To people who have lived on the edge, pushed the envelope, wrestled with life, and lived on drama, crisis, and adrenaline, balance and boring seem to go together.

Surprisingly, perhaps to some anyway, living in balance is not possible without passion. We may have confused passion and adrenaline. Passion is the laser-like focusing of our creative life force, infusing it with enthusiasm, filling it with energy, seasoning it with love, and living it with aplomb.

We do not create passion. It wells up within us like an overflowing spring when we allow it. Let's not confuse passion with overdoing or with workaholism. Workaholism devours while passion enlivens. Our passion does not require us to be destructive to ourselves for its sake.

Passion is the true vehicle for aliveness.