Pursuing Passion
I truly enjoy watching people in my life as they pursue their passions. It is a treat to see them go for it. No holding back, just jumping in with both feet. A friend of mine found her passion in alternative education with OIC Learning. She works with this alternative-style approach to education to suit the learner rather than the educator. The traditional education system has long been criticized and condemned for its inability to think outside the box, yet when people pursue career’s they are asked to do just that. As an educator, she is literally teaching outside of the box and it is a privilege to watch her grow her passion for education and students’ success.
Another friend of mine is a talented photographer. Her view of the world in its geometrical proportions and colors and her uncanny ability to capture the feeling in the moment through photography is a force to be reckoned with. I’ve watched her photograph all her friends and family and then grow. Grow her business into something else because it is her passion. And in pursuing her passion, she now helps others pursue their passion at Bonn Creations.
When one pursues passion, success is bound to follow. Maybe slowly for some (like me) or more quickly for others. But this isn’t about comparing ourselves to others, this is about showing up and saying yes.
If you asked me five years ago, what my passion is, I would’ve looked at you like a two-headed alien landed in my backyard, shrugged my shoulders, scrunched up my face, and said idunno. Then slinking off to a small dark corner to ponder the meaning of life, feeling like I was somehow missing something. Somehow missing life’s essence.
It took me some forty odd years to discover my passion for telling stories. Catch up with me sometime and ask me how something was, and you’re sure to be on the receiving end of a very animated and dramatic re-telling of the most mundane activities. I can spin the minutia of a trip to the grocery store or the daily commute grind into a dramatic one-act play (even this is a bit melodramatic – LOL)! I love making people laugh. If I haven’t made you laugh hearty, deep belly, can’t breathe, asthma inducing laughs, then I have failed you and the universe and the world. This passion to tell stories, to spin embellished yarns, to make people laugh, created a spark when someone suggested, ‘you should write’. With a little bit of encouragement and whole lot of prodding, I accepted the challenge.
Now, I write for me, and I write for you and I write because I want to. The beauty of words invoking feelings and creating connection where once a blank page stared me down like a Spanish bull ready to run is pure magic. When I started, I thought my writing would have a comedic tone. And it did, some of it anyways. But the writing asked of me to be more, to do more, to say yes when I didn’t really know what I was saying yes to. And I became excited! Oh, what is this newness with wonder and wide-eyed innocence of learning.
Enough about me. Goodness grief.
When people pursue their passion, a metamorphosis takes place, from hungry caterpillar to beautiful butterfly.
In pursuit of passion, negativity is bound to come along for the ride. Why? Because negativity doesn’t want to be left behind. It wants to bounce along like a hungry, missed my nap, cranky toddler. Misery loves company and negativity can’t stand to see you rise above. Negativity must be shut down as quickly as slamming the door in a door-to-door solicitors face. My negative self-talk is a questioner: Who do you think you are? You’re no one special. To which I answer myself: That’s right. I’m no one special. I’m simply me. Jean Watters. And no one else is me. But no one else will tell a story the way I tell a story or write with the seething passion I write with. And no one else will do it for me. My measure of success is not in the number of fans I have or getting published or making money, but in knowing that the possibility to touch another person’s life exists because I continue to pursue and to say yes. My measure of success lies in the possibility of what could be if I keep saying yes to pursing my passion.
A friend once told me, think bigger. I said, ok. She said, No, think BIGGER! Ah, yes! Do not allow the limitations of your minds own making to determine how big the box is that you live in.
Celebrate the small victories and the big ones. Each step forward is a step toward YES! Pursing passion.
I hope by now you’re fired up and ready to pursue your passion. Hold on to your hats, kiddies! I’m about to flip the script. Don’t quit your day job. Not yet, anyways. That day will come, but in the meantime your family needs to eat and bills must be paid. What will you do next to pursue your passion? Whether its artistic or creative, a service to others, education, or advocating for others, what steps will you take? It will take discipline, hard work, some sacrifice but in the end living your passion will be worth it. Keep at it. In the last 18 months, my writing has been rejected 32 times. So why bother, why keep at it? Because I have something to say, a story to tell, and maybe, just maybe, someone else will see the beauty, someone else will feel that feeling and say yes to pursing their passion.
Find people who pursue their passion. Follow them. Celebrate their successes with them and keep saying yes.