Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
You can’t find your passion, thinking about it in your head. Marie Forleo
How long will it take…? It will probably depend on how often we practice, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
This weekend was the Toastmasters District Conference on Zoom. This was my first time being an author on Author’s Corner. There were four authors and in our own breakout room, visitors came to see us. What an interesting group of people came to talk to me, and so many people would like to write something, but they don’t have time, don’t know how to start, don’t know if they should, or like someone who visited me, has been entrusted with her father’s writings and is expected to do something with them.
It is a daunting process, and we make it more daunting by building it bigger in our minds than it is. We worry about publishing and how our writing will be received before we write it.
I listened to a valedictorian speech posted to YouTube on the weekend and he said he found out he was being considered to be a valedictorian candidate and so he worked really hard and won the honor. He felt so good for fifteen seconds, and then there was the sixteenth second when he thought of what he had given up to get the award, and it didn’t seem worth it. He didn’t have the experiences he could have had in his last year of high school because he was focused on an award.
It makes sense working toward an award hollows out the award, and what if you don’t get the expected award? What if he hadn’t known he was in the running for the valedictorian award and he got it? It probably would have been a better experience and the icing on the cake of a wonderful last year of high school. Don’t we love it when people are genuinely surprised when they win an award? Don’t we love it when something comes to us that we weren’t expecting?
Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you. Oprah Winfrey.
We expect to feel more from a big achievement, what we don’t realize often is the joy comes from the doing, and when the project is complete, so is the joy. This is why at the end of a project we need a new project to work on because if we don’t start something new we will feel empty, lost, and adrift. This is why when the heavy days of parenting are over, and the nest is empty we need something to pour ourselves into. Creative endeavors, volunteer work, and becoming involved in service organizations can give us passion and purpose. We learn by helping others that we also help ourselves.
If being part of an author’s corner were only about begging people to buy our books it might seem empty. But talking to people about a writing journey they might want to take, or about how writing expands our lives, and getting out of our comfort zone is where the growth is, it becomes a joy.
When we talk to someone that has done what we want to do it expands our horizons, if they can do it, why can’t we? There are so many resources for us to learn to do whatever we want to do. How long will it take to learn what we want to learn? That will depend on how much time and effort we put into it. Will it make us rich and famous? Probably not, but that isn’t where the joy is. If our goal is to be rich and famous that might be a hollow victory, but if our goal is to do what is in us to do and somehow through luck and serendipity, hard work and perseverance we get rich and famous, then that is just a fact of life and the fruit of our labor.
Is there something we want to do we haven’t attempted yet? What are we waiting for?
Look. You can’t plan out your life. What you have to do is first discover your passion – what you really care about. Barack Obama
If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen for you. To you and because of you. Alan Armstrong
If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it. Wanda Sykes
Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
