While speaking with some new friends at Nanjing University, one of them asked me to define or describe passion. One of her teachers said that she lacked passion in her presentation. She admitted that she often gets nervous speaking in front of groups. This isn’t a unique case. I believe everyone gets a case of the jitters one time or another when placed in the spotlight. Her professor attributed it to a lack of passion and she was curious to find out what it was and how to obtain it.

To me, passion is an immense heartfelt action. It drives you. It motivates you. All at once, it’s everything. You can be passionate about one thing or many things. It’s knowledge of, and love for knowledge, acted out instinctually.

How do you show passion? I have an answer that I wrote, but ran across a better display of it  while watching the movie  Stranger than Fiction.  Below is dialog from what I like to call, the cookie scene.

Ana Pascal: Want a cookie?

Harold Crick: Oh no.

Ana: Come on, they’re warm and gooey and fresh out of the oven.

Harold: No, I don’t like cookies.

Ana: You don’t like cookies..? What’s wrong with you?

Harold: I don’t know.

Ana: Everybody likes cookies.

Harold: No, I know.

Ana: After a really awful, no good day, didn’t your momma ever make you milk and cookies?

Harold: No. My mother didn’t bake. The only cookies I ever had were store bought.

Ana: Okay… sit down.

Harold: No, I’m not…

Ana: No… Sit down.  …Now, eat… a cookie.

Harold: I… I really can’t.

Ana: Mr. Crick, it was a really awful day. I know. I made sure of it. So pick up the cookie, dip it in the milk, and eat it.

Harold: Wow… that’s a really, really good cookie. So when did you decide to become a baker?

Ana: Um, in college.

Harold: Oh, like a cooking college?

Ana: I went to Harvard Law, actually.

Harold: Oh. Oh, I’m sorry. I just assumed that…

Ana: …No, no… um, I just did it.

Harold: Something happen?

Ana: No. I was barely accepted. I mean, really, barely. The only reason they’d let me come was because of my essay. How I was going to make the world a better place with my degree. And, anyway, we would have to participate in these study sessions. My classmates and I… sometimes all night long. And so I’d bake. So no one would go hungry while we worked. Sometimes I would bake all afternoon in the kitchen and the dorm, and then I’d bring my little treats to study groups. And, people loved them.

Eat.

I’d make oatmeal cookies, peanut butter bars, dark chocolate, Macadamian nut wedges. And everyone would eat, stay happy, study harder, do better on the tests… Then more and more people started coming to the study groups and I would bring more snacks. And I was always looking for better and better recipes. Then soon, it was rocotta cheese and apricot croissants. And mocha bars with an almond glaze, and lemon chauffant cake with zesty peach icing. And at the end of the semester I had 27 study partners, 8 Meade journals filled with recipes, and a D average. So I dropped out. I just figured if I was going to make the world a better place, I would do it with cookies.

Ana: Do you like them?

Harold: I do.

Ana: I’m glad.

Harold: Thank you for forcing me to eat them.

Ana: You’re welcome.

But how do you show passion in a presentation? Or for a presentation?

When you’re giving a presentation, if you truly have passion, it will show itself. The only way that I know for certain how to “show” passion is to pick something that you really enjoy or want to do. These are things that cause you to want to learn more about something without any intervention. These are things that you are willing to spend so much time and effort on. Passion is usually tied with something you believe in; that you love. Will you fight for it? Will you champion it? In a presentation, the best way to show others your passion is to study your topic and become the expert of it, then engage your audience and ask them questions. Your excitement in your presentation will show and, in turn, will make them want to know more.

Here is the scene from Stranger than Fiction.