Holly, I believe that once we have passion, we can develop all the other qualities. Without passion nothing will work. Your comments.
Yes, passion i think is essential to most great endeavors.
However, i don't think of passion as being universally good. I think it depends on how it is directed and applied. Passion is like a strong and energetic horse... the better the horse, the better you should be sure of your riding skills, so you can direct it properly and safely.
On the bad side, passions can represent an utter lack of self-control... of anger and violence, lust, addictions, and a lack of consistency of effort.
My family was very passionate and valued passion. My father had/has passion for art and intellect, and encouraged his children to pursue their interests with passion and without regard for conformity or making a living. hahah
My mother's passions were for art, music, and sentimentality. But they each had a darker side of passion, too, which hopefully i have avoided. I think we tend to pick up passion from our childhood modeling.
I also think we pick up passion from living through dramatic events. Many people here on this forum have lived through dramatic events. It forges people to care strongly about many things. I have a theory about this... i think when we live through such events we absorb energy... and that energy does not just fade away. Either we consciously redirect it to accomplish some good... or it will work against us in the form of depression, addiction, anger, or some other negative way.
I think this is where traits no.s 3 and 4 come into play... strategy and values. Strategy helps you to direct passion to lead you to places you wish to go, and not where you would not wish to go. Values, of course, helps you do it hopefully without harming yourself or others.
I'm not sure though why traits no. 1 (passion) and 5 (energy) are listed seperately, or why traits no. 6 (bonding) and 7 (communication) are considered so different?
