Finding and living your Passion

[JanetJarvis]

Hi Everyone:

 

With the tough current economic conditions I have been refelecting a lot on finding and living my passion.

 

Did any of you thought about the subject recently? What did you discover? Did you take any action?

 

JJ

[renaissancewoman101]

What if you don't have any real passions in life?

 

Then what are you supposed to do?

[waveseer]

I'm working on it, both the discovery part and the living part.

[Plastic_Monkey]

You know, with our recently published 9.7% unemployment figure, you do read a lot of hype--stuff like, "find your passion and the money will follow," and "follow your dream because there is no dollar value on dreams" and stuff, but I always thought that oversimplified things way, way, waaaaay too much. The truth is, passion and dreams don't pay for housing and food.

 

But three years ago, when the current economic crisis was just starting to surface, I lost my job in L.A. I was 39, suddenly unemployed, and at a complete loss at what to do next. I did not want to go back into the industry rat race at my age (it's most definitely a young man's game,) and I didn't want to live in L.A. anymore. My mom called me and said "why don't you move to New York and go to graduate school?" I had been trying to go to grad school since I was 22, but I could never swing it financially. I also had family in New York, which made the living situation a lot easier than it would be for most people.

 

So I figured, "yeah, why not?" Since I wasn't (and am still not) married, don't have any kids (and still don't,) I can do stuff like move accross the country on a whim. So that's what I did. I found a job after a few months, applied to graduate school, and now I'm 80% of the way finished with my Masters degree and working another job.

 

I have no idea where this crazy maze called "a career" will lead me next, only that at that time, three years ago, there was nothing better I could have possibly done than listen to my mother's suggestion to just pick up, move to the other side of the country, and go back to school.

[TheSmilingTurnip]

I worked as a secretary for a long time. I lost my last secretary job in December 08. My husband I agreed that I should take a month off and then sign up for college. So that is what I did. At first, I was going to get a liberal arts degree. My husband suggested that I look into graphic design instead. At first I was resistant. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that he was right. Truthfully, I'd always wanted to do something artsy, and I never had the courage to follow that. My desire for a liberal arts degree wasn't about what I wanted - it was all about getting a job when I finished, just having that piece of paper.

 

In fact, every other time I have gone to college - it has never been for what I wanted to do or what I was passionate about - it was, 'Which degree will sound good? What field of study will make my parents/husband/in-laws happy?'

 

Now things are much, much different. I am so much happier and I am passionate about my education. I am looking forward to working in this field.

[karvala]

What if you don't have any real passions in life?

 

Then what are you supposed to do?

 

Find some.

[karvala]

Hi Everyone:

 

With the tough current economic conditions I have been refelecting a lot on finding and living my passion.

 

Did any of you thought about the subject recently? What did you discover? Did you take any action?

 

JJ

 

Funnily enough, I was talking to the supermarket cashier about this earlier. She was asking what I do, and I told her, and told her what I had previously done as well, and how great it was to be able to do something that interests me. She said to me "Oh it must be wonderful; I would love to do something like that, but I could never manage it." I told her, quite candidly, that what she does, getting up every day and spending eight hours doing something she finds boring, repetitive, soulless, is infinitely harder than what I do. If she can do that, how much more easily could she do something that she would actually enjoy. I think that's true for most people.

[quirky]

I discovered I wanted to do music since I picked up the guitar at 16. I studied it abroad, in the UK. I stayed there for 9 years almost with so many dreams slowly dying..At some point I realised I was just bogged down with paying my rent and living day to day life. I moved back to Greece to stay at my mother's house. I FOCUSED on my dream and I lost a lot for it. But a year ago there was no evidence I do music.

 

Now I've got 5 good songs on myspace, played on 2 online radios and a radio show on BBC6. My songs are on 4 different sites. I am also registered on a site where I can enter competitions and I'm preparing a cd to send it to independent record labels. I'm so into it I talk to people about it and people see I'm excited and want to help me if they can. I met someone lately that said I could possibly perform regularly before his set!!

 

As I said all this came with serious sacrifice and a great sense of loss. But it has made me feel true to myself and it is a feeling noone can take away from you..

[JanetJarvis]

Imagine you had a passion and explore what it would be. It doesn't have to be real, just imagine now.

[Gaea]

I have this little idea in the back of my mind that I could be really passionate about somehow blending my environmental science background with the medium of film...in what capacity I don't know yet... the idea is still brewing back there

[Nidania]

I got laid off at the end of June (thank you economy

 

I hated my job, but it had great benefits, steady hours and a decent wage.

 

I'd always wanted to work in the medical field, specifically helping as many people as I could in the worst time of their life. But how could I do that when I had to provide for my children? Seemed downright selfish to chase a dream and not bring in any money or have to ask the government for some help.

 

In the space of one morning, I suddenly found myself with all the time in the world. I immediately applied to nursing school - what else am I going to do in a tiny rural town where there is NO work? I applied for assistance to pay for it, made some cuts to my spending (it'll be tight, but my kids and I will survive) and am just going for it.

 

I hope to find work at a hospice when I graduate, and want to continue schooling while I work and eventually wind up as a surgical nurse in the operating room. Of course I may enjoy the hospice work too much to want to leave.