Does your passion come from a positive place?
An acquaintance was having problems selling his services. He explained his business was the passion in his life. When I asked him what drove his passion, he told me his father had passed away a number of years ago. His father had suffered from stress from work for a number of years. With observable anger, my client explained if only his Fathers work environment had been better he may not have traversed that downward spiral that led to his passing.
Shortly following his father’s death, my acquaintance set up his consultancy. It was set up to explicitly help businesses improve and eliminate stress from the workplace. Â A worthy and much-needed intervention. However, he was having problems engaging with businesses that sorely needed his services. He couldn’t understand how they just couldn’t see how he could help. He didn’t realise his passion could be stopping him from connecting in the way he needed to.
Passion can make a difference
I’ve seen many people in similar situations who desperately want to make a difference. They always have a good cause. They have identified a valid problem to solve yet they still find it difficult for people to hear them, much less engage their services.
If you feel passionate about achieving your goals, mostly you are a step ahead. Passion can fuel your progress and enthuse others to help you. Depending on what drives your passion, you might actually be stuck in a negative emotion which contaminates everything you think, say or do.
When you are driven by negative emotion, or desperation to right past wrongs: Even with the best intentions you may be coming from a place of judgment. You interact with others who may be making the same mistakes. But because of your passion, on a level they are feeling judged. This creates a barrier to real engagement. There is nothing wrong with helping solve problems that have created negative emotions. In fact, that’s the fuel that most frequently powers big action. Real power and therefore effective action comes when you are at peace with yourself and your actions are powered by love, not anger or fear.
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I help leaders develop self- mastery, helping them to become confident in their own inner guidance.
I collaborate with leadership experts, managers and HR professionals to help them get their own message and unique services and products to a wide audience.
Christine
SO so true. This story also brings to light a fact that also has an impact on peoples ability to HEAR your message. If the message you bring to other ears is one which promotes fear in the listener then you are likely to hit a brick wall. Their MOTIVATION is negative and until YOU can provide them with a POSITIVE outcome to balance their fear there is no way for you to break through.
I had exactly the same outcome bringing the same message to HR professionals.
Their fear was that to expose management to the realisation they were causing stress in the workplace, was greater than to leave those with that stress to their own devices. If anything went wrong then the management could not be blamed – and we do have a wonderful blame culture in this country, especially in autocratic management style businesses.
The best thing you can do is to walk away and leave them with your card if they every want help, all they have to do is call…..You will wait a very ling time.