I did myself a favor today. You see, I consider myself to have a fairly royal schedule. Kids are shipped off to school, and when I am not coaching clients or preparing for a workshop, I allow myself the pleasures of a morning Ashtanga session, a 5K run with a dip in the pool, or a coffee and read catch-up at my favorite undisclosed coffee house down the road.

It’s an oxytocin dream come true…

Then one day, smack in the midst of enjoying a present hearty-laugh moment with my kids, I came to a realization. We were watching the hilarious Google My Bulbul (you gotta see it), and a thought took over me that being ‘in the flow’ was becoming rare; with my phone constantly in my hand and my mind consumed with the future. It was becoming clear. I had allowed this ‘amiss’ feeling to take over for too long.

Boom! It came to me. Outside my routine, what is it that I get so absorbed in doing that I lose track of time? Many of us get so consumed in being busy that, in reflection mode, we realize we’ve spent much of our time gridlocked or just plodding along instead of lining up more of our best work.

When Do We Begin Trading Passion For Routine?

Research on more than 400,000 Americans over the past 40 years indicates that pursuing your passions – even in small doses – helps you make the most of your current capabilities and encourages you to develop new ones. It is also a point at hand that whenever a routine becomes tedious or dull, it not only thwarts excitement and creativity but it can also begin to produce tension and negative emotions.

Whereas, when you’re actively engaged in an activity that is fulfilling, pleasurable, and has meaning for yourself, you are truly in the flow of ‘peak experience’ living.

So, back to that little gift I gave myself today. I finally committed myself to that personal art class which I had been postponing for weeks on end, kidding myself that I could paint like I used to. Self-doubt plagued my mind. I used to, once upon a time, sell my glass painting works for a reasonable sum.

Brush in hand, oils splattered on my face, I sat for two hours getting re-familiar with the palette knife and the canvas. Spending two hours blending and grading oils into one another may not sound appealing to those who can’t sit still for more than five minutes, but truth be told, those lucid two hours alone with the canvas gave me the opportunity to fall back in love with color and texture again. It seemed to fit right in with my new and well-deserved value of self-indulgence. Two hours later, I felt like a whole curtain had lifted. This block that had been holding me back from the action of painting was gone.

Not only was I was re-inspired but, strangely, my writing block also ceased. This blog happened. I was thinking a bit clearer on what I wanted to do next. On my self-imposed blocks. On maybe starting the piano again. I also was counting the minutes I could pick up my kids from camp and show them my work. I had touched that chord which made me feel alive after almost 11 years of just ‘plain-old living’.

You see, our passions’ effects are always profound in the sense that they come from places deep within us. What had happened was I that I had lost touch with the zeal that brought out my best qualities – clarity, peace and self-worth.

Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself if you are inspired to feel that child-like wonder and zeal; in other words, re-align with your passion:

• What do you love enough to do for free?
• What gives you so much enjoyment that you yearn to do more of it?
• What were your childhood dreams?
• When you daydream, where does your heart go?
• What do you get the biggest kick out of doing - even if you’re not great at doing it?

Then write down five of your top favorite activities. Once you start looking closely at these things, what you love is usually easy to uncover. By focusing on passion, you can begin to put it back in the center of your life and work, instead of losing it around the edges.

Goethe says: “We are shaped and guided by what we love.”

And you can start by making at least a little time for what you love. Try it. Your future self will thank you for it.

_{This post was first published on Inner High Living blog and has been reposted on Executive Lifestyle with the permission of the author.}

_{Edited by Nedda Chaplin} 

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