 |
 |
Keeping Your Lizard Leapin’
Last week I was speaking at a Habitat for Humanity conference and was struck by the passion and commitment to helping the less fortunate. Many people I meet in the corporate world have mixed feelings about their jobs, from passionate and committed to counting the thousands of days to retirement. What I discovered, though, is passion does not make us immune to getting boiled. Many of the attendees at the conference are feeling pressure of the economy, challenges and disappointments.
This report is to those of you who are gifted with passion for what you do. My call to you is know how lucky you are and know that passion is vulnerable to getting boiled and needs your protection.
Every organization has that person or people that roam the halls mumbling, “That’ll never work, they can’t do that, that won’t happen, no one will ever let you do that, that’s never been done, it’ll never work. . .“ I cannot believe these folks graduated from college, tossed their cap in the air yelling, “I want to be the downer of my organization!” It happened gradually.
In the boiled frog analogy, the pot is the circumstances we have no control over, the frog is our passion and the water is how we are thinking. If we aren’t paying attention, frustrations, surprises, annoyances, disappointments can cause us to let the temperature of how we are thinking rise one degree at a time, ending up like our friend the downer. Here’s the thing: passion can get boiled just like the frog in the pot, it can die.
This happened to me in my career as a dancer and choreographer, one rejection for a grant, one disappointing attendance at a concert; uncommitted fellow dancers etc. boiled a love for creating dance. I still love an Alvin Ailey concert, but have no desire to take a class.
If you are passionate, excited and committed to the meaning of your work. . . Protect your Frog! Take care of it! Treat it as if its sacred! Keep your lizard leaping! The best way to protect your passion is to monitor how you are choosing to think in response to situations you can’t control.
If you feel privileged to do work you find meaningful, show you appreciate that gift by keeping your lizard leaping:
- Stay Alert by Regularly Taking Your Temperature: make a decision to watch how you are responding to disappointments and recommit to looking at the bright side.
- Maintain an Open Mind: Catch yourself dismissing a new idea just because you’ve never considered it before or have never seen it done.
- Be Grateful for What is Going Well: Once a week reflect on the successes, the support you get from others, the encouraging words and feel a sense of gratification.
- Take Pride in Your Contribution: Enjoy the sheer experience of doing what you do well.
- Have Something to Look Forward to: Plan special events, milestones, friendly competitions, sweepstakes, off sites etc. for you and others to look forward to.
- Take Baby Steps: What is one thing you can do today to give your passion frog a lift? What is one thing you can do today to spread a sense of enthusiasm for the work you and others are doing?
There are so many people looking for something to care about, to feel passionate about and many never find that one thing. You are one of the lucky ones. You may not find that sense of passion again, so isn’t worth making sacred and protecting?
Sharon Hoyle Weber
Phone: 781-424-0442
Email: sharon@hotinthepot.com
Cohasset, Massachusetts USA
http://www.hotinthepot.com