MSN Shopping, May 25th, 2007
Peter the Great probably never had a Prufrock moment. He traveled incognito to Amsterdam and worked as a ship’s carpenter to learn the trade. Then he went home and built a navy. He learned to dance, make cheese and extract teeth. He led armies against Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, founded one of the world's most beautiful cities in a Baltic swamp and loved to sing.
He also drank like a fish and was known to stop his subjects in the streets on a whim to extract a tooth or to cut off a forbidden beard.
Peter was a passionate guy. He also may have been a little crazy.
Of course, the passionate life is a snap if you happen to be a Russian Tsar. But even though most of us can’t list that on our resume, that’s not what holds us back from realizing a richer and fuller life.
The trouble is that it’s easy to be so narcotized by routine and the white noise of existence that the passionate life can seem just beyond our reach. The secret, of course, is that it’s not. How many times have you heard someone say they’ve always wanted to learn to play the piano, master Italian or run a marathon? The fact is if they haven’t accomplished any of those things, they haven’t really wanted to badly enough. As the 17th century writer François de la Rochefoucauld said, “If we resist our passions, it is more through their weakness than from our strength.”
The will to wring the essence from life, to push ourselves to learn, to explore, to achieve, to master and to express ourselves, is what separates us from plankton and members of Congress.
The clock is ticking
If the world is a stage then each passing moment moves us closer to the final curtain. Do you think your performance will elicit raves or yawns? The only critic that matters is you. Don’t think you have the time? Time is all you’ve got. How you spend it is up to you. Stay up a little later or wake up earlier. Turn off the TV.
Take a personal inventory
Make a list of all the things you really want to do. Travel? Learn French cuisine? Master the cello? Now rank them in the order that matters most to you. There’s your plan. Start at the top and work your way down the list. Passion can be a little like a hobby on steroids. It just requires more intense dedication. Instead of Vegas or Orlando, travel to the town your family left when they came to America. Instead of buying a French cookbook, take lessons. Ditto for the cello.
Explore within
The world’s a big place and well worth the trouble to see, but if commitments and resources preclude major expeditions, consider taking an inward journey instead. Keeping a journal is a great place to start. If Sam Pepys could scribble a few lines every day, so can you. If you’re so inclined, you can even share your ramblings in a blog. Writing helps you take time to observe, reflect upon and better understand the nuances of life and thus enrich it. Trace your family tree back to its roots and discover a new sense of continuity. Or channel your creative impulses in other ways, by taking up painting or photography. Classes can help, but history is full of successful autodidacts, too.
Extend your reach
Not much of a navel-gazer? Get out there and start making a difference in the world. Find a local volunteer opportunity or lend your expertise to a community project. And, though I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint of heart, you could even carry a torch down into the dark and murky depths of grassroots politics. What might initially seem like daunting commitment of your time can become an all-consuming passion in itself with immeasurable rewards.
It’s your move
If you want to turn up the volume of your life, you have to reach for the knob. Once you find your passion, it will never let you go
