At a young age my parents instilled in me the mantra that giving back is the best reward in life. Taking their advice, I have dedicated my time to making life easier for others.
Always keen on running, ‘‘Forrest Gump-style’’, I have channelled my energy into a diverse range of roles over the years that have really shaped my career.
It all began by working hard and following my passion on the pro tennis circuit for 3 years then my other roles varied from hotel management to selling advertising door to door for Channel 9 and News Limited, to becoming a successful CEO at the same time achieving and completing 5 x Ironman Triathlons & 2 x 100km Ultra-Marathons, and even to becoming the NT Rock-Paper-Scissors Champion.
This ongoing passion of wanting to help others in the community goes right back to when I was a little boy at school raising funds for cancer research door to door.
There is no disguising the intense passion, dedication and inspiration that I work hard at every day to bring into my life, both in my day to day role as CEO of Helping People Achieve, and as a father and husband.
I am driven by a greater sense of purpose in life, and the ability to chase my dreams and goals on a daily basis encourages me to constantly experience new things. I am even starting to eat more vegetables since the arrival of my daughter.
This purpose contributed to HPA becoming the first Not For Profit ( NFP) charity business to win the inaugural ‘Charity Section for the Telstra Business of the Year for the Northern Territory, and the overall Telstra Business of the Year for Northern Territory 2016. HPA became the first charity to win the overall Award for any State or Territory in the Telstra Business Awards in history.
Following this excitement, in 2017 I was lucky enough to become a Finalists for the NT Australian of the Year Awards. What an honour.
With a zest for life, I work hard every day to bring an infectious passion towards inspiring all people that I meet.
Ever say to yourself, “If I could just figure out what I’m really passionate about, everything else will take off”?
If so, you’re not alone.
One of the most common stumbling blocks to launching a fruitful life is figuring out what you’re passionate about in the first place.
Sadly, many of us go about finding our passion in the wrong way. How? By thinking about it.
We’re habituated to use our minds to analyse, rationalize and figure things out.
Common techniques to find passion include:
Taking expensive psychological tests
Recalling childhood interests
Sitting at McDonalds watching your friend’s eyes glaze over after asking questions like “I don’t know…what do you think I should do?”
Here’s the problem: Passion is unable to be found in your head because it lives in your heart.
The flames of passion are fanned by engagement, not thought.
No matter how hard you try, you cannot figure out your passion by just thinking about it. You need to take action and feel your way to your truth, from the inside out.
The endless and debilitating chatter in our minds often tries to talk us out of what our hearts are yearning to explore.
Embrace this key idea and it will change your life: Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.
But taking action on something you suspect to be your passion is just part of the story. There’s another important (and rarely discussed) piece to the passion puzzle.
This is the fastest, most powerful way to turn what you love into a business or career that can sustain you.
Proactively bring passion to everything you touch, to everything you do. No matter what task is in front of you, bring as much enthusiasm and energy to it as you possibly can. Bring your full attention, your full presence to every task in your day.
When you make this shift, you’ll ignite business ideas and creative insights far beyond what your thinking mind alone is capable of.
And let’s face it. Passion is contagious. When you’re fully present and passionately engaged with your life, people around you take notice and want in on whatever you’re doing.
Want more?
Another side benefit to proactive passion is kicking life-sucking habits like procrastination, resistance and complaining straight to the curb.
Now that you’re armed with an understanding of passion, do the following four steps to unleash your’s.
4 Steps to Find Your Passion
1. Love everything you do.
From this moment forward, if you don’t like something, you’ve got two choices: stop doing it (quit, delegate it, hire it out) OR love it with all your heart.
Anything else is madness.
When you commit to love everything you do, you strengthen your “passion muscles” from the inside out and open up a divine channel so that what you’re meant to do can be revealed.
Don’t forget: In any given moment, if you can’t change what you’re doing, you can always change how you’re doing it.
2. Look at your book collection, magazines, DVDs, CDs and credit card statements. Notice any themes?
What subjects are you constantly gravitating toward? What are you already spending your time, money and energy on?What thread(s) have been recurring in your life again and again?
As best as you can, check in with your heart and physical body, not your head.
Anything “light you up” so to speak? Do you feel a sense of expansion in your body?
Do you feel excitement (or perhaps even a little fear) when you imagine a certain topic or possibility? Those are all good signs.
3. What do you love to talk about, learn about and/or teach others about?
This is a really useful question.Don’t edit yourself here. With nearly 7 billion people on the planet, chances are that there’s a market out there hungry for information, products or resources on your topic.Or there’s a company looking for someone with your unique set of gifts and interests to join their team.
If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, ask close friends and family (the honest ones) what you never seem to shut up about.
Also, don’t underestimate the power of incorporating your passion into your already existing career or business.
4. Quit talking and start doing.
Now that you’re this far, the next step is to begin taking consistent passion-based action every single day.
That could mean writing, making videos, recording audios, taking a class or somehow engaging in an activity you love.
And here’s the best part. Taking action on your passion often requires little to no cash outlay.
Articles, videos and writing take no money. Only time, effort and focus. Beginner classes can often be inexpensive or, sometimes, even free.
Building your life around what you love is something you’ll never regret.
It’s your passion for what you do that will give you the drive, commitment and energy necessary to create any amount of success and fulfilment you desire, and in the end you’ll have an extraordinary time while you do it.
Dream Believe Achieve
Tony Burns
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