Our Passion Chooses Us”: Three Questions to Stop the Chase

Tom Greene

For the past four years I’ve been on a passion-quest, of sorts. They used to call it a mid-life crisis. And in that crisis you typically bought a convertible Porsche and picked up a girlfriend half your age. Both are very exciting and very expensive. Seems like a lot of trouble to me.

My passion-quest has been more of an Admiral Stockdale moment. Remember him? He was billionaire Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 Presidential election. Admiral Stockdale went on national television in a debate and humorously asked the American people, “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” The mainstream press and Saturday Night Live crucified him. The campaign never recovered.

Like most people I’m searching for that one, true passion. That one thing that will keep me up late at night and will get me out of bed before my iPhone starts ringing and vibrating at 6am.

In middle age it’s like our souls thirst for quenching. And our minds waste innumerable hours on a quest to find that one true thing that will quench our thirst. The thirst for meaning and purpose.

This self-induced passion quest led me to a six minute documentary called Jim Carrey: I Needed Color. Click here and watch it. Now I know you’re thinking about Jim Carrey-the actor. And that’s the right…