Passion to find a passion

G asked me what I have been up to recently since I missed my last meeting. I told him I've been thinking about a very important question- i.e. What is my passion?! G said everyone in the business world has been talking about finding passion recently, it was a trend.

Well, I guess I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone.

Then I told G, "You know what, speaking of which, I think my passion is to find a passion!";)

Ha, I thought it sounded funny and actually it is fun to play around with words.

I'm grateful to know G. G constantly reminded me of developing my "innate humor" (Who knows if this is my superpower ;)) since it can really enhance my communication (i.e. to diffuse a tense situation or to get the points across). And now, other than studying, I have my excuse/ valid reason to watch my favourite sitcoms and also visit the comedy clubs more often :).

A Quote of Passion from Celini

"Passion without action, it's only an illusion."- Celini

My friend Celini was saying this sentence in her presentation earlier this week and people started wondering where she found this quote from. Actually she wrote it herself!

Passion and The Little Prince

I'm glad that Lori brought up some tips and pointers on finding passion. I'm also happy that someone did ask that question of "How do you find your passion?" (That is an excellent question, by the way ;))

Here's the point that I particularly like, "passion is something that you find in the oddest places sometimes during the journey. It’s rarely a destination....I know you’ll find it or it will find you. Trust me".

Somehow this reminds me of the story of The Little Prince. If you have heard of the story, the Little Prince left his asteroid to explore the universe in order to cure his loneliness (since he thought the love from his rose was insincere as the rose lied to him once). So he travelled to different planets and finally arrived at the Earth.

On the Earth, he met a Fox (it is indeed a wise fox!). This is what the Fox told the Little Prince, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.....It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important." This helped the Little Prince to realise that he still loves the rose on his asteroid.

The Little Prince went through a journey/space travelling to find out what love is. Though we may not have to go to a desert to talk to a fox, it is still a journey to find out what we love to do in life.

If what is essential is invisible to the eye, then passion is probably intangible too. Hopefully when I find it, I can also see it with my heart. Yeah, I know, there's no quick fix in this matter- I can't buy a Instant Passion Mix from Wal-mart, bid a second-hand/used passion on Ebay, nor getting a brand new passion with discount at Amazon. This is a DIY project.

P.S. What if I'm really good at the art of doing nothing? ;)

Updates on Actuarial Passion

Though some of you may not think about your actuarial work when you are on vocation, I believe some of us do have a passion on studying and passing the actuarial exams.

My friend S told me that she studied some of her Life Contingencies portions of Exam M while she was traveling to Europe! (How romantic when you are working on a reserve problem in an Italy espresso bar?!)

And I also have to admit that I studied for the actuarial exams every spring break for the last three years. (No fancy places for me, just the heartland of America ;))

(It may sound too nerdy to some people, but we do enjoy taking the challenge;))

Do you love your Actuarial work?

I was reading some quotes of Donald Trump at No Limits Ladies this morning. Somehow the quote on "loving what you do" stucked in my head. K wrote, "His point was that the person who takes a month off and doesn’t think about his work or the office, is never going to be truly successful because frankly, he doesn’t care enough."

There are quite a lot of people taking vacations during the holiday season (myself included). One of my co-workers went to Hawaii for two weeks right after the actuarial exam. I wonder if he ever thought about "his work or the office" (I bet he didn't. I don't think I would neither. Who do, really, when you are in Hawaii?)

From another article, Trump wrote, "If you don’t have passion, everything you do will fizzle out, or be mediocre, at best. "

Do you really love the actuarial work you do every day? Or you are in the actuarial field just because of the job pays the bill?

Everyday at work, whenever I remember, I ask myself, "Is this the work I really enjoy doing? What's the meaning behind the work that I do? Does it make a difference to the world?"