In the beginning of the film Meet Joe Black, Bill Parrish, a communications company mogul, shares his hopes for his daughter.He tells her that he wants her to “be deliriously happy or at least leave [herself] open to be.”I can’t think of many parents who wouldn’t wish this for their child.Understandably, however, this can prove difficult to carry out when we’re living in an age where we are most often encouraged to choose a career based solely on the best way to make a good living.While money is important, wouldn’t it make sense to spend forty years of your life contributing to something that inspires you?According to Deloitte’s Shift Index survey, approximately 80 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with their careers.While some muster up the courage to re-evaluate their interests and change careers, an astonishing amount of workers decide to ‘grin and bear it’.How are you pursuing passion in the workplace?Interestingly, our search for passion is not a recent endeavour.Plato’s writings have been teaching us about love and passion for centuries.As one of the greatest philosophers of our time, he observed that love and passion are characterised by feelings of permanent aspiration and desire, among other things.That being said, when we love what we do for a living, we carry a constant desire to be better and achieve more.In other words, passion for your work makes you a better person.Living in a society that teaches practicality in almost everything we do, we often ignore our inherent instincts to prioritise love and passion to the top of our lists.You might say that dream-chasing is unrealistic or that you have too many financial obligations to think beyond payday. You may be surprised to learn, however, that your passion may be sitting right in front of you. With the right strategy, you can uncover it from underneath the pile of papers on your desk and achieve a renewed sense of purpose and control over your happiness.What Is Important to You?Before setting off on any journey, the great explorer, Juan de Bermudez, always started with a clear intended course. Even though his original plan did not include the pleasant surprise of discovering the island of Bermuda, he needed a starting point. Your starting point should be good ol’ pen and paper. Find a quiet space and jot down all of your accomplishments, from making a friend smile to getting a promotion.Whether your accomplishments fill a notepad or a Post-it, you’re well on your way to finding your passion.Rank each accomplishment using a scale from 1-10.Take a moment to comb through your list and highlight any accomplishments that you’ve ranked 5, 6 or 7. As you analyse your higher scored accomplishments (the ones that are most important to you), you will begin to see patterns and common themes.Draw out the common themes and begin reflecting. What specifically made you feel inspired?Who Is Important to You?16th century poet, John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” Living with commonly individualistic mindsets, we very rarely think about the people who helped us achieve our potential.Once you’ve gathered enough information to truly understand where your passions lie, think about the people that helped you get there. Who are the encouragers in your life? More importantly, who has been an obstacle in your journey towards achieving passion in your career? Is there anyone that you can leave behind and/or take with you?What Risks Are You Willing to Take?Next, consider the financial and emotional risks that you are willing to take.Ask yourself what demands (i.e. time, money, social, etc) are realistic for you and your family at this stage in your career.Taking a look back to our list of achievements and the common themes, ask yourself if there are any parts of this list that can be done either in your personal life or within your current career.For example, if you discovered that your common theme was helping people, why not speak with management about taking on more of a client-facing role or begin volunteering at your local food bank and reignite your passion in a new and invigorating way.Keep in mind that regardless of our stage of life, we can always afford to take some risk. Ask yourself what is holding you back?For some, it’s negative people that must be confronted, for others, it’s overcoming a personal fear of being inadequate, rejected or, simply put, a failure.To be honest, I think it was best articulated by Theodore Roosevelt when he said, “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”Time to Get MovingFinally, create a vision and get moving. Take the time to really reflect on what you want your journey to look like and what must be put in place in order to successfully get there.You now know what you want so how will you make this happen? Stop waiting for tomorrow and start making changes to implement your new plan today.This column was submitted by the EAP. If you need help contact EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) of Bermuda on 292-9000.