Today I was doing some public speaking training with an accent reduction client and I gave her the topic: ‘What are you passionate about?’
She delivered a lovely speech explaining that she was still looking for that one incredible, life changing vocation. What I find interesting here is that she immediately associated passion with work and then delivered a very passionate speech about it!
Passion for me is anything that you feel strongly about. My lovely partner, Philippe, and I have recently started doing some abstract paintings on canvases with acrylics and I love it! I get really excited about all the different colours and textures and constantly marvel at the beauty of a simple brush stroke. On Saturday night, I was painting. It was well after midnight and I was on a high- i had almost finished the most beautiful painting (it is my third) and I decided that it wasn’t quite complete. It was just too simple. I thought a few splashes of colour would help… and I ruined it! I was devastated. I realised that I had been too impatient to finish. I could have left the first layers to dry and added to it the next day, but I was just too impatient to feel that sense of achievement that can only be felt when you finish something. In that moment, I had a huge learning. I know that how we do something is often how we do everything and I suddenly became aware of a pattern I have been running- I now call it reckless impatience.
This kind of awareness is so useful, as it means that we can begin to rein in unwanted behaviour and transform our 'bad' habits into better ones. It is with a great sense of relief that I build up this awareness and am able to consciously create more positive habits.
Today, I left a half-finished painting to dry and am looking forward to adding the final touches tomorrow!
What kind of patterns are you running? Are they helping or hindering your journey through life?
It's often hard to strike a balance in public speaking. We often want to create suspense, but we don't want it to be too melodramatic. By slowly building up a story piece by piece and creating a vocal climax with effective use of pause this can be achieved to great affect. But, please remember to feel the words rather than exaggerating them too much. 
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