Holding on to Passion

A while back, I did a series of posts on finding and living your life passion. (If you haven't read them, check them out: parts one, two, three, and four.) In the series, I talk about ways to discover what you are passionate about, and also how to begin living those passions once you discover them.

Passion for something is a wonderful thing. It makes us feel alive; it gives us a sense of purpose and drive. But if we're not careful, passion can smolder and eventually die. Sometimes this will be a natural thing, as our dreams and passions definitely change as time passes. But sometimes the loss of passion happens because we lose focus or because we are no longer taking action.

I've found this to be the case for me lately. I haven't taken enough action toward my dreams. I really haven't engaged in enough action, period. As a result, my life feels smothered, lifeless, and I feel myself losing all sense of passion for the things I once loved. I don't want that to happen, so it's time to make a change.

As I read back over my series on finding life passion, I saw a common theme: passion requires action. Just as our physical bodies require action (i.e. exercise) to prevent atrophy and the breakdown of the body, our minds and hearts do too. Even if you were living your life deliberately and with passion a few months ago, if you do not take the necessary actions right now, you won't feel the benefits now. I'm at just such a place, so I need this reminder.

What is holding me back from living my life the way I know I want to? Here are some of the biggest ones:

1. Fear. Passion and purpose can be scary, because you might fail. You might not get what you want, so it can be easy to rationalize that you don't really want to go for it. Or that you will take action later. It's true, your dreams will always be around, but if you don't take action NOW, you may be missing out on some amazing opportunities.
2. Complacency. Do you know why we get stuck in ruts? Because they're comfortable. They're easy. You don't have to extend yourself or make a lot of effort. Sometimes you need a little break where you are comfortable. But if you stay comfortable in life, you aren't moving anywhere or growing your soul.
3. Distractions. I say distractions, but what I mean is distraction, because my main distraction is the Internet, and I freely admit that. I'm not proud of it, but I'm coming clean and saying that the Internet is my biggest time waster and I want it to stop!

So what do we do? How do we start taking action toward our goals and dreams? How do we push past fear, complacency and all the distractions out there? I'm not certain we can ever fully beat these monsters, but if we don't fight them by taking action, they take over and we lose. Is that dramatic? Maybe. But if we don't take action now, before we know it life will be over. All we have is today. So...here's what I pledge to do, starting today.

1. I pledge to act on my feelings. Sometimes I think to myself, "I should call so-and-so" or "I should start playing guitar again." Well, needless to say, I don't often actually DO the things I think about. When I get a prompting, I will act on it.
2. I pledge to actively live my life, every day. By this I mean that I will enjoy the moments I have right now. I will seek out new experiences, do instead of think, and actively BE the person I know I am meant to be.
3. I pledge to cut distractions from my life. This is a hard one. I use the Internet for work, for communication, for entertainment. But it also wastes my precious time. I'm going to find ways to get it out of my life as much as I can. I'll detail this in a future post. Instead of allowing my mind and heart to be distracted, I want to be active, to live, to be.

Do you have things holding you back from your passions? Tell us in the comments what is holding you back and what you pledge to do in order to live your best life!

Setting goals for the new year

The new year is coming soon - have you thought about goals for the coming year? I know several people who don't like new year's resolutions, preferring instead to constantly update their goals. I think that's great too. But I like the way the new year feels like a clean slate. The year 2008 has never happened before. So no matter what I did in 2007, the year 2008 is wide open for me.

So I set goals every year. I usually focus on five areas:

• Spiritual - For some this may mean volunteering, getting in tune with nature, or building a relationship with God.
  
• Physical - Health and fitness are always important, and I have to renew efforts in this area or I lose focus.
  
• Intellectual - I like to find a way to learn something new each year.
  
• Social/Relationships - I'm always looking to improve my relationship with my husband, other family members, and friends.
  
• Financial/Career - It's important to me to improve my finances as well as set career goals.

Does anyone else have different areas of focus? Here's a short list of things I'd like to accomplish this year.

• Spiritual - I would like to spend time each day in prayer and meditation.
  
• Physical - I want to be able to say that I am physically fit. I want to work up to exercising 5 days a week. And I don't want to eat greasy food anymore.
• Intellectual - I'd like to take a writing class this coming year.
  
• Social/Relationships- I would like to make sure to date my husband weekly, and set up a time each day for sharing thoughts with each other.
  
