Living & Leading with Passion (Part 2)

Last week, I spoke to a group of students and professionals at the MAC IMA Regional Student Conference. If you haven’t already, you might want to check out Part 1 before you go any further.

And now on with the show… 🙂

i. Passion (cont’d)

Part 2 begins with the tail-end of my discussion about passion. At the end of Part 1, I talked about the “$1 Billion Dollar Question” which is — If you woke up tomorrow and found $1 billion dollars in your bank account (no strings attached!) what would you want to do every single day for the rest of your life?

While answering this question is critical to determining our passions, we also have to use some caution. Our gut reactions or gut answer to the question might be a bit lazy. “Well if I had a billion dollars, I’d sleep late, eat cold pizza, watch Jerry Springer on the couch, and… maybe do some traveling.”

The thing is, however, that type of gut reaction obviously doesn’t serve us well. As human beings we long for more from our passion. We long for fulfillment, inspiration, creativity, and the ability to contribute something meaningful to the world. When you set out to answer the “$1 Billion Dollar Question,” take your time, think about what would bring you true happiness, and get really specific.

ii. Authenticity

Next we move to the A in the PAID acronym which is Authenticity. This element of the acronym has a lot to do with leadership. Here, I talk about the difference between “real” and “fake” leaders; and then I share my favourite quote about authentic leadership which is:

There are three ways to lead:

1. By example.
2. By example.
3. By example.

From there, I move on to the 5 “I”s of authentic leadership:

• Insight
• Initiative
• Influence
• Impact
• Integrity.

iii. Intensity

Part 2 closes with the I in the PAID acronym—Intensity. I talk about what intensity really means and how we can overcome the number one enemies of intensity which are excuses.

That covers Part 2 of my Living & Leading with Passion discussion. Stay tuned tomorrow to catch a glimpse of my number one inspiration for intensity & passion; to find out what caterpillars have to do with direction; and to hear much, much more about living & leading with passion!

xo,
Dena