How to FIND YOUR PASSION!

We are in incredibly exciting times right now. Economic uncertainty. Where are we heading. How do I continue. What some are looking at with lots of concern others take as an opportunity to try something new in this exact moment. If not now then when?

This is exactly the situation that I was in twelve years ago after the big banking crash as it was the last time the economy collapsed. Looking back at it now it was a big gift for me. If this wouldn’t have happened I might have ended up as a “normal” corporate employee and possibly wouldn’t have dared to chase my passion. I am very grateful for that to this day because otherwise I wouldn’t be an event host, keynote speaker and executive legacy coach.

So I’m taking you on a journey. A journey where you realize that you also have the skills to find and live your passion. For this, I would like to tell you the story of my career – how I developed into someone who today, without fear, can stand on big international stages and entertain an audience. I will tell you how I make the stage my personal “Home of Magic Moments” and how I perform when it counts.

Find your passion = a life full of enthusiasm

My career as one of the best-known speakers in the German-speaking world began in 2008 when I finished my studies (business administration and sports management). I was very inexperienced and asked myself a lot of questions:

• How do I find my dream job?
• What do I want to be an expert in?
• What am I passionate about?

It was important to me not to be good at some 9-to-5 job, but to pursue a goal for which my enthusiasm will never fade. I wanted to find my purpose in life. Even back then, I observed many people in my circle of friends and closer surroundings who were successful, but who were not passionate about their work. People who were overstrained in their work and always far too close to a heart attack or burnout. In short, people who did not know their calling. People who did not enjoy their job.

There is not only one dream job – it depends on your passion!

I was already aware at that time that only with the right attitude towards life would I find my purpose, and thus also a dream job. A profession that would satisfy me in the long term and on top of that, as the icing on the cake, so to speak, would bring me success. I had to be able to find THE thing that was my passion and that also matched my personality. During my studies, I had already tried out many things, but in the long run, I was not satisfied. I wanted to find something that would really fascinate me. My passion was already there, it just needed to be discovered.

But how do you do that, especially when you have no idea what really satisfies you in the long run? I started to ask questions to myself, to dig deep inside myself and to observe myself.

What Tony Robbins and sports events have in common

Since 2000, for example, I have been working a lot with the world-class coach and bestselling author Tony Robbins. I absorbed his seminars and information like a sponge. Even then, as now, I had a very quick comprehension. I was also particularly fascinated by major sporting events.

Ronny with Tony Robbins in Hawaii 2001

When I was in large stadiums and watching international football matches, I felt an electricity in the air. I noticed that for a little while the world revolved around this one event. It was like being in a cosmos all of its own: a universe of excitement. I knew instinctively that’s where I wanted to go.

Finding your purpose: It’s all about timing…

Interestingly enough, in the same year that I finished my studies, the Rapid Vienna football club was looking for a stadium announcer for their youth academy teams. So for the first time, I hosted two matches in front of a small group of about 150 people. Little did I know, that that was to become the corner stone of my career. In the following years (between 2008 and 2012) I hosted a Rapid Vienna youth football match about once a month for almost 4 years. One year later, again somehow by chance, I was at a festival for sports university students. When the party was almost over and the sun was already rising, I took the initiative to ask a colleague if the position of stadium announcer for the local ice hocke team – Vienna Capitals – was available. She had no idea but she would ask. The next day she called me and said: “We’re looking for someone.” And, yes, that’s when my career really started.

Ronny at the American Football World Championship 2011

So in 2009, I hosted games with an audience of 3,500 to 4,000 enthusiastic people at a time. In 2011 I hosted a match of the national soccer team for the first time and the Austrian cup final. I was also invited to host the American Football World Championship 2011.  After positions at the Youth Olympic Games (2012) and the World Ski Championships in Schladming (2013), I was asked to host the Erste Bank Open – Austria’s most important tennis tournament – since 2014. In addition, I have also completed a speaker training course. It was clear to me that this was a great opportunity, and I wanted to do everything I could to improve myself. As the old saying goes… there is no second chance for a first impression.

How to find your passion with 7 simple questions

The right questions to find your passion

But I would like to come back to the question of how I found my passion and my purpose. It was actually quite simple: I asked myself these 7 simple questions at the right time.

1. What do I like to do in my free time?
2. What topics do I like to talk about with my friends?
3. What inspires me?
4. What moves me emotionally?
5. What do I like to spend money on?
6. What has inspired me since my childhood?
7. What topics do I like to read about and what interests me?

To find your passion is not only a question of motivation but also of observing what touches your heart. Finding your passion has a lot to do with emotions. Only when your audience, or in my case my viewers, realize that you are passionate about what you do can you be successful in the long run.

If you are still searching for your purpose, I can only recommend that you listen to yourself. Do not put yourself under pressure, but take all the time you need, because this is an important decision that will stay with you for a long time. Finding your one true passion is not just something you can do within five minutes; it took me months to discover where my journey would take me. And what I want to highlight as well: finding your purpose has nothing to do with finding a well-paid job!

There are also people who find their purpose in a social or charitable field and who are successful on this level. Everybody defines success differently. From being the best car mechanic in the world to increasing your stage presence and becoming a motivational speaker. You are the one who get’s to decide!

Does finding your purpose equal guaranteed success?

Once you have found your passion, it does not necessarily mean that you will become a millionaire in no time at all. However, it is very likely that if you do something you are passionate about, you will be very successful. If your profession is your passion, success, depending on how you define it (money or fame and status), is an inevitable consequence. To be clear, when you think about your purpose, it must not be primarily about money. Do it like me! I have always been firmly convinced that everything I do with enthusiasm will be good and successful. If I am good at something, or even the best in the world, then I will not have to worry about money. Then a way will open up to monetize my actions as well.

And last but not least, another very personal tip: try to spend as much time as possible with the people who inspire you and who are your role models. For example, if you want to become a coach, surround yourself with others who have been working in this profession for a long time and build up a network of coaches. I followed this tip myself and now I work as a coach in Tony Robbins’ team, something that I had already put in my head as my goal for 2001. It took 15 years until it became a reality.

What is your great passion? What are the biggest obstacles to discovering or pursuing that passion?

Your opinion is important! Comment here!

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