• Financial/Career - Financially I'd like to finally remove credit card debt from my life. Career-wise, I'd like to triple my freelance writing income (It's possible - I'm fairly new to the business, so my salary isn't what I'd like it to be yet), and also get an article published in a top magazine.
  

Anybody else care to share some goals? Leave a comment and let me know.

I may not post again before the new year, and if not, have a wonderful holiday season. And happy new year! See you in 2008.

Rediscovering your passion

Ever since I wrote the series on finding your passion and life purpose, many people have found my blog from the search term "finding your passion." It is evident to me that so many of us out there are searching for their own life passion.

Ririan Project recently wrote a post called 8 Powerful Ways to Rediscover your Passion, and it shares some great tips for finding and living your passion. My favorite tip is to spend more time alone -

"When you surround yourself with lots of people, or even one very strong individual, it is difficult to know what excites you. It is easy to become influenced if outside energies are stronger than yours."

Check out the rest of the article here.

Being grateful for the daily small miracles

In my last post I talked about switching from a negative outlook to a positive one. Megan commented on one of her techniques for doing that - a gratitude list. I find that listing out the things I'm grateful for really does help me feel more positive, happy, and yes - grateful.

I wrote about increasing gratitude before if you'd like some tips on making room for gratitude in your life. I also want to share something I've tried to do lately that has increased my gratitude and helped me focus on the positive things in my life.

Every evening I like to reflect back on the day. I try to remember the positive things that have happened, and think about the things I am grateful for that day. I also look for the little 'miracles' that occur daily.

For example, yesterday I was backing out of a friend's driveway. Her driveway is narrow and has ditches on each side. See where this is going? Yes, I backed up right into a ditch and got stuck. :( But it was a miracle to me that we got the car out quickly and safely. I'm grateful that (so far!) I didn't seem to cause any damage to the car. (We haven't noticed anything, anyway.) But even if there is damage, I'll still be grateful that it was a small accident and that no one was hurt.

There's always something to be thankful for; there will always be tiny miracles happening in our lives every day. If we aren't paying attention, we may not even notice them. Take some time to reflect today on the miracles in your life. Even better, write them down so you can get a positive boost every time you read it.

What you think is what you see: 4 Ways to stop negativity

When my husband and I moved this summer from Arizona to Georgia, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. I already knew that the things you think about are the things you see, but the principle became real to me at that time.

During the time that we were shopping for deals on moving trucks, we saw moving trucks on the road all the time. Then when we decided to go with Penske, we suddenly saw Penske trucks everywhere on the road. Was there an influx of moving trucks on the road because summer is the time of year when people move? Maybe. But more likely we noticed the trucks because we had moving trucks on our minds. After we moved, I no longer noticed or cared about moving trucks on the road.

This illustrated to me perfectly just how powerful the mind is. My thoughts dictated what I saw and payed attention to. The world is what it is, but how we see it depends upon what we're looking for. I guess you could say that it's like the law of attraction (though I'm not talking about it the way some people do. I don't believe that if I sit around thinking about money that a money bag will suddenly appear on my doorstep.)

What I mean is that you will notice and pay attention to the things you are thinking about, and that will become reality for you. If you think about the kindness and goodness the world has to offer, you will find it. If your mindset is one of abundance and gratitude, you'll find the world to be a plentiful place.

I'm going to admit to you right now that I struggle with this principle. There are times when my attitude is negative and I can only picture negative outcomes in certain areas of my life. Not surprisingly, a negative outcome is exactly what I get. And the negative outcome makes it easier for me to picture negative outcomes, so the negativity becomes circular and powerful and difficult to escape.

But it is possible to short-circuit negativity and to focus on the positive instead. There are several things we can do in order to break the negativity cycle:

Focus on the positive things in your life. There are so many good things to be thankful for but it's easy to take them for granted. It's often easier to notice the negatives, so work at it and notice the positives!

Change your behavior. We often behave in certain ways that reinforce and help cause the negative outcome. Change the behavior that leads to negative. Choose to act differently. One example from my life is my tendency to nag. Nagging is a negative behavior that does not inspire positive change in others. In order to increase the positive outcomes in my life, I can choose to not nag.

Find faith and hope. Do you have faith in yourself, faith in others, faith in a higher power? It is important to be able to trust that good things will happen to you and that even difficult or painful situations can benefit you and lead to a positive outcome. How do you develop that faith? It's difficult. Meditation or prayer can help. It also helps to look back to past events. Haven't you learned important things, even from your most difficult trials? I know I have, and this helps me to have faith that the right things will happen in the present moment.

