Finding your passion... is it even possible?

Hi there! I’m so glad to be in touch with you again. Do you feel unfulfilled because you lack having a clear passion to follow in your life?

I understand that feeling and as someone who has been on both sides of the fence: finding my passion and fulfilling it, to figuring it out “what’s next” after it was fulfilled, I feel that I walked a wide spectrum and I can share some thoughts.

When I was 26 years old, I was living in Hawaii, happily married, running a management business and surfing every day. It was a great life. Yet, something within me kept pressing for “more”. There was a running desire that kept telling me: “You need to live your dreams and your time is now!”

In a sense, my passion found me, because it was so in my face constantly, almost as an obsessive thought, reminding me that I wanted to manifest it.

The problem was, that the dream that I wanted to manifest seemed pretty impossible.

For a few years, I didn’t allow myself to dream about it nor talk about it to others.

My passion was to surf big waves and I wanted to become a professional big-wave surfer.

At that time there wasn’t even a niche in the surfing industry for women to make a living doing that, and even worse, I wasn’t the best of surfers out there: I only started surfing five years prior at the age of 21.

It was only when I confessed to one of my best friends what I wanted to do, that she said:

“I’m having chills! You should do that!”.

I needed her permission to believe in myself.

I was committed and I applied all the manifesting techniques that I knew at the time, along with taking massive action and after just a few years, I was living my dream. I was sponsored by the company Patagonia, getting paid to travel all over the world chasing big-waves at a storm’s notice.

Was I living my passion? Yes!

The issue with being so passionate about something, having an A+ personality and being a Taurus, is that my will was too strong, but my body wasn’t.

I pushed too many limits in big-wave surfing that led me to almost losing my life three times. I took “living your passion” to an extreme and then some more…

The last surfing injury that I suffered was in 2014, I’ve got a traumatic brain injury that forced me to quit surfing, relocate from Hawaii to Austin to seek treatment and gain my health back. I had to let go of everything that defined me, such as being a “big-wave surfer” and even a wife. My marriage ended, my career ended and my dog stayed in Hawaii.

From one moment to the next, it was all gone.

During the last four years, my idea of passion has been re-defined. When I was younger, having a passion meant having a pressing desire in my heart, that would consume my day and night, with a desperate longing to fulfill my desires in order to feel complete.

It was great, I can truly say that my life’s bucket list has been ticked off, and for that, I am so grateful, but that level of intensity also came with a high cost.

In the last years, I’ve learned that being passionate can take different forms. 

My focus has been to regain my health, find peace of mind with my new reality (that involved living in a city without having surfing as a part of my life), and finding the strength to rebuild myself and my life in a way that supports my mind, body, and spirit.

I’ve been creating this new canvas of my life without realizing. I’ve been redefining my passions. They are not as spectacular as they used to be. There are no fifty-foot waves crashing on top of me, nor glamorous award shows celebrating my accomplishments at the end of each year.

Nowadays, my life is much simpler and quieter. My passions range from being content and peaceful to enjoying participating in hobbies and activities that make me happy.

One of them is playing the bass. I used to play since I was 12 years old, and when I’ve got immersed in surfing, I left music behind (I’m a one focus kind of girl) and never played for fifteen years.

In my new life in Austin, I connected with musicians, been part of a rock band and played many live shows in which I had a blast. I plan on continuing growing with my music and sharing it with others.

Other passions I have are even subtler: eating healthy, so I can support a healthy “brain diet” and avoid concussion symptoms that will ruin my day. Also, exercising, even better when it’s with friends that motivate me and push me as we run along the lake.

And then there are those passions that feel even subtler: like meditating every morning, having brunch with my best friend at a French cafe’ twice a month, using my creativity and knowledge to help others manifest their own dreams through my work as a coach and a consultant.

I’ve re-defined passion as:

What feeling do I want to be motivated by?

This is how it looks like...

Today I am passionate about:

Feeling strong and healthy

Feeling peaceful and content

Feeling rested and calm

Feeling connected to others and sharing my love with them

Feeling that I’m helpful to others

Nowadays, I don’t have a specific pull to manifest my next dream. I don’t even have a “next dream”. But that doesn’t make me less passionate in life.

I bring passion to whatever is present in my life.

I’ve discovered that my life’s purpose is to follow the Universe’s will. It could be chasing monsters of water around the world, or it could be taking my daily supplements and getting enough rest to be able to give my best every-single day. When I surrender to what is and I put my best intention, everything starts to unfold before my eyes.

I would have never thought four years ago that I would be passionate about surfing knee-high waves at the coast in Texas! Yet, this past weekend I drove a total of seven hours to catch fifty waves with amazing friends, and that- right there, is me living my passion. Passions change because we change.

If you have a dream pressing within you, then that’s your passion. I’m happy to share tools with you that will help you fulfill it. Go do it! Learn the lessons that reside in manifesting your dream!

If you have no clue what motivates you, what makes you jump out of bed every morning, or even more daunting: what your life’s purpose is… I invite you to look within.

Is feeling happy, joyful and peaceful something that matters to you?

Before you go chase a dream outside of yourself, I would like to ask you:

How can you redefine passion?

What do you truly want in life? How do you want to feel?

Maybe you are there already, and you’ve been thinking all this time that it was outside of yourself.

What about making the best of each day and see where that takes you?

Show up, take loving action, be gentle with yourself and others and step up when you know it’s time to take a leap.

Now, I’d like to hear from you…

Please share in the comments below any insights that you’d like to share with us:

Are you being too hard on yourself for not having a clear passion?

Can you re-define the word passion and make it your own?

What does that look like?

Glad to be back sharing with you.

With Love and Abundance,
Mercedes

FitBar Ambassador/Coach

Photos: courtesy of Mercedes Maidana’s personal files