Some wear their passion on their sleeves, some have theirs buried deep inside their bones.

Living life without knowing, harnessing and reaching one’s passion is like having sex without knowing, harnessing and reaching orgasm.

Passion is that extra thing that stays with you when everything else has gone. It is the skeleton that remains when the flesh, the veins, the organs have all returned to sand and dust. Passion is so central to our being that it is almost impossible to find fulfillment, purpose and self actualization in this life without first finding our passion. It is the very essence of our existence.

To find your passion, you must begin by asking yourself series of questions:

a. Who do you admire most and why?
b. All things being equal, what will you rather do with your life?
c. If you have the magic wand, what will you turn yourself into?
d. What will you gladly do without payment or even receiving thanks?
e. If nobody is looking, what will you spend the rest of your life pursuing?
f. If money is not a factor, where will you be and what will you be doing?
g. In the western society, the greatest tribute to the dead goes like this: He died doing what he loves – what is that thing that you want to be doing when you die?
h. What do you want your legacy to be?

In finding answers to these questions, you will begin to unveil the locked up passion in you. Chances are that it is in the person you admire most; the thing you rather be doing; the thing you did rather be; the path you rather follow if all things were to be equal- if money was not an issue, if nobody was looking. Most certainly, it can be found in the thing you want to be doing when you die. It is absolutely in that thing you want as a legacy.

Passion is fire. It can build. It can destroy. It can also be harnessed for good deeds. Doing anything without passion is like cooking without fire. Allowing passion to burn without control has the potential to destroy even the very structure that housed it.

One of the favorite saying about passion is this one by Kathie Lee Gilford. It says: “As a young girl, my father advised me to find something I love to do and then get someone to pay me for doing it. My father was lucky that I got a job before I discovered sex.”

Passion is that edgy.

Passion can come in small packages and in big packages. Some who only look for passion in big package often miss their passion which may lie in small packages. There are no menial passions only menial attitudes to passion.

There is fulfillment in every sphere of human endeavor. An accomplished chef, an accomplished diplomat, an accomplished human right activist, an accomplished taxi driver, an accomplished athlete, an accomplished musician, an accomplished pastor, an accomplished teacher, all are at the same spot on the passion index, even though their exact station in life may be different.

Everyone is needed and no one is needed more. It has been said that graveyards are full of people once thought to be indispensable.

If literature, movies, and folklore are our guide, they have all documented with great fanfare the accomplishment of folks in different spheres of life. What made the stories moving and enduring is the passion these characters brought to their lives and their particular endeavors.

It has been said that if we do not want to be forgotten as soon as we die and rot, we either do something worth writing about or write something worth reading. What makes something worth writing about or worth reading is the passion we bring into it.

What made Pretty Woman a prostitute that was endearing to viewers was the passion she brought to her work. It was the only thing that saved her from being an ordinary prostitute whom history would not have remembered. What made Hakeem in Coming to America endearing to viewers was the passion he brought to his search for independence. It was the only thing that saved him from being an ordinary spoilt prince whom history would not have remembered.

It has been said that the history of the world is nothing but the biography of great men - and women. What separates the great ones from the ordinary is the passion they brought to their lives.

You can make yours one of such if you go for passion. It is the gold of human adventures. Make yours a passion filled life.