How to Incorporate Your Passion into Your Life
Part one of this series received the largest number of comments in CreateaBalance.com’s history. From educating to traveling, writing to sports, sailing the seven seas to photography, many passions were revealed and celebrated.
If you are already know what your life passion is, read on.
If you are still searching, be sure to check out Part One of this Revisiting Life Passion series.
Today we are going to think about expanding our passions into more areas of our lives.
1. Take a Class. I start my creative writing/art class this week. I’m looking forward to some hands-on time with my passions and can’t wait to meet all of the participants.
2. Hold Yourself Accountable. Set goals and hold yourself accountable to your own standards. Read my Power of Accountability post for more ideas.
3. Contribute to the Internet. Seek out blogs, forums, and social networking websites related to your passion. I’m biased, but I suggest creating a blog related to your passion. Remember, what you focus on expands!
4. Get Involved in a Face-to-Face Community. As much as I love blogging and interacting with bloggers, I strongly encourage you to find people that share your passion in your local community.
5. Educate Others. I think this applies to many CreateaBalance.com readers. Offering your excitement and passions to others can transform your dreams into a reality.
6. Create a Partnership. Sometimes two heads are better than one. I also believe there is power in numbers. Personally, I know there is a little voice inside my head wanting to collaborate on a project. The thought of joint creative ideas evolving into fireworks is very intriguing.
7. Just Do It! (suggested by Vered at MomGrind) Take action. No step in the right direction is too small.
The following tips are suggested by J.D. Meier at Sources of Insight.
8. Get Clarity on Your Why, How, and Whats. Why you do what you do, and how you do what you do. The what’s are flexible. Once you get clarity on what you want, then you can just live your values each day and follow your path.
9. Surround Yourself with Excellence. You become who you hang with. Stop hanging with drains and spend more time with catalysts.
10. Ride a Wave When You Can. There are many opportunities so seek them out proactively.
11. When There is No Wave, Make One. You’d be surprised how many people can be waiting around for somebody to light a fire.
12. Set Expectations. Let your manager know what your strengths and weaknesses are and how he/she can best utilize your strengths.
Assignment. This is your moment!
Jump down to the comments section and share how you are incorporating your passion into your life. Do you find it difficult to incorporate your passion into your life? Do you want your passion incorporated into your life on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis? Do you have any successful tips for incorporating your life passion into your life?
Note: I will add your successful tips to the list above!
I shared how I incorporate my passions into my life in the first comment. Check it out!
Next Post > Unchartered Territory! I’m Going to Explore Ways for You to Make Money with Your Life Passions
We all deserve to financially support your life passions!
How do I incorporate my life passion into my life? Right now, it is through my blog. My blog allows me to live inside the world of life balance. It allows me to practice the art of life balance, reflect on my experiences, share my thoughts, and learn exponentially from fellow bloggers. I want this passion to be part of my life on a daily basis, with the exception of taking time off on the weekends to balance other parts of my life.
I think it’s wonderful that your blog is part of your life passion.
My best tip: just do it. So for me, since it’s travel, I am willing to make sacrifices in other areas in order to travel as much as I can.
Vered – MomGrinds last blog post..Hate Mail: Apparently, I’m a Bad Mom
My kids are my life’s passion at the moment. I know I need to take some time to figure out something for me too 🙂 One day they will be grown and I don’t want to be wishing I had found it sooner 😉
Annettes last blog post..Maybe a little boost?
Hi Stacey – my passions are all around communicating, it seems. A blog is a perfect outlet for me, for that. The other thing is helping to empower people, which luckily I am finding lots of ways to do.
Robins last blog post..Insects Versus Mother Theresa
Passion’s contagious. I like how you added a rhythm perpsective — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual.
J.D. Meiers last blog post..SIGN – The 4 Signs of a Strength
I’m doing all of the above – I recently starting a writing group for the accountability – we start next Monday and I’m so excited. I also believe in #4 – strongly. My in person communities have provided me with education, encouragement and motivation. As much as I love the internet, it can never replace my in person interactions. Right now I’m living my passions every day through my personal and professional life. It’s my give back. I didn’t have any teachers or mentors, and now I use my speaking, writing and other tools to provide education and motivation to others. It’s the most satisfying place I’ve ever been. I think there is always room to include some passion work – whether it’s full time or part time!
@Vered – I added your tip (and a link to MomGrind) to my above list.
@Annette – Balancing children and our other passions is the balancing act of the century. With the premise of what we focus on expands, this is why I blog. We may be over-the-top in love with our children. That’s great! It doesn’t mean, however, that we should stop pursuing our other dreams. Our children will grow up and our actions towards our dreams will be an inspiration to our grown up adult children.
@Robin – I’m happy to know you are able to incorporate your passions into your blog.
@J.D. – I agree that passions are contagious. Watching others live their passions helps me jump off the cliff and fly!
@Stacey Shipman – You are an inspiration!
