This post is part of the Get Excited About Life Series.

Life is 10000 times better when you are excited about it. To be excited about life you have to figure out what in it gets you excited.

What to get excited about?

No one can tell you what you should be excited about.

One persons passion may be anything Apple and the latest video games whereas another person may spend endless hours researching greek mythology. Every person is different, but that fact doesn’t help you find out what you are excited about. So how do you figure out where your passion is. Here are some ways I key in on mine.

• Listen to your heart – This is more about watching your energy levels. When you are involved in something that excites you, you will find that you seem to have a huge surge of energy appear from nowhere
• Listen to your head – Generally people spend a lot of time thinking about things they like. Carry a notepad with you during the day and note down topics you think about whenever you remember. At the end of the day (do this over a few days) look for the most popular topics. Then see if those topics trigger your energy levels
• Listen to your mouth – Some people aren’t good at watching their thoughts, however if they are excited by something they will often talk at a much greater length on the topic. During any conversation you have, listen to how much you say (or the questions you ask) to see if it’s something you are interested in
• Listen with your eyes – As you go through your days, look around you at everything that is going on. If you see people exercising and get excited then maybe you have a passion for being fit. If you see graffiti or an art exhibition and get excited, maybe you have a passion for painting or collecting art. See something amazing in a movie, maybe you want to do those things
• Listen with your body – Try new things. Go places you haven’t been, particularly look out for events showcasing things that you might not have seen before. Visit markets and try things that your friends are passionate about. Doing new things opens up new possibilities, one of which might just direct you to a passion

When you pick up on something that you think might be a passion write it down on a passion page or something. So you can come back to it and reevaluate your excitement.

An example of my own, is how I found my passion for martial arts. Watching martial arts movies with the likes of Jet Li and Jackie Chan always excited me with their precision and power. But I was even more excited by movies based abound Samurai and the Japanese sword. In addition I found myself dwelling through the online archives of tales about samurai and the culture that surrounded them. I knew a friend who practiced Iaido which is effectively a martial art using the japanese katana. Investigating further I found that it also embraced a lot of traditional japanese customs. So I tried it out and found my self loving it!

The above methods revolve around looking at all the input that we receive everyday and paying extra attention to the things that tend to bring us to life. Once you have identified what makes you excited to be alive, your life can begin to take on a whole new shape.

How did you find a passion?

Next post in the series is Pinpointing Your Passion