When asked what am I writing about this month and I say passion - eyebrows raise, voices go up, cheeks get rosy, and I’m smiling because the first thought about passion is love and sexy…quite literally. And that is so what we all want - to love and to be loved.
Gratefully passion has many expressions. To have passion within and for our lives, I do believe, will attract all the experiences of passion. When we are fully engaged and impassioned about what we do, create and offer to the world, we are on fire, and alive as attractive people others want to be around. I see passion as the thing we love and do because we love how we feel when we are engaged, as well as, how it feels to wake up in the morning with a YES for life.
If we’re slogging through the day in dread, we’ve missed the mark in creating a life filled with the things we love. There are always challenges in living life with passion, absolutely, but when we’re in the middle of a particular challenge it’s still energetic. The challenges are what make it interesting. We need to remember that living our passion is a journey; it’s not a one stop and shop moment. It’s the unfolding that gives it depth and longevity.
I know lots about what doesn’t impassion me, to name a few - cooking, driving fast cars, house painting, jogging, watching football. The best way I know of finding passion is to take a look at what we used to love doing as children. Here lies some secrets to our passion.
For me, I loved the water: swimming, skiing, boating, scouting, camping, hated hiking, still do, and building things and coloring with my dad. All of these things hold clues. Ask yourself what did you love most about a favorite activity? For me, I loved swimming and especially teaching it. I always knew I’d be some type of teacher but not in a traditional classroom. Go deeper in your research. The gal who loved volleyball is now a coach. The kid who loved to build tree houses is now an architect, another a realtor, another an interior designer. By rewinding our life’s path, we will likely find these early interests and attractions natural to who we were and who we still are.
Forewarned: If we already know our passion, it often happens that we’re afraid to declare it. We are literally afraid to name it for fear of others’ opinions, or fear of rocking the boat, ours or those around us. This is how we can fall into lives based on survival not vitality.
Many of us have lived survival jobs or relationships, for health insurance reasons, car payments, mortgages, or putting our kids through school. Deciding to create a vision for our life filled with our interests and talents being expressed is paramount not only to our well-being but paramount to our world’s survival. If ever there were a time to step-up to discovering and investing materially and emotionally in where our talents lie, it is now. Passionately living our lives changes everything. It brings us, and those around us, to new heights of well-being with energy left-over for giving back.
What is magic? It seems illusive and foolhardy to believe in. That said, I’ve come to see it like bursts of unexpected light; as sudden realizations or knowing, an unexpected resolution to a problem, new ideas never experienced coming to life. Magic is like sparkly light bursting with color; and in its’ mysteriousness it creates a reality that’s concrete and real to the eye. Magic resonates like a vibrant rainbow; it seems to appear by surprise and never ceases to amaze us. Rainbows cause us to pause, notice, and remark about their presence. They are a metaphor for magic.
Synchronicity is like this, magical occurrences, unexpected and surprising meetings. Suddenly before you stands the very person that you need to know, the phone rings and there is magic. Our needs are met because we have declared them, asked for help or are simply being shown what we need as we stand by our intention to create what we want and need to create. And in our clarity, as we hold our vision and passion for our lives, walking our walk, “magic” knows our desire to live fully and where and how to assist us. What we need lines up in unexpected ways and “suddenly” things become real, concrete, and inexplicable because of how they arrive out of the blue.
Out of the blue (and through the phone) comes magic. Once discovered, and even in the discovery process, magic happens.
As I was writing this early one morning the phone rang, usually at this hour I would not answer, but rather unconsciously I picked it up. It’s a robo-call and out of the blue a voice said, “let the magic begin” (this is NOT a lie) and then something about Disney. I screamed with laughter and the magic of the synchronicity of this call. O.K. O.K. I got the message, magic is real, am I really paying attention, are we paying attention? Let the magic begin.
Editor’s note; Join Jill at her last minute invite for her workshop, Creating Your Vision for Living a Life with Passion. Thursday, April 19, 6 -9 p.m. for availability call now, 860-526-5155. Her next workshop program will be Tuesday, May 22. The fee is $75. Pay on- line, and for more information, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
