Just this morning, I came across a interview about passion that I did years ago on Career Tips and Trends:
The way I looked at it back then, at that time I was juggling and I was spinning plates as a mom. I think a lot of people can identify with that. You want one plate and you spin it and the other one starts to wobble and you move on to the next plate and spin that one too.
Sometimes, in the whole process, you lose yourself. You lose your purpose. You lose the “why am I here and what am I doing”. It becomes very overwhelming at that point to try to juggle it all. That’s why I think it’s so important to be doing something that you really are passionate about doing. It makes that juggling and plate spinning that much more easier.
What happened two years ago, on my 44th birthday I was extremely down, quite overweight, very unhappy, out of shape. I was at a point in my life where I was sort of questioning everything that I was doing. One of the things I did at that point was I was thinking back on my life and what was the happiest time of my life. What was the point in my life before I started to fall out of joy and I was doing something that I really wanted to do?
Waterskiing was the thing that came to mind. My husband found a link to the station and on the Today Show was a 66 year old woman who was barefoot waterskiing. That video was not captioned, but I didn’t need the captions. All I could see was a 66 year old woman waterskiing on her bare feet on the screen. I started to cry because if a 66 year old woman could do this, then what was my excuse? There was nothing holding me back from pursuing that passion again.
In my work as a Passion Mentor, one of the exercises I take people through is a “Look Back at Your Past.”
It’s really simple, but the activity often brings out some rawness in people. For one thing, when you’re looking back into your past, you will find stories of your life that bring joy as well as hurt or regret.
The key is to focus on the joy.
And your job today, is to bring joy, passion, and fun back into your life. At any age. Y
Yes, I really do mean at ANY age. You may not be able to experience that passion as you did in your younger days, but you can bring it back in a different way.
For example, if you were the star quarterback in high school but you can’t play football today–you can still dream up ways to enjoy football in a whole new way:
- Go on a Passion Quest to see a game in every football stadium.
- Coach a local junior football team
- Create an e-book about fun football facts
- Gather your high school football team together for a reunion
- Play Fantasy Football
Passion is a way to LIVE
Passion is an attitude. It’s a way of living life that taps into your God-given gifts and the beautiful energy you have inside of you.
At any given moment in time, you can tap into your gifts and pivot in a new direction.
If you want some help in unwrapping your passion, I have a book, Unwrapping Your Passion, Creating the Life You Truly Want AND a new course, Unwrap Your Passion. Both of those products will give you the tools and the direction to create a whole new, passionate life.
Begin now.
Karen Putz is known as The Passion Mentor. She specializes in helping people unwrap their passion at any age so they can live with joy. She is the author of multiple books and currently on a quest to barefoot water ski in all 50 states. She is a Social Ambassador for Southwest Airlines. Follow her at #southweststorytellers.