Seek and you will find. How do you want your life to be? If you desire goodness, abundance and happiness, you have to be those things; you have to send those things out into the world and seek for them in others. I think it's a life-long process. Sometimes I'm better at positivity than at other times, but I believe it's important to keep at it. There are good and wonderful things in this world, and it's up to us whether we see them or not.

Good, Better, Best

I recently decided to take a serious look at the way I use my time every day. Some of the patterns I discovered are disturbing - I waste time, I check my email almost incessantly, and I spend a lot of my free time in front of a computer or a TV.

I'm not really happy with my usage of time lately. Especially since hearing a talk given by a respected leader in my church entitled Good, Better, Best. The talk is fairly religous in nature, but I think it has a larger application.

The point of the talk is that there are practically limitless good things we could be spending our time on. Researching a topic on the Internet could be considered good. Educational TV programming falls under the good category as well, and there are countless other good pursuits out there.

And not to say that pursuing good things is bad; it's not. But his point is that there are better and even 'best' ways to use our time. I agree. With the infinite possible ways to use my time, I'd like to make sure I'm using my time on the best things possible.

Some 'best' things for me: Spending quality time with my husband. Keeping in touch with family and friends. Getting involved in charity work and doing good deeds (big and small) for others. Doing good things for my body (like exercise). Learning new skills and gaining knowledge.

I haven't done such a good job of focusing my time on the best things, but I'm looking to change that. What are your 'best' things? Are you spending sufficient time on them?

A Life of Passion - The Raiders Kids

This is part four in a series on how to discover and live your passion and life purpose.

In 1982 , three twelve-year-old kids fell in love with the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. The boys, Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb, dreamed of becoming filmmakers, so they combined their two loves and decided they would film their own Raiders of the Lost Ark, scene for scene, shot for shot.

The kids gathered their resources and became the actors, directors, producers, editors, and scene and wardrobe creators. For eight summers, from age 12-18, these three boys focused entirely on filming Raiders.

They created detailed sets, found authentic-looking props, performed their own stunts (including the scene where people catch fire!), and spent several thousands of dollars over the course of eight years. They worked tirelessly each summer creating sets and shooting scenes. They gained access to an editing studio during the night, so from 12am – 8am, they edited film.

You’d think that after one summer of their project, they’d tire of it and give it up, but not these kids. They worked at filming Raiders of the Lost Ark until it was done. Eight years worth of work.

I’ve seen this film (called Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation), and the detail is impressive. It is obvious that it was a labor of love. And the quality is surprisingly good, especially considering it was made by twelve-year-old kids. I probably enjoyed it more than the actual Raiders of the Lost Ark.

You might be wondering what the point is. What possible value did it add to these kids’ lives to remake a movie that they could never sell commercially (without facing lawsuits)? Well, beyond the obvious benefit of allowing these kids to do something they truly loved, making the movie eventually produced some surprising results.

After their movie was finished, they shared it with a few people. It eventually ended up in the hands of Stephen Spielberg, who loved it. He invited the boys to see the original items from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. They toured Amblin Entertainment studio and met Stephen Spielberg. George Lucas also invited them to visit Skywalker ranch.

Years after that, as adults, the ‘kids’ got back together again. They had the opportunity to go around the country, screening their movie for small audiences, helping to raise money for various charities.

Their dream of becoming filmmakers is finally being realized – they now have their own film production company – Rolling Boulder Films, and are working on an original screenplay with plans to turn it into a movie. Oh, and Paramount bought the rights to their story, so eventually the story of the Raiders Kids will be made into a film.

I truly believe that if you follow your passion and do what you love, opportunities will open up to you. The Raiders Kids are just one example of that. Even if your endeavor fails, you will experience benefits from following your dream. So what are you waiting for?!

Like this post? Give it a digg or a stumble. Thanks!



Be sure to check out parts one, two and three in this series.

Living your Passion

This is part three in a series on how to discover and live your passion and life purpose.

In part two we discussed ways to discover your passion and life purpose. You may not have fully explored your dreams and life purpose, but you probably have some ideas. Here are some strategies for making your dream a reality.

• It’s important to understand that you can live out your dream, but you can’t live every dream at once. So don’t attempt them all! Choose to focus on one dream (or maybe two) at a time.

• Write your goals down, then write down the next step you will need to take in order to achieve your goals.
  

