Remember Science class?
Mr. Thatcher, sophomore year in high school, taught us about potential and kinetic energy. I was way more interested in Pam Miller, who sat perilously close to me. But on Mr Thatcher droned inspired but not inspiring.
Now, thirty years later, Pam has three kids and is a friend of mine on facebook. We never did the deed, but I lusted after her in my young heart. I am not sure where Mr Thatcher is but I hope somewhere wonderful.
Somewhere between my wild young lust for Pam and my boredom with Mr Thatcher is passion. Actually it is always in the same place. And it is easy to find once you know where to look.
Finding Passion
If you misplace your keys you try and remember where you last had them. You can’t start your car without them. You can’t get into your home. In short, you are screwed without them and to some degree, the loss of them dominates your life.
Your keys could be lots of different places.
Heidegger, a wise philosopher once said, “Nothing great is created without passion.”
Luckily passion can always be found in exactly the same place. It is waiting for you, patiently, ready to inspire and delight you.
I will quickly and easily teach you how to find passion anytime you want, as much of it as you want. If you are as smart and driven as I think you are, you will consume passion as it consumes you and get more done in less time with way more joy than ever before.
Bear with me for just a moment as we return to science class so we can discover passion.
Passion is About Energy
There are two kinds of energy: Kinetic and Potential. Kinetic energy is energy being expressed. It is movement. It is you in the process of reaching for the salt shaker. It is you running around the track or cross country. It is you falling off a stool late at night after having made some bad judgments earlier in the day. Kinetic energy is energy expressed.
The second kind of energy, which is not better or more powerful than the first kind but more important because we tend to ignore it, is Potential Energy. Potential energy is the energy in the ball when you are holding it five feet above the floor but haven’t yet dropped it. It is the energy in your belly right before you do a sit up. It is you at the starting gates, muscles on the ready, in the blocks right before a hundred yard dash.
Potential energy is all about possibility. Kinetic Energy is energy already being expressed.
What is Kinetic Energy?
What is Potential Energy?
Knowing what Kinetic Energy is and Potential Energy is will allow you to tap into passion anytime, all the time or just when you need it.
Your Passion
Passion hangs out only where Kinetic and Potential Energy meet. It is always there. It is that teeny tiny moment when you are releasing the ball but haven’t fully let go but aren’t fully hanging on either.
Passion isn’t Kinetic and it isn’t Potential. It is where you could move but aren’t, but almost are but aren’t.
I recall being at the end of a diving board, a high dive about ten feet above the surface of Pine Like. I had climbed the stairs to get there, increasing my Potential Energy, and could jump any moment, and express some Kinetic Energy.
On the end of that diving board I was the most alive I could be. Almost jumping, almost falling, almost remaining where I was. The feeling of being that alive is exactly where Kinetic and Potential Energy meet.
Passion is always waiting for you at the border between these two old energy pals.
The Bad News
Passion is available only in the moment. Once you jump you are Kinetic. Before you jump you are Potential.
Passion doesn’t persist. It is there and then it is gone. Once it is expressed and before it is expressed, it isn’t passion. Standing on the diving board is pre-passion. Falling toward the water is post-passion. But as you jump is ripe with passion.
The Good News
Passion doesn’t last, but it is available in the next moment, and the next, and the one after that. Passion is waiting patiently for you in each moment. Each moment passion is available. Your spouse or partner may be busy or unavailable on Saturday night but passion is always available.
Passion is anywhere and everywhere Kinetic and Potential Energy meet. They meet just about everywhere.
It isn’t that passion is lacking. It isn’t ever lacking. It can’t be. It doesn’t abandon you. You abandon it. You put your attention on what you could do or what you are already doing: and you miss where they meet and you miss passion.
The Really Great News
You can return to passion simply by beginning to notice that Kinetic and Potential Energy are always meeting and playing tug of war with whether something is going to happen or not.
Begin to notice Kinetic Energy: what is happening. And Potential Energy, what might happen and is poised ready to happen.
Focusing your attention on these two kind of energy taps into and frees your passion. It reminds you that basically and naturally you are always passionate, always full of passion.
Lift the fork five inches above the table. You have just used Kinetic Energy to lift the fork and you have also increased the Potential Energy by making the five inch fall possible or even likely. Focus your attention on holding and almost letting go of the fork. Feel your passion right there. Feel your presence too.
Continue to notice the dance between Kinetic and Potential Energy and you will become a passionate master of passion- getting so much done with so little effort.
Passion is waiting for you!
——
Jerry Stocking is a non-guru who will twist your idea of reality on its head and leave you laughing. His mischievous smile will tell you right away he has found the lighter side of spirituality. Sink into the bliss of being, visit Lightening Up and Letting Go, his personal web-resource on modern spirituality. Enlightenment is only a moment away, but you’ll have to lighten up first.
Photo credit: ‘Hand Holding‘ by Big Stock
