Not Sure What You Love?
Take a Look at What You Hate!

One of the main tenets of the Platinum Living Network is that "getting the best out of the rest of your life" involves the discovery, cultivation and pursuit of one's passion(s). Just about everything I have read, or written, on this topic, includes "passion discovery" as a basic step in the retirement process, and a key to answering that all-important question, "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?"

When I covered this topic in February, I shared some simple tests which are designed to eliminate the perceived constraints of money or time in order to help you discover your true passions.

Recently, however, I was reminded of another effective method of self discovery, which comes at this target from the OPPOSITE direction under the premise that an equally effective way to discover what you LOVE might be to look at what you HATE.

When I first heard of this, I have to admit that it was one of those "light dawns on Marblehead" moments. It's so obvious, and yet I had never thought to approach it in that way. The speaker used an example that will no doubt be very familiar to all of you boomers out there... Popeye the Sailor. To refresh your memory (or for the uninitiated), every Popeye cartoon followed the same basic format. Popeye's arch enemy Brutus would be bullying either Popeye or Olive Oyl, and his evil deeds would get progressively worse until Popeye finally reached the limit of his patience, at which point he would utter his famous line,

"That's all I can stand, I can't stand no more!"
At last, he would produce his can of spinach and set the world right again.

For many of us, our life passion is all about setting something right again. There is something that we have seen in our lives that we hate so much that we have had that same feeling ... "That's all I can stand, I can't stand no more."

For some of us, it may be disease that afflicts a good friend or family member. For others, it may be an injustice that makes us so angry that we just have to set it right.

So here's another tool that we are putting in our Platinum Tool Box to help you "find your passion." If our other passion tests have left you cold, maybe the key to finding what you LOVE to do is all wrapped up in setting right those things you HATE. - Bob

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