Inventory the Personal Asset of Passions
How to Take Stock of Favorite Interests for a Personal Growth Plan
Sep 25, 2008
When planning for personal growth and development, the self improvement planner will want to consider the assets already at hand. The six assets important to a personal growth plan are Life Purpose, Passions, Unique Strengths, Lesser Competencies, Values, and Beliefs.
The personal growth planner may wish to begin with an overall discussion of the personal asset inventory process in Personal Growth Plan: A Personal Asset Inventory.
The Personal Growth Plan Begins with Life Purpose
Life Purpose is the fundamental building block of a good life. With purpose comes meaning and fulfillment. A clear understanding of one's life purpose permits the personal growth planner to build a growth plan that aligns with purpose and maximizes the potential for fulfillment.
Begin the personal asset inventory with life purpose, which is described in How to Inventory Personal Assets: Life Purpose.
Fuel Personal Growth with Passion
After life purpose, the second asset to inventory is life Passions. Passions are the fuel that energizes one's life activities. Everyone has activities they absolutely love to do. They gravitate toward these activities whenever possible, often making time for them over other responsibilities. Often, these passions are evident throughout life, discernable even in the pre-teen years.
One's passions are tightly linked to the qualities and characteristics of life purpose. While purpose is composed of qualities or states of being, passions are those activities at which a person can easily display the characteristics of purpose, which is why these activities are so engaging.
It is easy to see why the self improvement planner will want to gain clarity of life purpose and passions. A plan for growth that builds upon purpose and passions incorporates two of the fundamental building blocks of a fulfilling, meaningful, and energetic life.
Identify Life's Passions
The personal growth planner can inventory passions by reflecting on a lifetime of favorite activities. The following four tips will be helpful. Consider:
- Hobbies, being voluntary activities are sure indicators of one's passions.
- Activities that energize and bring enthusiasm are passions.
- Recall the favorite activities of youth, even those of pre-teen years. These often continue in some form, carrying forward into adulthood. The continuity of interest is an indicator of passions.
- Avoidance activities, which are things one prefers to do when faced with something undesirable or unsatisfying, are likely to be passions.
The Personal Growth Plan
This article described the importance of understanding one's life passions as the second valuable asset upon which one can build a sound personal growth plan.
The third important asset is Unique Strengths, which combines with Life Purpose and Passions to form a strong three-part foundation of a powerful personal development plan. Inventorying Unique Strengths will be covered in a future article.