• Think about the things that are currently holding you back from living your dream. Is it a lack of money? Lack of time? Lack of knowledge? Fear of failure? Most of the obstacles can be cleared from your path if you truly desire to pursue it. Face your fears and do it anyway. Clear something less important from your schedule in order to free up time (There is always something that can go). Read a book or take a class. Brainstorm ways to live on less money or bring more in. Acknowledge your obstacles and then find a way around them.

• Take action! You can dream, plan and prepare forever, but you won’t be living your life purpose unless you take an action. The hardest step is the first one, so just take the leap and go for it.

• Be prepared spend time outside your comfort zone. Taking a step toward your ideal life is a step away from your comfort zone. You may feel fearful, feel like an imposter, or worry that you won’t succeed. That’s normal – it just means you’re walking in the right direction.

Living a life of passion and purpose requires trial and error as you discover your dreams, and requires you to take action. It also entails effort, sacrifice, and a willingness to live outside your comfort zone. But the rewards of living this way are great. You will feel joy, excitement, and peace in living your best life.

Part one in this series gives a general overview of living a life of passion. Part two gives tips on how to discover your passion. The final part to this series will share a real-life example of someone who lived their passion.

How to discover your passion

This is part two in a series on how to discover and live your passion and life purpose.

I think we all desire to follow our dreams and live our passion. When you live your life with purpose and passion, you have peace and joy in knowing you are doing what you are meant to be doing. But what if you don't know what your passion is?

There are several things to consider when discovering your passion and life purpose. Take some time to think about the following questions. You may want to write your thoughts down so you can see your ideas on paper.

First, brainstorm about the things you enjoy and would spend your time on if you could:

• If money didn't matter, what kinds of things would you do with your time?
• Is there an idea, hobby, or thing that you LOVE to think about or talk about?
• What is one thing you would regret not doing if you found out you were dying?
• Is there something you did when you were younger that you wish you hadn't given up?
• What kinds of things challenge and interest you?
  
• What things bring you the most joy?

You should also take some time to list your strengths:

• What are the things you are good at?
• Are there any skills you get complimented on?
• What areas do you feel confident in?

After writing some ideas down, you may start to see ideas and interests that keep coming up. If so, you may have stumbled upon some of your dreams and passions. Now it's time to take some action. You don't yet know for sure which ideas will work the best for you, so you have to try them out:

• Take a risk - Try taking a step toward one of your interests. For example, if one of your ideas was to become a great cook, sign up for a cooking class or check out a book on cooking from the library.
• Volunteer - Try volunteering in an area you think you may enjoy. There are many volunteering opportunities that will allow you to try out your interests. You may find your passion! And you may also find some useful contacts in the process.
• Remember that finding your passion can be a trial and error process, so don't be afraid to try something out or try something you've never done before. You may not discover your passion; but you just might.

Finding your passion and life purpose is not an easy process. It takes a fair bit of soul searching, trial and error, and enough courage to try new things. Don't be discouraged if you don't discover your life purpose right off - you will find it! It will probably come to you when you least expect it.

For me, finding my life purpose was a process that took many years. (And I'm assuming that life purpose changes over time, so it's a process that lasts your whole life.) I tried about fifty different majors in college because I had so many interests. It took me a lot longer to graduate, but it was worth it to find the right major for me - Humanities. And the best part is that I took a great many interesting classes that I wouldn't have taken otherwise if I had known as a freshman what I wanted.

I guess what I'm saying is - it's a great thing to find your life purpose and passion, but it's also great to enjoy the journey. Explore different options, try new things. Enjoy the things you learn and the people you meet on the way to discovering your passion!

Part one in this series gives a general overview of living a life of passion. Part three will focus on how to live with passion and purpose.

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers around the world are posting about environmental issues with the idea that if many people talk about it all at once, we can make a difference.

My post isn't about what you should or shouldn't do in regards to our environment, because each person has to decide their feelings for this earth and how they will treat it. Each of us must decide for ourselves, and every person's answer will be slightly different.

Nor will I share how-to's or tips, because believe me, there are hundreds of posts out there today addressing those issues.

So what I will say is this - take some time and think about your feelings regarding the environment. Is there something you can do that will make a difference and improve the earth? (There are so many ideas. You can find some here and here.) Take time today to think about our earth, and then take an action - even a small one - that works for you and helps the world.

I'll tell you my action. I live in Georgia where there is currently a serious drought. They aren't sure that in four months there will be enough drinking water for the population here. So I am trying to cut my water usage by at least 10%. I take shorter showers. When it's yellow, I let it mellow. I use much less water for rinsing dishes. That is my contribution for now.

