Janet Attwood on the Passion Test
People ask me where to begin, and the honest starting point is this: the Passion Test is nothing more than a string of exercises, one leading into the next, that bring you to a point of such clarity that you can shut your eyes and actually picture the life you want to build. The rule we work by is simple. When you are clear, what you want starts to appear, but only in proportion to how clear you've gotten. Clarity is its own kind of power.
So here is what I'd have you do, and you can do it this second. Grab a sheet of paper and a pen. At the very top of the page write: When my life is ideal, I am... That's the whole setup.
Most people never pause long enough to ask the questions underneath that sentence. They don't step away from the rush of the day to ask what they actually care about, what lights them up, what would make their life as good as it could possibly be. The thought never crosses their mind. They take whatever comes and drift through it, closer to a leaf blown around than to a samurai.
Think about that difference. A real samurai is like a crystal. You never catch one in a fog of confusion. They see the job, they do the job, and they stay clear of the misery. How? By deciding ahead of time what they're going to create.
When I run someone through the Passion Test, I have them write that opening line and then walk down the parts of life that carry weight for them. I read off the categories one by one. Health. Education. Career. Spirituality. Fun. Relationships. And the environment you live in. Where are you, physically?
Take me, for example. Right now I'm sitting in a house I share with Marci Shimoff and another friend in Northern California. It looks out over the ocean and the San Francisco Bay, up in the mountains. It's an unbelievable spot. I also have a log cabin back in the Midwest, and a third place in Copenhagen.
None of that happened by accident. I got clear. That's the whole trick, and it's exactly what I did for myself. I sat with the questions: What does it feel like? What does the house look like? What's inside it? What's in front of me, and what's behind me? You keep asking until the picture sharpens into something you can see.