. The idea of doing this can be daunting and it is far easier to become busy being busy. And those few who are not sure where to start take the easy road of not doing it at all.

When I interview passionate people for my blog or listen to people from the stage, a common theme permeates their language: ‘I always wanted to … I knew I had to try … this one thought dominated my thinking since I was a kid …
I dreamt about it all the time. I always knew I would pursue this goal.’ Industry leaders, global leaders, great scientists, designers, inventors, innovators, artists, musicians, Nobel or Pulitzer prize-winners, or Olympic gold medallists are all very connected to their why and their reason.

Why is not just confined to individuals. Companies need a big why to engage, enthuse and energise their people and their customers. The companies and entrepreneurs that impress us are those that seem to have a big why, that noble purpose that connects us to their brand or product.

Businesses, like people, sometimes lose their way, though. Their noble purpose — their why — either becomes diluted or is disregarded, or people become disenchanted. At other times people and businesses achieve their why but have not taken the time to refocus on what comes next — what’s my why now?

So what is your why? Why were you put on this planet at this time? Why do you want to live a great, meaningful life, a life that is bigger than you, a bigger why than the one you have right now?

CHAPTER 2
Creating real wealth

For most people money is important. It gives them choices, options, and provides them with a certain type of lifestyle. I believe real wealth is a combination of three key...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Preface
• About the author
• Introduction:The four parts to creating a passionate life
• Part I Meaningful: creating certainty in your life
• Part II Milestones: creating clarity in your life
• Part III Mindset: gaining confidence in your life
• Part IV Momentum: living consistently in your life
• Conclusion Become theliving example
• Appendix Ideas—insights— information—inspiration
• Special thanks
• End User License Agreement