Summer vacation. Sun, the pool, fruity tall, cool beverages…sounds great! Everyone loves a good vacation! But what should you do if it is your work passion that goes on vacation instead? Uh. Oh. What should you do to get it back?

I’ve had my personal work passion slip out the back door without me fully realizing it in the past. When I finally did, time—the one finite and most precious thing we all have—had passed. However, if I had to do it over again, here are three things I would check if my passion should ever go missing again:

Check in with your own gut

Chances are, you already know if your passion is headed south—you might just be choosing to ignore it. Make sure you check in with yourself for a passion accounting every quarter or so – make it a date with and for yourself – and check in. Otherwise, it may silently slip away, and then 6 months later, you’re panicking, and losing time to do what you love.

Check in with your top 10

I was recently at a conference, Invent Your Future Midwest, where one of the speakers said that when she radically changed her life, she sent a letter to the top 10 people of influence in her life to thank them for their contributions. Love. It!

If you have ten people of influence in your life that you feel like you can share scary things with safely, why not talk to them and share that you’ve just lost your work passion? They may be able to help as a search party. When you set your intentions with the universe and focus not on what you lost, but instead on what you want next, you’re heading in the right direction. Nothing like a personal neighborhood watch team to help you find that passion you lost!

Don’t check out at work

Sheryl Sandberg said it best, particularly about women: “Don’t leave before you leave.” That is, keep moving forward at work. Check in. Do the time. Serve to you maximum capacity up and until the day you leave the organization. This may be the hardest part until you find your big next thing, but until you reconnect with your passion, you still need to pay your bills. Furthermore, you may need a good reference one day.  So don’t leave before you leave—remain committed and work hard until you figure out your next passion play.

Last but certainly not least – realize that your next passion may well be right in front of your face; maybe it is at your current employer, but just in a different capacity.  Maybe you can build it yourself…? It’s worth asking. If the answer is no: another thing to check on your list – building your exit strategy at your current job, and your next big, sticky, exciting and passionate idea at the new.