Passion and Values

I had the pleasure last week of exploring Passion and what role it plays in leadership, and I was really struck by people's thoughts on their Passion being about values, who you are and authenticity.

I couldn't agree more, my passion for young people is to do with my values, upbringing and life experiences and is something that does drive me massively, albeit outside of my day job.

But what really resonated, as I think about it now, is a something slightly different and a lot more personal (although values and who you are being clearly personal). In my last blog I mentioned that things for my family have been tough of late, the loss of two very dear relatives struck us deeply, knocked us off kilter and did all those things that those things do.

It's been tough, and it's been tough thinking about how christmas would be given the last 5 months, the thought of christmas joy and happiness seemed somewhat distant and unobtainable, and maybe even unwanted. However, over the past week, things have moved on. Looking at the Thames, Eye and Big Ben from the window last Thursday evening, doing some xmas shopping (well it was online but still), seeing xmas around you has first of all reminded me it's happening (and oh so soon).

I had a good chat with my folks about xmas plans, and the whole family is descending on our house, and that really gave me some xmas cheer. Somehow at that point I knew it would all be fine, that the xmas cheer would be there by the bucket load, that we would all be fine, and rejoice in each others company while remembering those that couldn't be there.

Last week we discussed what happens when you lose you passion, or when it changes dramatically because things aren't quite what they seemed. I don't have an answer to that, but I do know that my passion for my family went through a tough time as we went through a tough time (it didn't go, but it had a wobble shall we say for the want of a better way to put it), but has come back even stronger, so I guess for me, while it may be tough at times, the smallest things can put things back into perspective and remind of your passion, values, and who you are.

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