What are you passionate about?

What are you passionate about?

This is a question that has been posed to me. In truth, it is has given me a bit of trouble answering. Passion is a very strong word, it surpasses excitement or enjoyment. It strikes to the very essence of something that you feel an immensely strong attachment too. Passion is so often related to romance due to the intense nature of the emotion. As this very question was posed to me, I struggled to find an answer what was a driving passion of mine. This struggle in pinpointing an appropriate answer raised three questions in my mind.

1) Am I in fact a dispassionate person?

Dictionary.com defines dispassionate as devoid of personal feeling or bias. It sounds so cold. However, if I can't find something I can't quickly name as irremovable from my life then is that not a lack of passion for something? Many people find passion in religion, work, a hobby, and many other things. And although I value all these things, I can't say I feel an intense emotional connection to these items.

2) If I am a generally dispassionate person, is that a bad thing?

This is where I struggle with an answer. Is it wrong to lack a passion for something? I could give a generic answer like: "I'm passionate about life." However, then you have to ask, what about life gives you passion? You can't tell me that you would be passionate about standing in a hospital room with your dying grandparent that has struggled with cancer for 2 years. (Theoretical) Yet that is life... So being passionate about "life" isn't enough for me.

Is lacking passion another way of saying you lack direction? Is it saying you've been too cautious to put a personal stake in something? Or worse does it mean you are uncaring? And if you are lacking something to be passionate about, can you find it?

3) How do you find your passion?

Let us suppose that I was looking to find something to be passionate about. Where would you look? Isn't your passion supposed to be natural? Or is it something you have to work at becoming? I enjoy writing, but it is taxing at times. I enjoy books, but I don't want to read every weekend. I enjoy teaching, but you can only teach if there are people that wish to learn from you.

Is the trick to finding a passion simply trying lots of things? Or should it be something you are already drawn too. And if it is something you should just find by trying things, where does one start?

Ultimately, I have simply answered a question with a question. That is far from ideal, but it is where my mind is at right now. I don't have the answer to the question what I am passionate about, and that bothers me. Hopefully that is a good thing.