When I shared Screw Finding Your Passion by Mark Manson, I accompanied it with a stat that said, “Fuckin’ amazing article. A wake up call for me.” It was really exactly that. There were so many things that were awesome from that article, but the highlights for me were these:
“The common complaint among a lot of these people is that they need to ‘find their passion.’
I call bullshit. You already found your passion, you’re just ignoring it. Seriously, you’re awake 16 hours a day, what the fuck do you do with your time? You’re doing something, obviously. You’re talking about something. There’s some topic or activity or idea that dominates a significant amount of your free time, your conversations, your web browsing, and it dominates them without you consciously pursuing it or looking for it.
It’s right there in front of you, you’re just avoiding it.”
I realized that I love interviewing, covering the arts, writing in this blog, reading self help books and writing inspirational posts, writing fiction, writing poems, doing spoken word poetry, writing personal essays, writing in my diary, reading about great leaders and thinkers, teaching people through my Freewriting Adventures, developing a curriculum for writers, writing about feminism, writing about my community, singing, doing arts and crafts, writing humorous posts–and I am doing them all.
So what am I scared about? Why do I still feel like I don’t know what I’m passionate about? How much time should I spend on my various interests to make me feel accomplished? When am I going to accept that all of these make up who I am?
I also love this part:
“And even then, who says you need to make money doing what you love? Since when does everyone feel entitled to love every fucking second of their job? Really, what is so wrong with working an OK normal job with some cool people you like, and then pursuing your passion in your free time on the side?”
One of my recent resolutions is to work toward an income-generating multi-creative life. I get saddened whenever I remember that Freewriting Adventures is not income generating, and there’s such a big craving to be validated by money–like I’m a legit reporter because I’m paid for it, but I don’t feel like a legit artist, singer, writer of fiction, writer of poetry, spoken word artist, comedic writer, personal essay writer, etc.
I’ve been denying the validity of every other part of who I am that doesn’t generate income, but now I realized that they give me so much more–they make me happy. Obviously, more money would be nice, especially now that I have so many health-related expenses and sadly medicines are not covered by our health card, but fuck, they make me happy. I should recognize that. I should give them due credit. They are giving me such an amazing and irreplaceable resource. They make me happy.
More Happiness and Inspiration:
- If Others Become Better Than You, So What?
- Counterintuitive Advice: Lower Your Standards
- Mid-Year Report: Spend More Time With People
- The Freedom of Not Trying to Prove Yourself
- Three Things That Make Me Feel Accomplished
- To Shift or Not to Shift
- Click here for more Happiness and Inspiration
Check out my other blog categories.
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All the opinions expressed in this page and in this blog are my own and do not represent the official stances of the companies, institutions, and organizations that I am affiliated with. I am a person. I’m not just a manifestation of corporate interests. I have an identity that is separate from my company because even if human beings are paid for a service by corporations, human beings are not owned by corporations.
Age of the Diary 