Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Tag: living with passion

  • How to Make This Year Your Most Passionate Year Ever

    How to Make This Year Your Most Passionate Year Ever

    Here we are, halfway through 2018. Here’s a question to ask yourself: Are you living with passion?

    Because you see, passion doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to search high and low for passion, you simply have to unwrap it. It’s a gift within you.

    When I first began studying this thing we call “passion,” I interviewed over 200 people on the topic. I received many different definitions, but all of them with a pretty common theme. My friend Jackie St. Onge gave me what I think is the best definition of passion:

    “Passion is your joy. It is the essence of who you are.

    You have to unwrap it to find it.

    The mind, body, and soul become one when you find it.

    Passion comes naturally to a person. It’s like running water; turn on the tap and it flows. “

    The first step to living a passionate life is making a decision–and you have two choices: 1. Letting life happen to you. Or 2. Making life happen. When you make the decision to stop sleepwalking through life and embrace a new way of living, that’s when life starts opening up to you.

    Here are ten things you can do to make the rest of the year your best year ever:

    1. Change your mornings. Grab a copy of The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod–this book has the best advice ever on how you can begin each day with passion.
    2. Become clear on how you want to live. Grab a spiral notebook and write down 100 things to be, do, or have in your lifetime. Every day, pick from this list and take steps to get you  closer or to actually live it.
    3. Watch how you react to your thoughts. You may not be able to control what pops up in your head, but you can certainly control your reaction to your thoughts.
    4. READ. READ. READ. What you put in your mind determines how you will live your life. Start with my book, Unwrapping Your Passion. (And there’s a book list in the back of the book for more reading.) You’re getting the wisdom of many passionate people in this book.
    5. Prioritize your time. Recognize what’s truly important in your life and let the other stuff slide.
    6. Let go of the relationships that are dragging you down, down, down. Hang out with those who are living with passion. Learn from them.
    7. Find a mentor, coach, accountability partner who can guide you down a passionate path.
    8. Have a vision that’s bigger than what you’re currently experiencing and believe in it. You must believe it to see it, as Wayne Dyer used to say.
    9. Try something new. Always. This is the action that leads to new eruptions of passion in your life.
    10. Invite joy, bliss, and passion in your life every single day. They will show up.  Then end your day with gratitude and begin again.

    Ditch the mediocrity and start living with passion. If you need some help getting clear or how to take the steps to a passionate life, I have a few spots open in my Passion Mentor program. Email me at karen @ agelesspassions with “A Passionate Life” in the subject line. Start now, and you’ll end the year having the most passionate life ever!

     

    Ladies, this weekend is for you: Ladies Night Inn, A Retreat for Your Soul

     

     

  • What Are You Willing to Do to Create the Life You Want?

    “I want to write a book.”

    “I want to start my own business.”

    “I want to be an actor.”

    “I want to move to California.”

    “I want to retire.”

    “I want to…”

    What’s on your “Someday List?”

    You know the one…the one that has all the things you’re putting off for some day in the future. 

    I’m a wonderful procrastinator. My father used to say, “Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow.” (Yes, really.) He would say it jokingly, but I took his words to heart. 

    I had always wanted to write books from the time that I wrote my first story as a kid. I started writing articles and blog posts for no pay. I wrote for the pure pleasure of creating stories and honing the craft. 

    My first paid gig was for an online review site. I earned five figures from that site…over a couple of years. 

    I continued to write for several blog sites and occasionally my articles were syndicated in several newspapers. Chicago Tribune offered me a weekly column in the local section, with no pay. I said yes. It was fun to see my articles in print. Later, I became a paid writer. This lead to other paid gigs, like writing for Ricky Martin’s parenting website. 

    So this leads to the question, what do you love so much you’d do it for free?  This is one of the clues to your passions. 

    Then the second question becomes, what are you willing to do to create the life you want? 

    I wanted to write books. 

    Someday. 

    There’s a line in Billy Joel’s song, James:

    “When will you write your masterpiece?”

    I finally started writing. I got up at five a.m. and hit the keyboard each morning. I wrote after the kids went to bed. I wrote in between selling stuff for my sales job. 

    One book. Then two. Then ten. And still writing the next one. 

    There are three things you need to create the life you want:

    Clarity.

    Commitment.

    Action. 

    Get clear on the life you want, commit to what needs to be done, then take action. 

    What are you willing to do to create the life you want?