This is our first e-message to people who are interested in leading their lives with passion. Each month we will send you a short note with information, stories, examples, and practical things you can do to lead your life, work, and organizations with passion.

Leading With Passion
We like the term ‘leading with passion,’ because it has two very significant, but related meanings. The first suggests leading off with passion. That is, making the very first priority in your life to live, work, and play passionately, and to fully embrace every possible moment. Second, it means that we can lead our organizations, teams, and projects with passion – creating passionate work environments by transferring our own enthusiasm for the organization to all others who come into contact with it.

What We Can Learn From Angie Vachio
Angie Vachio leads her life with passion. As Executive Director and Co-Founder of PB&J Family Services in Albuquerque, NM she is responsible for the overall management of a diverse multi-site comprehensive therapeutic program serving over 700 at-risk families annually. PB&J Family Services operates Peanut Butter & Jelly Therapeutic Preschool and other parenting programs focused on child abuse and neglect prevention and family preservation.

“I live my life with passion just because that’s all I know how to do,” she says. “I feel passionately about everything I love and I love everything I do.” A remarkable statement coming from someone whose first child was born with disabilities, and then died at the age of fifteen; whose other son was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of twenty-six; who had to be the caregiver in her home growing up; and who was in an abusive marriage for many years. Many people would have given up on life. Not Angie.

There are four key ideas for passionate living we can learn from Angie.

1. Live Your Purpose and Know Who You Are
   
   Many people can’t make intentional choices about their lives because they have no idea what they would be passionate about doing. Angie lives each day with a sense of mission. She can do that because she has been through so much and knows herself so well. “I really believe in purpose,” she says. “I really believe that when we live purposefully, it is about passion. I am very, very sure of who I am, and about what I’m here to do.” The defining moment for her was when her son was born with disabilities. “I knew very clearly, if I allowed myself to be a victim, he would be a victim. That wasn’t an option.”
    

2. Take Charge of Your Choices
   
   She is intentional about choosing the life she wants to lead. “I make very deliberate choices,” she says. “I make choices about relationships. I make the choice about work arrangements. I make choices about my activities. I assure that my behavior aligns with my passion.” So many people talk a great game, but all their choices pull them away from what makes them passionate.
    

3. Learn from Life
   
   Angie took the events in her life that might have devastated others and used them to grow. For example, she says that “having to be a caretaker very early in life deprived me of a childhood, which I wish had been different. But it also taught me that I really needed to be strong and that I really needed to be pretty resilient.” How do you respond to life’s adversities?
    

4. Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow
   
   If there is anything that life has taught Angie, it’s that we can’t wait to experience passion in our lives. “One of the things I’m so sure of having lost my kids, two of them anyway, that I feel so sure of, it’s about living every single day like it’s your last.” The time to live passionately is now.
   
   Angie received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Mexico in 2002. She is affecting the lives of thousands of people in at-risk families every day. She lives her life with passion.

What will you do to make your life more meaningful, richer, and enjoyable? Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Leading with Passion is a regular communication from Michael Kroth and Patricia Boverie. Michael and Patricia have been researching passionate work since 1999, and their book, Transforming Work: The Five Keys to Achieving and Sustaining Trust, Commitment, and Passion in the Workplace, is about the indispensable necessity of passion for personal and organizational success in the workplace.

© Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved Patricia Boverie and Michael Kroth