Stacey, I stopped here earlier this morning – and then took what you’ve written and gave it some good thought as I was out biking today. Chilly, by the way. But, at the same time refreshing and very reflective…
And what I came up with – I think I began this road to discovery using the internet as a medium. And, I did this because it felt more “anonymous”. Anonymous, as in – if it ended up feeling not right, or not accepted, I could step away and no one would really know any different, because I hadn’t really “revealed” my identity. What has happened, though, is that as I do this, and find more passion from it – I’m opening up more. I’m less “anonymous”. I’ll tell you where I’m from, I have a couple of pictures on me on my site. I’m more “me”. More people I know in person now know of my writing. It is all very empowering. (and probably a little off topic, sorry).
I like your bullet point #7 – just do it (thanks Vered). That’s what it came down to for me. To just start. And once I did that, things started to flow. And that has been done through blogging. Which has been a powerful lesson in learning who I am. And I am passionate about continuing on this journey. Sometimes I wonder where I’m going. Sometimes I’m excited that I don’t always know.
#4 is one I really need to pursue more. I see this one as having great potential. Stacey Shipman – you’re doing awesome at this, starting your own writing group! Wow, that’s impressive! And proof that where you have a few people committed to a similar goal, great things can happen.
And Stacey (here at CreateaBalance) – you constantly impress me with what comes across as very much a balance in your life. So, I also come here for passion. Daily.
Lastly, touching upon Annette’s point – I think your family can be part of your passion, and yet you can still pursue other passions you have as well. I know the balancing act can be hard. This is one of those weeks here – something every night with the kids. Saturday will be six sporting events to attend. It can seem crazy at times. I try to find small blocks of time to do the things I love. Maybe it’s not as much time as I’d like to spend, but it’s a small step at continuing to develop and grow on the journey I’m on.
Lances last blog post..The Impact We Have On Others
Hi Stacey,
My passions have all been in the arts and in the area of helping others to fulfill their life’s passions. I have been very lucky to have been able to do this both in business and in theater over the past 30 years and now I am having a wonderful time doing it on the Internet with writing. It has been very eye-opening to see that what I have always done in my *own little corner* of the world is something that can reach people all over. What an experience!
Wendi Kelly-Life’s Little Inspirationss last blog post..A Letter to the World
I realized I didn’t share enough tips. Since my day job is a big chunk of my life in terms of time each week, I found ways to follow my passions at work. In a way, my day job actually funds my passions. Here’s the keys:
* Get clarity on your why, how, and whats. I did a Golden Circle workshop. The main idea was to find out personal success patterns –
* why you do what you do, and how you do what you do. The what’s are flexible. Once I got clarity on what I want, then I just live my values each day and follow my path.
* Surround yourself with excellence. You become who you hang with. I stopped hanging with drains and I spend more time with catalysts.
* Ride a wave when you can. There’s lots of opportunities so I seek them out proactively. Colleagues also send opportunities my way.
* When there’s no wave, make one. You’d be surprised how many people can be waiting around for somebody to light a fire.
* Match values. Styles differences are on thing. Value differences are another. I make sure I work where my values match and where I’m valued.
* Set expectations. I let my manager know what my strengths and weaknesses are and what I want to work on. If they want me to spend all my energy on weaknesses, then I move on.
My goal is always to work in a place where it makes me more than who I am and where I leave each day with more energy instead of less. Interestingly, I’ve been on the same team for a while. I found that I didn’t have to move; instead I had to change how I drive each day. Drive or be driven!
J.D. Meiers last blog post..SIGN – The 4 Signs of a Strength
@Lance – I’m experiencing a similar phenomenon. At first, my blogging was rather anonymous. Then my passion started overflowing and the next thing I knew my picture was on my homepage. Yikes. I used to not be able to explain my blog to anyone. Now I’m handing out business cards. I’m a true believer in baby steps. So take the time you can find to continue to develop and grow on your journey.
@Wendi – Thanks for sharing. Being able to reach out to people across the world is priceless.
@J.D. – Wow! Thanks for all of your tips. I added them to the above list.
This is a really helpful article, Stacey. I wish I only had one passion, but I have two (other than my son, who makes three) and right now they tend to conflict a little. My two great passions are travelling and creative writing.
The reason they conflict is when I am copywriting and earning money (good for travel) I tend not to write my novel or do much with my blog, so my creativity is compromised. With a 4 year old and a house to run and a husband who works long hours, I find writing for work all day and juggling other commitments means I don’t want to write for myself at night. It’s too much. I just want to crash out on the couch.
But when I stop copywriting for money (and I’m lucky enough for that to be an option) I produce so much more on my blog and my in my creative projects, which is wonderful, but it’s not so helpful for producing cash to meet my travel goals.
Intellectually I know I need to make the call about what I will focus on for now, but so far I just don’t know! So, I sit here in a bit of a muddle as to what to do.
And I’ll stop now because I really have rambled on…
Kelly 🙂
Kelly@SHE-POWERs last blog post..Note To Self: 28 Ways To Love Your Day