Quiz: How Passionate Are You?

Research as well as my 20 years of experience shows that being passionate in life can inspire greater success, productivity and happiness in many areas. Work and personal relationships as well as physical and mental health improve when we feel a strong calling—a zest for life and the things and people in it.

I have developed this quiz to help you assess how passionate you are so that you can begin to either embrace the great skills that you have or you can work on the areas that you need to improve upon. The good news is, no matter what you score, you can always learn to be more passionate.

How do you rate on the passion scale?

Read each statement below and ask yourself whether, for you, it is true or false. Then add up your "trues" to find out your passion score, below.

1. I get excited about the things I like to do.
2. I would rather be awake doing what I love than sleeping.
3. I would consider myself a person who gets more enthusiastic than the average person.
4. I can be driven to action by my anger.
5. I can be driven to action by my feelings of happiness.
6. I am emotional and my emotions tend to be powerful.
7. I have a good sense of what my purpose is in life and I pursue it.
8. I take risks for things that I view to be important.
9. If I feel strongly about something, I invest energy into it.
10. I prioritize doing things that I love.
11. I try to direct my attention toward people, places and things that make me feel good.
12. I talk with others about the things that I am passionate about.
13. I consider myself to be driven.
14. I know what I want and I try to go after it.
15. I often push myself to my limit.
16. When I am excited about something, I often go after it “full speed ahead.”
17. I often get so wrapped up in doing what I love that I lose track of time.
18. I try to get others involved in my favorite activities.
19. I take time to figure out what is important to me.
20. I often feel like I cannot relax until I accomplish something I am working on.
21. If I am interested in something, I can be known to research it in a driven and motivated way.
22. I push past my fears if there is something on the other side that I want.
23. I have so much I want to do that I sometimes don’t have time to do it all.
24. I believe that you can always do more, be more and learn more.
25. If I set a goal, I typically meet it.
26. Unless there are extreme circumstances, I always make time for what I love.
27. I take a stand for causes that are important to me.
28. I speak up about topics that I value.
29. I hope that my enthusiasm rubs off on others.
30. Even if I have a bad day or feel down, I try to motivate myself to do something positive.
31. I dream about doing great things.
32. If one thing doesn’t work out, I work hard to find something else.
33. I would call myself brave.
34. I would call myself enthusiastic.
35. I would call myself focused.
36. I would call myself motivated.
37. I would call myself open to new people, opportunities and ideas.
38. I am dedicated and motivated to learn and grow.
39. When I do something I love, I want others to experience my joy.
40. When I think of the word passionate, I think of me.

Passion score:

30-40: You, my friend, are a highly passionate person. You are generally highly motivated, enthusiastic and goal-oriented. The one caution here: Be careful not to neglect the key people in your life or your responsibilities. Sometimes those of us who are the most passionate can lose sight of other important things in favor of our passion.

20-29: You are a person who is passionate and allots some time and energy toward your passions without going overboard. Ask yourself if you can find a way to carve out more space in your life to enjoy what it is you are passionate about. If some of your passions are limited due to fear or financial means or other obstacles, develop a plan to overcome those challenges.

10-19: You know what it is you are passionate about, but you need to work on setting goals and gaining tools to spend more time and energy investing in your passions. It would be beneficial for you to place some more focus on this area of your life so that you can get maximum fulfillment.

0-9: Being passionate does not come easily to you, but you can learn to infuse more of this great feeling into your life if you wish. Make a decision to invest more time, energy and planning into finding what it is you love and into making more of those types of experiences. If you feel a bit stuck on how to go about this, enlist friends, family or other support to help get you going.

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Stacy Kaiser is a successful Southern California-based licensed psychotherapist, author, relationship expert and media personality. She is an editor-at-large for Live Happy, and the author of the bestselling book, How to Be a Grown Up: The Ten Secret Skills Everyone Needs to Know.