I have a sister who is 12 years younger than me, and I enjoy passing on my wisdom to her. Mostly this takes the form of music recommendations, but sometimes I pass on something that really matters. Here’s a nugget of wisdom I wish someone had shared with me when I was her age:

Passion doesn’t always come before action. Sometimes passion is the result of action.

I took far, far too long to start blogging because I was waiting for the Perfect Topic. Without ever thinking consciously about it, I was wandering down the roads of life, waiting for a thunderbolt of Inspiration. Shazam! I would know my passion.

But very rudely, no thunderbolt ever came. Every time some well-meaning helpful person said, “You have to build a business around your passion!” I would shuffle my feet and look away. I had a lot of stuff I liked, but I didn’t have a Passion. It was a lot like being colour-blind.

But eventually, for very practical reasons, I started a website. I chose my topic: something I knew a reasonable amount about, something I liked. I quietly mourned my lack of passion, but decided to give it a go anyway.

I plugged away at the website: writing articles, tweaking the theme, adding new pages. Doing diligent hard work.

Within 2 months I was insanely passionate. I wrote a manifesto, I woke up at 5am to write a post every day, I worked harder than I ever have. And the harder I worked, and the more people I helped, and the more articles I wrote, and the more results I got, the more my passion grew.

I could see all the colours! Why didn’t anyone tell me it could be this easy?

So I told my sister, and I’m telling you: you don’t need to start with passion. Passion grows as you act.

Have you had the same experience? Tell us in the comments!