Your Passion Isn’t A Secret

This is my personal opinion, but I think people who are seeking to find their passion are wasting time.

 

Truth is, if you knew what excited you, you’d be doing it already. You’d probably have been doing it for most of your life.

So to be thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years old now and claim that “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up,” is bullshit. Sorry.

You know exactly what interests you.

As a little kid I wanted to write stories. And I did. I kept that up all through school, to some praise from teachers, too. My parents “discovered” some of my journals tucked between the box spring and mattress. That didn’t go well at all.

It was the 70s. Teenage girl. Sex. Drugs. Rock ‘n Roll. Need I say more?

Many years later I wrote some samples for a publication. The editor liked my pieces and published them until the criticism came back in the form of anonymous hate letters written in red crayon. My brand of humor apparently missed its mark on some readers. My ego wounded, I reneged on sending in the remaining pieces.

A few years later I tried again.This time creating my own publication.

In theory I’d write and publish a column of my choosing.

Except I spent every day selling advertisements to support the printing and delivery costs. My “editor” cap allowed only enough time to rewrite community service announcements. Fundraiser yard sales didn’t exactly fulfill my burning passion.

Here’s the thing:

Writing is something that speaks to me. Talking about writing, speaking with other writers…all of it. My every cell knows this is my passion. Always has been. No matter how many starts and stops I end up back to the beginning with a notebook and pen.

Here’s the sticky point:

Speaking for myself again, I thought in order for a passion to be “real” or “valuable” or, pardon me, “profitable” you had to actually be good at it. Better than good. Great. Better than great. The BEST.

How about you?

Well, walk into any bookstore or surf through online booksellers. There’s tons of books. On every genre. Something for everyone. And guess what? Some of it is good. Better than good. Great stuff. And some of it is crap.

50 Shades anybody?

Looking at the shear volume of available books made me realize that my writing doesn’t have to be epic. It needn’t sit on the New York Times Bestseller List for weeks and weeks to prove my passion to anybody.

I just need to write.

To create.

Because whether it’s a stream of consciousness post like this, or an outline for a screenplay or research notes for a novel idea, it’s all writing. Bad or good doesn’t matter for it to be considered my passion.

Seriously, though, my grocery lists are epic.

Having a passion is something we all have. Always have had. Maybe you have twenty passions. Nobody ever said: Pick one, that’s all you get.

We get so freakin’ bogged down thinking that in order to be considered passionate you must have one particular thing to focus on.

Or else the world does what? Stops revolving? Writes your name in the loser column?

I’m coming to slap you right now.

Some of the most interesting people in the world have multiple passions.

For example: dancing, bug collecting and bread baking. What a lovely combination! Maybe not one of them will ever make you a living. But who cares? These passions make YOU happy.

If someone loves what you do and is willing to pay you for it, you are a professional at that one thing. If nobody pays you for the stuff you create in your garage on weekends, but the hours fly by in a beautiful bliss, who can stop that kind of passion? Nobody.

Not the parents from your past. Anonymous critics with their friggin’ red crayons. Not the better and best people who share your passion.

Get out of your own head.

You have a passion. I’ll bet you have many passions.

Do you know how to tell if something is your passion?

Every time you talk about it you smile. You dream about it at night. Seriously, it wakes you from a sound sleep. You see triggers every day all around that ignite a little heat inside.

That, my friend, is passion.

You have a passion.

Or ten passions. Or hundreds.

Go be passionate.

BE F*G AWESOME TODAY!

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Original graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio

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