Are you living your life passionately? Life is too short to be slogging along without a sense of passion and purpose in your life. However, that’s exactly the way most of us live our lives. What happened to the exciting and ambitious ideas you had as a child? Are they gone forever?
You’re going to have to work diligently at whatever you choose to do if you want to be successful. It only makes sense to spend that time and effort on something that’s meaningful to you. Can you be more committed to your freedom and happiness than you are to your comfort zone?
Find your passion and experience life to the fullest!
Are these reasons keeping you from discovering your passion?
- You lack the necessary experience. While a few people choose the course of their lives by the age of six, most of us need more experience to make that determination. You can’t know what it’s like to play the piano, race a car, or write a screenplay until you’ve actually spent some time doing those things. Even when I was very young, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I loved words, paper, pens, pencils and everything associated with writing. (Those were pre-computer days!) When I was 8 or 9, I sent some short stories off to The New Yorker and The Atlantic. A very kind editor at the Atlantic sent me back a note telling me that I had to live a little more life, but that I should keep writing. I never forgot that note and have written pretty consistently for most of my life, except for several years when I took a career detour. Having the time and freedom to write has not only been coming back to a childhood interest. It has been coming home to my passion.
- Passion comes from experience. Spend some time doing the things you think you might love to do.
- You’re too comfortable and have forgotten what you love. Dreams and passion start to die as soon as you take a job primarily for financial stability. You quickly lose sight of what you love to do in the name of comfort and convenience. In my own life, my career detour came when I realized the rigors of the creative life. It scared me, as a specter of poverty loomed over adult life. So I went to law school and didn’t write a word for nearly two decades, other than professional writing. Were those wasted years? No, I don’t think so. But getting back to functioning in my passion and ability is being able to do what I love – writing, not just what I tolerated.
- Spend some time thinking about and experiencing the things you once loved to do. It might spark some new ideas.
- Avoid being too practical. You’re more capable than you believe. Nearly any passion can be turned into a significant income.
- Your ideas lack a creative component. People are destined to create something. Whether it’s molding the minds of children in the classroom, designing a skyscraper, or a building a string of dry cleaners, many careers thrive with creativity. No one fantasizes about working in a cubicle. A fabulous example of this is a dear friend of mine, also an attorney. He is now a judge and writes crime novels! His professional life fed his writing passion and it has all worked together for good.
- In most cases, your greatest passions and utmost joy will come from something that allows you to be creative.
- You’re projecting too far into the future. It’s easy to become discouraged if your passion will take a long period of time to achieve. Becoming a rock star or an orthopedic surgeon won’t happen overnight. It’s easy to think that all the steps leading up to a big goal are meaningless. I think the key here is persistence. When I first put pen to paper, if I had let myself become concerned with literary agents and publisher agreements, I would probably have become intimidated and clammed up. But I wrote and I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. Today, I go back to some of that really old writing and find some gems that I can improve and work with! These early works only exist because I set aside worry about the future and just wrote.
- But all of those steps are part of the journey and just as worthwhile. In fact, they’re not just obstacles, but learning opportunities necessary to make your passion a reality.
- You’re not good at dealing with discomfort. When you think about your passion, you might feel uncomfortable. After all, if you’re sleeping on your mom’s couch with $37 dollars to your name, how will you ever become the next bestselling author? You must be able to step out of your comfort zone in order to change your life for the better. You might also have to SACRIFICE – a concept we don’t talk about much anymore. If you want to be a writer/musician/artist/whatever, you might still have to work “a job” to support your passion. It’s the way of the world. If that kind of work and commitment does not appeal to you, then perhaps your passion is not really a passion.
A real passion won’t disappear. It has its grip on you for all of your life.
6. You spend too much time dreaming, not doing. Get off the Internet and do something!
No matter how you’ve been living, you can change. The difference between pursuing your passion and taking the safe, boring path is tremendous. Regardless of your age, you can begin living your passion right now. You give your best to the world and your family when you’re excited, committed, and fully engaged.
What passion have you left covered, ignored, un-nurtured? Can you find a slice of your life to pursue it?
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