There are a number of reality shows out there in TV land. They feature dancers, singers, models, fashion designers, home designers, chefs etc. etc. The only show along those lines that I’ve ever really followed is Dancing With the Stars though I have to admit I enjoy the food-related ones as well.
What makes people appear on those shows? Probably a number of different reasons but the bottom line is that they are passionate about the skill they bring to the show. They give their all. They are focused on being absolutely the best they can be at their craft. All in the hopes of winning and being able to fulfill the dream of living their passion. Every decision they make, every sacrifice is based on following their passion. Some are successful, some aren’t.
Take Paul Potts, the winner of the Got Talent competition, for example. He always liked opera. With his self-confidence at rock bottom because he was always “different”, he sang in private to console himself. At the age of 37, nervous and shy, he nonetheless showed up for the audition of Britain’s Got Talent competition and launched into a spectacular tenor aria Nessun Dorma. The judges and the world were stunned. He went on not merely to win, but to sing for the Queen. And now having produced a hugely popular CD he is touring the world.
Are you following your passions? If not, why not?
All too often we make choices that are not in favor of our passions because we can’t see HOW that passion could possibly be fulfilled. You are not responsible for the HOW. Your job is to get crystal clear on the WHAT. Once you are focused on and totally committed to the WHAT, the HOW will take care of itself. By taking even small action steps you will find opportunities coming to you that you hadn’t even imagined. When Paul Potts committed to the WHAT, the HOW appeared.
You can discover your passions without spending agonizing months in front of audiences and a panel of judges. Let The Passion Test(tm) help you become clear on those five things that would leave you feeling terribly unfulfilled if you didn’t accomplish them during your life. If not now, when?
Don’t let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do ~ John Wooden
I always find it fascinating to read about defining moments in someone’s life. Take, for example, an article in the Washington Post this week. One of the city’s top lawyers quit a well-known legal firm after 28 years to start up his own company giving speeches to investors and financial firms on how Washington’s laws and regulations affect their investments.
As the expert tax lawyer for the sports industry, not only did he make a substantial income, but he had access to the best sports tickets, attended all-star games, playoffs and Super Bowls and schmoozed with the “Who’s Who” in the field. He appeared to be living a great life. What more could he want?
What he wasn’t getting, however, was fulfillment. He got to a point in his life when, in his words, “my two choices were to sit at my desk and do the same thing for the next 15 years. Or I could go out and do something different.” He did something different! Was it a tough choice? Yes, but the overwhelming need to follow that inner spark, that passion, was a driving force to make the change.
Wouldn’t it be great if you had something to get you that motivated and excited? You can … by finding and following your passion. If you’d like to learn more, go to http://budurl.com/h7zj
In the words of Thoreau, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Make this summer the time you find something new to be passionate about. Let your “can do” take the driver’s seat so that any “can’t do” gets left in the dust!
From … To …
Life with Passion
Life without Passion
A 2005 Harris Interactive Study showed that only 20% of Americans are passionate about what they do. That leaves 80% who are leading lives somewhere from “quiet desperation” to “dull and boring.” Life without color!
This theme came through loud and clear in a movie I saw this past week – “An Education.” It’s the coming-of-age story about a young teenage girl in the early sixties in suburban London. Her parents, especially her mother, appear to be living lives relatively close to the “quiet desperation” end of the continuum.
Jenny wants something more out of life and finds it when she meets a playboy twice her age. Her “grey” life all of a sudden becomes filled with color. Her passion for the exciting new lifestyle leads her to experiences she could only have imagined in her dreams, at least for a while. I’ll leave the story there so as not to spoil the ending in case you see the movie.
The point here: passion for living, for doing those things that are truly important to you, will add so much color to each day. You will wake up with a new zest for life … joyful and excited, ready to take on each new challenge. Passion is the motivator that will help you achieve success.
If you don’t know what you’re passionate about, take The Passion Test™. The participants in my workshop this past weekend found it to be a real eye-opener! Contact me – evelin@blueprints4change.com
This evening my husband and I went out for “date night”, something we do periodically just to go off and chat, particularly when both of us have been busy doing our own thing. We decided to try out a restaurant we had not been to before – Busboys and Poets. Not only does it have good food, it is also a bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place. Even the menu makes for interesting reading.
The following poem (part of the menu) caught my attention. Many of the clients I work with have no idea what their passions are when we begin. Others have put aside their passions (dreams) for a variety of reasons. If you’re in that category, then perhaps this poem “speaks” to you.
A Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
— Langston Hughes, African-American Poet
If you would like to discover/rediscover your passions, please visit my website (http://www.blueprints4change.com) or email me, evelin@blueprints4change.com. The Passion Test™ has been of tremendous benefit in helping so many individuals clarify what is truly important to them, make major changes and live more fulfilled lives.
Think what a remarkable, unduplicatable, and miraculous thing it is to be you! Of all the people who have come and gone on the earth, since the beginning of time, not ONE of them is like YOU!
No one who has ever lived or is to come has had your combination of abilities, talents, appearance, friends, acquaintances, burdens, sorrows and opportunities. No one’s hair grows exactly the way yours does. No one’s finger prints are like yours. No one has the same combination of secret inside jokes and family expressions that you know. The few people who laugh at all the same things you do, don’t sneeze the way you do. No one prays about exactly the same concerns as you do. No one is loved by the same combination of people that love you – NO ONE! No one before, no one to come.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE!
Enjoy that uniqueness. You do not have to pretend in order to seem more like someone else. You weren’t meant to be like someone else. You do not have to lie to conceal the parts of you that are not like what you see in anyone else. You were meant to be different. Nowhere ever in all of history will the same things be going on in anyone’s mind, soul and spirit as are going on in yours right now. If you did not exist, there would be a hole in creation, a gap in history, something missing from the plan for humankind.
Treasure your uniqueness. It is a gift given only to you. Enjoy it and share it!
No one can reach out to others in the same way that you can. No one can speak your words. No one can convey your meanings. No one can comfort with your kind of comfort. No one can bring your kind of understanding to another person. No one can be cheerful and lighthearted and joyous in your way. No one can smile your smile. No one else can bring the whole unique impact of you to another human being.
Share your uniqueness. Let it be free to flow out among your family and friends and people you meet in the rush and clutter of living wherever you are. That gift of yourself was given you to enjoy and share. Give yourself away! See it! Receive it! Let it tickle you! Let it inform you and nudge you and inspire you!
YOU ARE UNIQUE!
~Author Unknown~
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Are you interested in discovering your uniqueness? Through coaching and with tools such as The Passion Test™, I can guide you through the process. It’s an eye-opening and fun experience! You can contact me via my website at http://www.blueprints4change.com
Here we are almost a quarter way into the new year. Strange how it feels like January just began How are you doing sticking to your New Year’s resolutions? Even if you didn’t make any, you probably have some goals you are trying to achieve. My goal for the year was to start this blog. Since you are reading these words, I’m obviously on track. So far so good though I have to say it’s not been without considerable frustration! Technology sometimes gets the better of me!
Resolutions are wonderful, positive goals that we set for ourselves. Sometimes they last several weeks but unless they are a part of something that we are passionate about, something that is truly important to us, they will usually disappear into that “black hole” that contains all those other goals we somehow never managed to get around to.
Isn’t it time then, at the midpoint in your life, to finally get serious about your dreams, the things that you’ve wanted but for one reason or another, never allowed yourself to go after. Isn’t it time to start consciously creating your life? In the words of Janet Attwood, co-author of The Passion Test™, when you are clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent you are clear.
One way to get clear is to ask yourself what your ideal life would look like, a process that is described in detail in the book, The Passion Test™. If your life were perfect, exactly the way you wanted it to be, what would that look like? How would you be? What would you be doing or having? To stimulate thought in this area, some of the questions I ask my clients include:
- What motivates you/drives you/gives you satisfaction?
- What would you do if money were of no concern?
- What would make you jump out of bed with joy and enthusiasm in the morning?
- What do you dream about that you’ve never shared with anyone?
- What did you always want to be when you were a child?
- What would you regret NOT having done if your life were ending?
- What do you do that makes “time stand still”?
- What are you really good at doing, that you also truly enjoy?
- What do you love about yourself?
- What is the theme of the books you read or things you collect?
- At the end of your life, what do you want people to say was your greatest achievement?
You’ve probably spent the first half of your life catering more to the needs of others than yourself, so take the time now to put yourself first. Reflect on the answers to these questions and you will be taking the first step towards redesigning your blueprints for living. The first step towards creating a more fulfilling life and to being more in alignment with those things that are TRULY important to you. It’s about time, wouldn’t you say!
midlife, Passion & Purpose | admin | 
August 15, 2010 1:03 pm | 
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