What will yours be? Don't feel that your contribution won't change the world, because it will. Every action we take makes a difference somewhere. If we each make one baby step at a time, our world will be different and better.

Living a life of passion and purpose

This is part one in a series on how to discover and live your passion and life purpose.

Many of us spend years of our lives wondering what it is we were 'meant' to be doing, or perhaps wondering if the path we've chosen is leading us toward the most happiness. Are you currently living your passion? Do you know what your passion is?

I'm not talking about a career or job, though career can certainly play into living your passion. But the passion I'm taking about goes a little deeper than that. I guess when I say, "are you following your passion?" I mean, "are you following your life's purpose?"

Life purpose can be different things to different people, and there can certainly be more than one 'purpose' in your life. For example, imagine a woman who is a mom and wife, who works, and is religious, and loves to paint, and one of her deep desires is to help children in need.

This woman has several purposes and desires in her life. She presumably desires a happy and loving relationship with her husband and children, wants to succeed at work, serves God, and loves painting and helping children. Several or all of these things could be her passion or life purpose.

But doing all these things at once (and doing them all well) is difficult if not impossible. Sometimes we must choose to follow one passion for now and let another germinate in our hearts until the time is right.

Another solution is to combine our passions. The woman in the example above could seek a career that involves her love of painting or helping children (or both). She could also decide that her best career is staying at home with her children (I know, it's an unpopular notion, but a valid one nonetheless.) She could teach her children to paint. She could involve her family in helping children in need. She could also find a career that intersects with her love of God.

The point is, when we combine things that we love, especially as it relates to our career (because a career or job uses up most of our available time), we are able to follow more of our passions. And if our career encompasses one or more of our passions and life purposes, how much more enjoyable would our work be?

Don't forget that we don't have to do everything all at once. And more importantly, we can't! We have to choose which of our many passions to focus on right now. We get to choose. And much as some of us would love to have a blueprint of our life handed over to us, we often have to stumble around a bit before we find our purpose.

Part 2 in this series will focus on how to discover what your passion and life purpose is.

Life Tips Learned from High School Musical

It's possible you don't have children or don't watch the Disney Channel, in which case you may not have heard of High School Musical (and High School Musical 2). But otherwise, you know that High School Musical was a made-for-TV Disney musical that blew everyone away with how popular it became.

The story is simple: the jock and the smart girl want to break free from the norm and try out for their high school's musical. The songs are catchy, and of course there is a happy ending. But apart from being a fun movie to watch, it also offers several tips for living life.

Be open to possibility.
Living in my own world
Didn't understand
That anything can happen
When you take a chance (Start of Something New)

Troy and Gabriella get an opportunity to sing for an audience on New Year's eve. This event helps them realize they love to sing, and it changes their lives forever. We never know when a new opportunity will arrive or what it will bring, but if we open up to it, life becomes interesting, new, and may change us forever!

Dare to be different.
But I've got a confession
My own secret obsession
And it's making me lose control (Stick to the Status Quo)

Each person in the movie had their 'thing'. Troy and Zeke were basketball stars, Gabriella and Martha were the brains, but they each secretly wanted to try something new and be different. Is there something out of the ordinary about you? Don't hide it! It's what makes you unique.

When you work toward a goal, great things happen (and sometimes spontaneous singing...)
We’re soarin’, flyin’
There’s not a star in heaven
That we can’t reach (Breaking Free)

Troy and Gabriella decided to go for their goal of singing in the musical, and wonderful things happened to everyone at school because of it. When you choose to seriously work toward YOUR goal, people may not break into song, but you will notice that magical things begin to happen.

Do what you love.
Why am I feeling so wrong
My head's in the game
But my heart's in the song (Get'cha Head in the Game)

Troy and Gabriella attempt to give up their love of singing, but doing so takes the spark from their lives. We only have this one life to live. If you want to be happy and fulfilled, do what you love and be with the ones you love - those are the things that make life worthwhile.

Live the golden rule & appreciate the good in others.
Everyone is special in their own way
We make each other strong (We're All in this Together)

By the end of the movie, everyone realizes that "we're all in this together", and that doing good for someone else is beneficial to everyone. Do unto others as you'd like them to do unto you. Remember, we're all in this together!
_____

I can't guarantee that watching High School Musical will change your life, but I can say for sure that the songs are catchy enough that you may not be able to forget them! And who knows, it may help you 'Bop to the Top.' ;)