Be Passiotive!
Living a passionate and positive life one day at a time

If I tell you to ask for anything and everything you want in your life, what would you do?

It sounds quite easy, doesn’t it? It seems like the ultimate fantasy.

I have often fantasized about freeing a genie and getting three wishes. But I thought I’d use one wish to wish for infinite wishes so I can ask for everything that I want.

Read: Set your wants free! »

I slowly opened my eyes to the rays of morning sunshine slipping through the window. “What now?”

I looked outside the window, the skies were blue and there was a soft breeze blowing on my face. It looked like a wonderful day. But for some reason, I felt so heavy as I dragged my feet to the bathroom to get ready for work.

It was like I was operating on auto-pilot as I took a shower, brushed my teeth and got dressed. For me, it was just the beginning of another dragging day.

“What am I doing with my life? Why am I here?”

Have you ever gone through that time when every waking day was such a drag? You feel tired even before your work has begun. Nothing seems to go right and all you want is just to get through the day.

I used to go through my days aimlessly. I allowed myself to fall into a routine and thought I’d just go wherever life takes me.

But what I didn’t realize was I was missing out on having an amazing and wonderful life.

Read: What is your life purpose? »

Once you’ve found your passion, how do you begin?

When you’ve figured out what your passion is, you will tend to go in two directions: either you feel so fired up and raring to get moving or you feel so overwhelmed and your fear of starting a big thing leads to procrastination.

Lucky you if you took the first direction.

As for me, I got overwhelmed.

I mentioned before that this blog is part of my efforts to pursue my passion. But just when I was starting to think of all the great possibilities this blog held for me, I felt like I was flooded with so many ideas that I drowned into procrastination.

For weeks, I was content with staying under the water, scared to see what I needed to do or who I needed to be.

Read: 3 Steps to pursue your passion »

photo credit: Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton

“What’s your passion?”

I asked my friend once when we were having dinner.

“You know what, I haven’t really thought about it. Why do you ask?”

“Well, ” I said, “It just occurred to me that we’ve been working for the past six years and I just thought if this is what we really want to be doing for the rest of our lives.”

What is passion?

In my first post about this site, I found several meanings of passion.

And in my personal quest for passion, I’ve come up with my own definitions.

Passion drives you to do something and be somebody.

When you tap into your passion, it just infuses you with this tremendous energy and power. It fills you with confidence so that you can say to yourself, “I can be somebody.”

Passion is something you get excited about.

Your passion gives you that thrilling sensation. It brings you that natural high that moves you to do more and be more.

Passion is something you enjoy doing.

In fact, you enjoy doing it so much, you lose track of time when you do it. No matter the effort involved, it still feels effortless and it’s almost as if you don’t get tired at all.

Passion is something you’re good at.

You’ll find that your interests veer toward your passion. More than that, you’ll find that you are equipped to pursue your passion because your skills and talents are geared to fulfill it.

Are you beginning to form an idea of what your passion is?

Read: How to find your passion »

photo credit: Michelle Brea

When he walks into the room, you’ll notice his smiling eyes and his seemingly confident stride. He is a good-looking young man who can carry his own.

He can engage you in great conversation and easily charm you with his wit. He is very passionate about his job and it’s not by sheer luck that he earns a 6-digit income from it every month.

For me, he was a success. He had every reason to be confident.

“But I am just not good enough,” he said. He told me how shies away from the women he’s attracted to because he feels he doesn’t deserve them. “They’re too good for me.”

And so he remains single. Miserably.

He continues his self-deprecating dialogue. “I don’t have my own house, I don’t have a car, I’m far from wealthy….”

He also didn’t have a college degree. And though he did not say it, I’m sure he considers that as one of his perceived failures too.

“Are you happy with your job?” I asked him.
“Yes.”
“Do you feel fulfilled?”
“Absolutely.”
“Is that what you’ve always wanted to do?”
“No doubt about it.”
“Then you should be proud of yourself for all you’ve accomplished!” I told him.

Despite all his perceived setbacks, he was living the life he wanted. But as long as he defined success based on material indicators or standards set by other people, he will never have confidence in himself.

I used to have low self-esteem too

Read: Boost your self esteem! »

photo credit: ??

How do you wake up every morning?

I’ve had some good mornings when I feel so invigorated and ready to take on the world. I feel so happy, bubbly and alive the whole day. I’m on a roll and it seems 24 hours is not enough for all the things I want to do.

But I’m all too familiar with some bad mornings too when I just want to bury myself under the covers and sleep the whole week. I feel so sluggish, irritable and bored. I accomplish little or nothing at all and I can’t wait for the day to end.

I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I woke up at the right side of the bed every morning?

Read: 6 Ways to start your day right »

photo credit: James Jordan

I wasn’t always a positive thinker and doer.

In fact, I grew up following the common adage: “Hope for the best and expect the worst.”

Somehow, I got the idea that it’s okay to aspire for good things to happen but you should always remember that the worst is somewhere around the corner.

It’s so you don’t get disappointed, the people around me said. And I believed them.

When I was young and I wanted something so bad, I kept in mind the “best aspiration” and the “worst expectation.”

Like when I joined a beauty contest, I told myself: “I want to win the crown but it’s okay even if I win first runner up.”

When I signed up for junior citizen’s training in high school, I knew I wanted to be the commander but I thought I’d settle for the second post.

I wanted first but I thought it’s okay to settle for second and second is what I always got.

Read: My journey into passiotivity »

photo credit: Laughing Squid

When I discovered blogging in 2002, I simply saw it as an extension of my passion for writing — for myself.

I blogged about my daily experiences, my thoughts, my rants and frustrations. I never really thought or cared about other people who might read my entries.

After all, it’s my blog and I wrote what I wanted to.

But when I got more immersed into the blogging world, I came across noteworthy blogs that inspired me, made me think and changed my perspective.

Whether it was about the latest gadgets or the best lifehacks, these blogs were written by people who seemed to genuinely care about their readers and who made it a point to write something helpful or insightful.

They were passionate about their interests and they shared what they knew with the world.

They blogged with a purpose.

I was so inspired by these bloggers I hardly knew that I thought about my own purpose for blogging.

Read: Blogging with a purpose »

Passio…. what?

The first time I told a friend about this site, she actually thought I pronounced the word incorrectly. But that’s not a typographical error up there.

Passiotive is actually a combination of two of my most favorite words in the dictionary:

PASSIOn + posiTIVE = PASSIOTIVE

In a nutshell, PASSIOTIVE is a blog that will INSPIRE, GUIDE and MOVE you to live a passionate and positive life one day at a time.

Read: Welcome to Be Passiotive! »