Where to find your passion


One thing the majority of humanity has in common has to be our outlook on work. We might not want to work, but it's an important aspect of life that's essential to survival. Even if in a home there's only one working parent -- there is still that mindset.

I wasn't raised to believe one needs to work a job just to pay the bills. My parents encouraged us to pursue what it is that we really wanted to do as a career. They allowed us to make that decision on our own. They didn't drill in our heads that we need a job just to pay the bills, they wanted more for us. And so we each knew what we wanted to do, and it wasn't just for the money, we each found our passion. Once we set our minds on what we were going to study my parents began to call that out in us. My father especially started calling me a journalist before I started to pursue my degree in journalism.

For me it was a natural pursuit. My first experience as a journalist was in the fourth grade. My teacher introduced us to journalism and we were assigned to write news articles. I wrote an article about the lunch aids in school and how I felt they didn't really care about the students. I added facts but it was also a bias reporting; yet for my first article I was very passionate!

I've also kept a journal since I could write -- and I still journal to this day. I never found writing or reading boring in life, it was something I would do for fun. As I grew up, as life's circumstances surprised me--causing so much shifting and change, writing and reading were still there. Writing and reading have always been the consistent things in my life.

What is that one consistent thing in your life? The one thing that when you moved, got a new job, made new friends, or spent time with family, has never went away? It's the one thing that was effortless for you to come back to? That is your passion.

Passion is something that drives you, that improves you, that makes you creative. When your mind is active and you begin to imagine -- even if it's not physically expressed, that's creativity.

We all have something, and that passion is not work. I used to believe work was my passion, but once that was taken away I realized I couldn't depend on that to be happy or to enjoy life. I did, however, still have reading and writing, that was my stability. It's how I connect with God, it's how I can self-evaluate. I know God loves my words because it comes from my heart. The way He admires the way we love one another, He admires the way we love ourselves. I show love to myself by reading and writing; it's my self-care.

If you couldn't answer the question of what your one thing is, don't lose heart. Be still for a moment; when you quiet your mind and body what is the next urgent thing you want to do? Finding your passion takes practice. I've dabbled in crafting and DIY things trying to find a new passion but if I didn't have the heart for it I couldn't do it! I could only do something like that if it were for someone I love or my home. Other than that I can't craft just to craft, it's not my one thing.

Sometimes there is such a thing as work that relates to your passion; but if there isn't, I don't see the wrong in working just for work and pursuing your passion on your off time.

We can get lost in important areas in life; lost in the sense that we're alone in a place, distant from family and friends and we didn't know how we got there. Maybe we followed a path that we thought would be good for us, or we followed the footsteps of those around us. It's never too late to find your passion and pursue that. If you're still alive, then there's still time.

Don't quiet the passion in your heart, let it out.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
— Matthew 6:21

Love your neighbor as you love yourself
— Mark 12:31

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.
— Colossians 3:23

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