Follow Your Passion

I recently saw a meme that said “Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way.”  Unfortunately I don’t have a person to credit that to because there wasn’t a name listed, but it was timely that I came across it.  We always hear in motivational speaking, books, memes on social media, etc. catchy phrases such as “Follow your passion”, or “Do what you love”.  I have found it to be solid advice and letting passion light my way (as the meme says) has helped me on my own personal journey thus far, which is why I want to share my experience with you encouraging you to follow your passion.

As you read this blog post, it serves as substantial evidence that following your passion can lead to successful results.  All my life I’ve enjoyed writing in a variety of forms because I believed in the art of words and how they can touch someone reading them.  That passion lead me into my Master’s Degree program in Health Communications, but I digress.  While I was in the midst of starting an active job search about a year and a half ago, a close friend that I look up to, sent me a couple blog posts of a guy who had been in my similar position.  He started following his passion, which eventually developed into his own personal business.  Admittedly I was immediately emotionally touched by the posts and felt like they were speaking directly to me at a time when I needed encouragement.  The next day I taught myself how to start a blog site, and started developing content to post. 

My first post was “Coaching at Work” and went up on August 20, 2013.  I had no idea what direction my site would take, but I knew this is what I loved doing about topics I enjoyed writing about.  Fast forward to today and my writing has taken off.  I’ll be honest, I don’t have a job in it, but it has opened up doors for me in areas I never expected allowing for the potential for even more job opportunities.  Since that day, 3650 views, across 46 posts that I’ve written, it is now a part of the New World Flood website which I was not a part of previous to this post.  I’ve also been able to write a few articles for a statewide Texas Magazine covering events in Austin, TX, national ones such as South by Southwest, and the ESPN X Games as well as writing social media copy for a couple business websites.  I say all this not to brag, but to serve as proof that things can start happening if you follow your passion.  All too often we get sucked into empty motivation where people will suggest doing something and they have no proof that it works, or that success can come from it, and I’m sharing my own personal examples to prove that it can happen.

If you Google ‘Follow Your Passion’ you will find a fair amount of people who disagree with that line of thinking.  Those that disagree will assert that you should “Love what you do”, and “Do what contributes”.  They will also suggest that in areas where there are a small number of successful people at the top, professional athletes, political offices, company CEOs, that it can be discouraging if following your passion doesn’t land a person in those positions.  A person’s opinion is a person’s opinion, but I ask you to make your own decision and question, why does it have to be mutually exclusive? 

There is a chance that you are currently in a job that might not be in a field or involve tasks that you are passionate about.  That’s reality, that’s life.  But in the process of following the advice of “Love what you do” and unifying it with “Follow your passion” why not try to think of creative ways to incorporate something you are passionate about into the work that you currently do?  For example if you work at a call center but you’re passionate about knitting why not start knitting during your lunch breaks and offer to make items for coworkers.  If you work at a bank, but your passion is boating you can start a boating club that coworkers can join and you can teach them about boating.  This can even extend beyond the work place.  Once you’ve identified your passion, you live in a community that has a wide variety of people living in them with different interests.  In the process of “Doing what has value” and following your passion, your passion might fulfill a niche within your community that can engage and help others in ways you never imagined.

The bottom line here is that as a human being regardless of where you come from, how much money you have, or what your culture is, we share some very basic tenets of personality.  We all have things that we are passionate about, we all have a desire to matter and make a difference, and we all have a value of some sort.  If we can harness, and combine those things together, what we are passionate about can make a difference and provide a value (monetary or not) to the community we live in and beyond.  Sometimes that value can even be very validating of our sense of self and help to make meaning of the world.  As you finish reading this post I encourage you to find your passion, think of ways that it can manifest itself in your life, and then follow it to success.

Meaningful Connections

Last week I had the pleasure to attend a social gathering with a guest speaker named Jan Goss-Gibson.  While trying not to sound like an advertisement for her, she is a speaker, author, and executive trainer, who is a confidence strategist and helps with first impression management, and a host of other related topics.  During her talk to the attendees of the event, she really honed in on the importance of making a connection with someone else.  In doing so, Jan shared some tips on appropriate body language, as well as some social etiquette tips to engage with others socially in a business setting. 

I left the event with a lot of appreciation for what she talked about, as well as the conversation I had with her after she spoke.  We talked more about the importance of connecting with others, but something she said that night to the group stuck out in my mind.  She said “Someone in this room could have the answer to a problem you’ve been trying to solve, but you would never know it unless you make a connection with them.”  After she said it, she encouraged us to mingle and network but I could not stop thinking how accurate a statement that was long after the event.  I frequently write about intrinsic motivation to be successful, and personal perseverance to overcome adversity, but admittedly there is another variable in the equation to become successful and that’s meaningful connections with others.  Meeting other people who may have resources to help support an endeavor, or connecting with someone to create a business partnership are just a few examples of how connecting with someone can help progress an ambition to a successful end.

