The Passion Test helped me to get crystal clear on my life purpose and it can help you find yours too! This is my story of how I came to discover the power of The Passion Test.

While attending a seminar in Calgary with my wife, I had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Janet Attwood, co-author of the NY Times Bestseller, “The Passion Test”. The Passion Test is supposed to be “the effortless path to discovering your life purpose”. According to Janet, we all have a unique purpose or destiny to fulfill and our passions are clues to finding it. That made sense to me because everyone I’ve ever known or heard of who was successful, fulfilled and truly happy was also very passionate about their work, sport or cause (think about Warren Buffett, Wayne Gretzgy or Mother Teresa).

In my case, I was very passionate about snow skiing and for 25 years I was a ski instructor, ski school director and even owned my own ski and snowboard school business. I sold the business in 2007 because I was no longer passionate about it, or about skiing for that matter. Then, faced with reality of reinventing my life and not really having a new passion to put my energy into I dived headfirst into the world of personal growth courses with Peak Potentials Training and real estate investing education with Greg Habstritt. At first I thought that I wanted to be a professional trainer of something (but what?). Then it was a full-time real estate investor. After a year or so I became a self-employed marketing coach and over the past 18 months have built a successful business called Small Business Makeovers that helps self-employed people increase their sales.

Geoff with Janet Attwood, Co-creator of The Passion Test.

Geoff with Janet Attwood, Co-creator of The Passion Test.

Anyway, back to the Passion Test. I was in that seminar that day attending Greg Habstritt’s SimpleWealth seminar in Calgary. Greg gets some of the best speakers in the same room and puts on a great event. When Janet Attwood took us through The Passion Test, I realized that one of my top 5 passions was to figure out what I was passionate about! I had been on that quest for a couple of years and felt like I was getting close to the answer. Although I’m not sure that the Passion Test was “effortless”, it definitely was an elegant and simple process that gets you to write down the things that mean the most to you and then narrows it down to your Top 5 Passions.

After taking the Passion Test, I realized that I still had some work to do because some of my Top 5 Passions felt like “shoulds” rather than passions. For example, “Enjoying perfect health” came up as my #2 Passion but I soon realized that although I want to be healthy, it is not a true passion. I’m quite happy to be in good health but don’t feel inspired to work out every day and put a lot of attention on healthy lifestyle. So I re-took the test and came up with a new Top 5 and this time, the “shoulds” didn’t make the list.

One of the secrets that Janet shared with us was to choose in favor of your passions when ever you have a decision to make or an opportunity come up. So when Janet invited us to go deeper and become Certified Passion Test Facilitators I knew it was the right thing for me since one of my passions was to discover my passions! After completing the 3 day certification program, my wife and I are now helping other people to discover their passions and it’s very rewarding for us. I’ve held 8 workshops and given about 20 personal consultations so far and most importantly have helped many people discover their passions. I’ve also made some great new friends and business connections with other facilitators.

I highly recommend The Passion Test if you want to discover your passions and life purpose.