PASSION WILL ALWAYS ALLOW YOU TO GO THE EXTRA MILE
Beating a competitor, speaking in public, trying to take care of thirty items on your to-do list in a single day, coaching your child’s football team to win against all odds – all these things make you feel charged up.
It’s a temporary high that keeps you ‘pumped up’ and raring to go, but often leaves you empty and exhausted when the ‘rush’ dies down.
On the other hand, starting something from the ground up, losing track of time in abandon of a project, stretching beyond what you feel capable of in the name of a good cause – these efforts can tire you as well, but here the exhaustion is more likely to resemble the satisfying weariness you experience after a long hike in the great outdoors.
Of the two paragraphs above, the first describes activities fuelled by adrenaline; the second, activities fuelled by passion.
The key to distinguishing passion from adrenaline lies in understanding its source.
Remember, we are memorising feelings in order to hear the body’s wisdom more clearly and act on what we feel.
What does boundless enthusiasm feel like?
What does an adrenaline rush feel like?
Which one is more sustainable?
Passion. An adrenaline rush lets you down hard and you need to muster another rush to sustain it.
Watching the ebb and flow of your energy will help distinguish between the two.
Adrenaline excites us – excitement makes us feel good – so we stick with it.
But when it comes down to relying on your body for wisdom clues, adrenaline will fool you every time. It causes you to feel such a rush that you could misinterpret it at any time.
Adrenaline lies.
It’s a high that makes you feel bigger and more capable than you really are.
When you make decisions under the influence of an adrenaline rush, you are doing so based on short-lived feelings that could leave you frustrated down the road.
Caught up in the hormonal charge, you may over extend yourself, promise more than you can deliver, or say “yes” when you really mean to say “no”.
We talked earlier about the way adrenaline can wear down our system and how its insidious nature makes it hard to decipher.
It feels like passion and excitement, but it isn’t.
I’ve shared my story.
Now let me share another LYBL story of someone who started off as a mentor to me then became a client.
This is Donna’s Story: Living On An Adrenaline High
Donnas has been a mentor to me and is someone I have long admired.
She is someone who thrives on helping others. People seek her counsel or ask for her help on projects because she is known for possessing deep wisdom and insight, as well as for having the patience of a saint.
Donna came to me for coaching after battling breast cancer (having already battled thyroid cancer).
Although our main adgenda was to build her small business, Donna’s health was frequently addressed. She was often exhausted, but was unable to see how paying attention to the needs of others debilitated her.
In fact, DOnna thought helping others propped her up. When she felt needed, her adrenaline kicked in and she would go on a high, spreading the fairy dust of her good will and saving the day whenever she could.
Through our coaching, Donna began to see she could be just as helpful to others without depleting her own energy. She learned that if she wanted to say no, she could. She realised that she was not ultimately responsible for everyone who wanted her help and that by saying no, she might actually end up being more helpful to these people in the long run by forcing them to help themselves.
As hard as it was, Donna admitted to needing the high she got from being needed.
She started to feel the difference between experiencing an adrenaline rush and a true desire to help someone else.
She re-evaluated the priorities in her life, seperating adrenaline from genuine passion.
Yes, some people were dissapointed when their ‘saviour’ wasn’t readily available. But to this day, Donna remains cancer-free. She attributes this to learning how to say “no” to over promising, needing to be needed and adrenaline rushes.
