Keith Privette turned to LinkedIn experts when he was approached by a friend who was “commited 100% to doing a good job, but about 25% passionate about the work?” Keith added, “Have you had this happen to you? What did you do? What were the lessons learned? After job was done what was the path?”

Well, I’m a coach, through and through, so I had to respond first with more questions. Within my response are my hopes and prayers for anyone who is “doing a good job”, but lacks passion. Keith honored me by taking two actions:

1. He is using the coaching contained in this article to discover his remarkable life at The Intersection of Purpose & Now
2. He named my answer the Best Answer on LinkedIn. Here is my answer in full:

• What does “passion” mean to you?
• What are you “100 percent” passionate about (or close to it)?
• What is the difference between that 100% experience and the work you do at “25 percent”?
• How are you measuring passion?
• How is that working?
• What would it take for you to be more passionate about your work? How would that effect you?
• How would that effect the “good job” you are doing?
• What impact would that have on your relationships and other roles?

• Suppose you identified a purpose or pursuit that brought out in you this elusive quality called passion?
• How would you be different?
• What would you do different?
• How would you feel?
• How would you act different?
• What new possibilities might you have then that you do not have now?
• Would these possibilities be worth the change necessary for you to achieve them?

I certainly could go on with the questions and recommend that you, or anyone seeking benefit from the many answers to Keith’s question, seriously contemplate these questions and write down your thoughts – that’s right, write down your answers whether or not anyone else but you ever reads them (that choice is yours, too).

I believe passion is a product of hope, and hope grows from possibility, which is a product of the assumptions we make daily (if not moment to moment).

Now back to critical questions…

• What are your assumptions about your work, your role, your life, your ability to pursue your REAL dreams?
• What are the results of those assumptions?
• What if you had different assumptions; what might they be?
• What possibilities might these new assumptions produce for you?
• Is there one (or more) possibility that tingles your skin yet, until now, you dared not dream?

My guess is that you have some dream deferred, something that you dearly envision for yourself and your life that has always seemed just out of reach. Your assumptions have kept this dream beyond your reach – and maybe it truly is impossible.

But I challenge you to test your assumptions about yourself, about your dream deferred and your ability to pursue and achieve that dream. Maybe with some help (from an experienced coach), you will begin to see your world from a new perspective. Maybe this new line of sight between where you are now and where you really want to be creates a yearning inside you, a deep desire somewhere between 25-100 percent, but enough that the elusive passion you seek will arise and begin to define you in ways that before, you could never imagine.

These are my hopes and prayers for anyone who is “doing a good job”, but lacks passion. I would love to help you and please, do not hesitate to ask me for help – or continue to join me at The Intersection of Purpose & Now.