In today’s society, we are “connected” with so many different people through social media, internet sites, and cell phones.  I use connected with a quote around it because while we are very “connected” with the ability to talk or meet someone miles away with the push of a button, or click on a website we can still be very disconnected interpersonally.  What Jan was talking about at the event, is what I believe is becoming a lost art of a personal connection face to face. 

This is not an assault on social media or technology because the things you can do with it are great.  I’m an administrator for a few business social media sites and it helps consumers stay connected to those businesses, so I can appreciate the usefulness in such situations.  But in a world where we “connect” with others through hashtags, 140 character tweets, Vine videos, Instagram pics,  and liking something on Facebook, the ability to effectively walk up to a stranger at a networking event for example and introduce yourself is becoming scarce.  The ability to carry a conversation and genuinely connect with that person while making them feel comfortable and relaxed is something that is getting lost and something that needs to be regained. 

These are the connections that Jan is encouraging and what I feel are very important in order to become successful.  The ability to actively listen to someone else, not just hear, but actually listen, process, and connect with what they are saying is a major part of this art of connecting but it is slowly going the way of the dinosaur.  With attention spans causing a ‘tech itch’ to check cell phones, check email, or disengage after a few moments, it’s important that we get back to truly connecting with each other the way we did before we were bombarded with technology.

In a previous blog titled “The Little Things in Life” I addressed mindfulness and encouraged being more aware of one’s environment as opposed to being distracted by the everyday technologies we have succumbed to.  It was a self-imposed challenge that I invited my readers to join.  Since attending the event and hearing Jan Goss-Gibson, I have taken on another personal challenge that I’d invite you to join in on as well.  It’s a challenge to make more meaningful connections with others, and genuinely engage people when in social situations.  Since the event, I’ve found it to be a fun challenge and I’ve met some great people through it which I hope is similar to your experience.  If you want more tips on how to do this (and I’m not receiving any kickbacks by sharing this with you) you should definitely check out some of the programs that Jan Goss-Gibson provides at her website http://civilityconsulting.com/. 

It's Not Just a Costume

It’s that time of year when kids get dressed up as their favorite characters from movies, television, and books.  They descend on America’s neighborhoods with parents and guardians in tow in the hunt for the perfect stash of candy.  I fondly remember dressing up and doing the same thing with my parents.  As this cherished tradition comes around every year we see some very creative costumes emerge.  Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the innocence and fun that Halloween brought us as kids, now contains a sobering reminder of a social ill that plagues our society.

I won’t sit behind a keyboard vilifying those who have decided to don blackface as a part of their Halloween costume because there are countless other blogs you can go to if that’s what you want to read.  While I believe that it is offensive for people to dress in blackface I also believe that there is a larger picture that needs to be viewed.  Also I believe that there is a more fruitful approach that can be taken before we simply attack those that are ignorant of the ramifications of their costumes.

I’ve done a lot of trainings, and led many discussions about diversity and cultural sensitivity.  Through these experiences I’ve come to find that many people (of all ethnicities) believe we live in a post racial world.  We don’t see the things in our day-to-day lives that we see when we look at newsreels of the 60’s and 70’s so there are many people that believe that we are somehow safe from racism now.  It’s far from the truth, but it’s from these beliefs that people choose blackface as part of a Halloween costume because “it doesn’t matter anymore”, or “I’ve got (insert any ethnicity here) friends so what I do can’t be seen as racist”.

These thoughts are proof that we ALL, not just white people, not just blacks, etc. have failed to educate our society and that we have a lot of work to do.  We tell people it’s wrong, and jump on a bandwagon about how they should be sorry for their costume by saying it’s racist and offensive, but often I don’t believe we go deep enough into why.  Despite the inevitable that some people will do it for mal intent, we all as a society need to continue the conversations beyond it being wrong and educate people on why it’s wrong.  Engage people who aren’t aware of why it’s so wrong in a meaningful dialogue about what blackface is, what it was historically and why it is still offensive today. 

Quite often people are scared to engage in meaningful dialogues so it’s a challenge, but it makes it that much more crucial to have them around these topics.  People are afraid to reveal what they don’t know and sometimes we aren’t even aware what we don’t know; this is true for all people of all ethnicities.  That is why when issues such as blackface costumes come up we must use them to come together and use it as an opportunity to learn from each other and talk about why it is offensive. 

Embracing a solution-oriented position I can only hope that the knowledge shared will spread.  In doing so I’m not encouraging people that are offended to negate the gravity of the situation, nor downplay emotions about it.  Instead I’m encouraging them to channel it all to do something positive to help prevent it from happening in the future and raise awareness.   If you aren’t aware of why it’s so offensive, hopefully the links below can shed some light on the topic and help you have your own informed conversations about blackface.   

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/foster/sfeature/sf_minstrelsy.html

http://blackhistory.com/content/61585/blackface