By Daniel G Taylor
"Passions are like breadcrumbs leading you onto the path of discovering your destiny," says chris attwood, co-author of The Passion Test. "That's the reason we tell people to take the passion test every three to six months."
When Janet Attwood—The Passion Test's co-author, and former wife to Chris—retook the Test in 2003, she asked herself, "If nothing's outsidethe range of what I could do, what would I do?"
She found a passion to spend time with the enlightened. "That was a passion I wasn't aware of before—each time you take the Passion Test, you go deeper." The story of how Janet lived this passion, adventuring across India, is weaved through The Passion Test.
The Passion Test reveals the findings of a survey of 100 of the most influential, financially successful people in the United States of America. "These powerful, successful people had totally fulfilled the five things that they felt were most necessary for their ideal life." The Passion Test shows you how to identify those five things and then teaches you how to fulfil them.
On the journey of living their passions, Janet and Chris have changed the world. Together they're co-founders of online magazine HealthyWealthynWise (www.healthywealthynwise.com); they created the Enlightened Millionaire Program with Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen; and they're founding members of Jack Canfield's Transformational Leadership Council—a result of Jack taking the Passion Test.
Janet works with homeless women in transition and has created The Empowered Women's Series with women such as Byron Katie, Marci Shimoff, Rickie Byars Beckwith and Lisa Nichols.
Chris combines deep spirituality with compassionate capitalism, having worked as president, chief operating officer, general manager or CEO of 10 companies. He's also learned the importance of ranking your passions.
"When my wife and I married, she told me it was important to spend four to six months living in Europe [so she can spend time with her family]. In the past it would have been a huge and major decision: Do I give up my businesses and spend time with my wife? Or do I give up my wife?
"It's not only knowing your passions, but their priority. I knew my wife was more important than my business, and when you choose in favour of your passions, things come together in ways you don't expect.
"Over the past five years we've spent five months each year living overseas, and even during our time away, the business has prospered."
by Janet & Chris Attwood
If you want to live your ideal life—where you feel joy and satisfaction—then The Passion Test will serve as a faithful tool on your journey.
The Passion Test process is simple (see the main article). The challenge lies in living your passions and the book provides tools to overcome the obstacles you'll face.
The second part of the book is stories of people who live their passions in their day-to-day lives, including Stephen M.R.Covey, Jay Abraham, Marci Shimoff, and Dr John Hagelin.
Since reading and applying The Passion Test at the end of 2007, my life has been an extraordinary adventure, that has seen me do the unexpected—spruiking, anyone?—plus many dreams I'd left unfulfilled, including studying Professional Writing at TAFE, restoring my Christian faith and pursuing copywriting.
Ultimately, the beauty of The Passion Test is its simplicity. You'll revisit it often on the path to your ideal life.
Marketed toward people who are yet to create their ideal life, what relevance does The Passion Test have to the seasoned traveller?
"Its simplicity," says Chris. "It's powerful and effective no matter where one is on the stream. Whether you're at the stage of getting a house, getting a car, or you've been on the path for sometime. As you go on, your passions become more enduring."
The Passion Test is a two-step process:
Simply having these answers will inspire you, but it's not enough to create your ideal life. To make them real requires the courage to choose in favour of your passions—to follow Chris's trail of breadcrumbs—that is, to live a life that puts your passions first.
"It's not a lightening bolt but a process," Janet says. "Knowing our passions matters whenever we're faced with a decision or opportunity. Will it move me closer or further away from my passion?
"Most people begin to feel a sense of purpose as they make choices in favour of their passions day by day, month after month. You don't have to know your purpose in life, just act in favour of your passions."
"One of the things we love about the Passion Test is that it applies to everyone wherever they are," says Chris. "Whether they're locked up in a detention centre, they're a house wife, or they're a CEO."
As an example, Chris tells of the time they presented the Passion Test to a large group of 13-17-year-old boys in a youth detention centre. After two hours, security came to check on them. Veteran guards said in 20 years they hadn't seen the boys engaged like this.
Janet speaks with authority when she says, "Just follow the breadcrumbs and then life begins to naturally be filled with a sense of purpose.
It's time for each and every one of us to really understand the point that living our passions will lead us to doing something for humanity—and that's when we'll know true happiness."
Daniel G. Taylor reads 52 books a month to keep his readers and audiences at their peak.
Reach him at daniel@danielgtaylor.com.
