Finding passion at the vacuum store

What is your passion? What’s something you love to do? Maybe your passion has been there for a long time, even since childhood, or maybe you have recently discovered it. Why is having passion important? Gretchen Rubin, who did the Happiness Project said, “One of the greatest supports to a person’s happiness is passion.”

Why some passion activities help people to be happier is that people can make new friends with similar interests, relieve stress, and provide exercise for the mind. Sometimes physical activities raise mood, too. Also, people can learn and develop mastery which boosts confidence. Passion is powerful and it has helped some people to achieve great things. On the other hand, sometimes what passion helps people to achieve is to just to have a very enjoyable life – and that is a pretty great outcome, too!

So what is passion? Often the definition is related to romantic love but the Urban dictionary has another definition: “Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to put as much heart, mind, body and soul into something as possible.”

You might think of your passion as a hobby, but it goes deeper than just casual enjoyment. As a personal quality, exuding passion will tend to attract other people who are enthusiastic and supportive. Think how important this quality can be, not only in personal relationships, but also in business and the helping professions. When you are around a passionate person, some of it invariably rubs off.

If you want to discover where you had passion or you want to become more passionate, notice what you enjoyed when you were a child at play and why it was meaningful to you. For example, I (Lynn) remember standing on a friend’s porch giving “talks” and thinking it was my way to help others. I wonder what great words of wisdom a seven-year-old could have! This passion continued through high school speech contests. Now I enjoy working with people and giving talks to groups to help people achieve success.

I (Doug) know that music has been a passion throughout my life. Mother played the piano and I grew up in a home filled with music. When I was just 8 years old, I was passionate about singing. All through school I was in all types of singing groups, choirs and quartets, and also sang solos. As an adult, I sang with two renowned singing groups. Now I enjoy singing in church choir and as a soloist.

As we reflect on our passions, we realize that our passions were there throughout our life.

Sometimes passionate people can be found in unlikely places. We went to the Chanhassen Vacuum store to get some bags. We called ahead to make sure they had the bag we needed and we could tell that the person who answered had passion.

At the store, we met a very engaging fellow, Michael Bailey, the owner. We asked him what passions of his have followed him throughout his life. Michael answered, “It truly has to be music. I started in fourth grade doing accordion with my brother and went on to drums. Since then I’ve been playing drums professionally for many, many years. I toured Europe and played all the clubs in the Twin Cities. I’ve played for a long time. Music has got to be one thing that’s helped me through – that and people. I used to be a hair designer. I’ve worked in hospitals. I’ve done a lot of jobs and in the last 37 years we’ve had the vacuum store here and that’s been wonderful. It’s all about people, too.” Michael told us he is still playing music. He shared, “We have a new group called Acrotonix, which plays everything from Etta James to rock stuff – a lot of music.” We enjoyed talking to Michael and noted that he is a man who is passionate about helping people and making good music, too.

How about you? What is your passion?

Here’s a challenge: If you are trying to identify your passions, think about what you enjoyed as a child and why. If you’ve put passions aside, you can resurrect them. What do you care about deeply now and want to pursue? If you try something new, you’ll see if it’s a passion for you. Also, watch for passion as it may show up in the most unlikely places – like a vacuum store – and it might even rub off on you!

Chanhassen residents Doug and Lynn Nodland are Success Coaches and owners of The Balance Center. They can be contacted at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2018 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.