Keep Seeking Your Passion

I was having a clearout this weekend, and I came across a couple of courses I did back in the late 90’s – Positive Thinking and Journalism. I had a little chuckle to myself at the memories of these courses – I thought the positive thinking course was a bit thin, not that useful, but actually when I looked back at the material, it was the distilled essence of some very profound ideas about attracting your ideal life. A little too distilled for me at that time, I missed the profundity and much of the substance of it went right over my head. Proof, if you like that you have to study a subject in much detail to understand some very basic principles!

As for the journalism course – this was a great disappointment to me. I was convinced that I would be a fabulous freelance writer. The journalism course gave me somewhat of a rude awakening. Looking back at the rubbish I wrote and handed in, I now admire my tutor’s restraint, tact and encouragement, although at the time I thought him very harsh! Not to put too fine a point on it, my articles sucked. I did not set the world alight with my writing, much to my disappointment.

Now, I’m not telling you this to regale you with tales of how rubbish I was. But the thought occurred to me that I did what lots of people do – I tried out various courses and ideas to help me find my passion. Along the way I found a few things that didn’t work out, I found out I wasn’t as fabulous as I thought I was. And yet, I didn’t stop. I kept seeking – did more courses (accountancy, IT stuff), I went travelling, did yet more courses, got some coaching and eventually ended up starting my own business.

Some people might just see where I am now – how would they know about the failed courses, the stupid ideas, the seemingly endless ‘please let this be it’ phase I went through? But the back story was a fairly unhappy experience. Looking back on it, I have quite fond memories of this time, but at the time it felt very painful, difficult and as if I was failing in all directions. The experience felt so unpleasant because I took it all very seriously and lost my sense of humour a bit. All part of the experience I guess.

It’s worth remembering that a few failed ventures can be just part of the experience. Each one of those courses, travels and attempts brought me closer in some way to where I am today. Some because I enjoyed them so much, some because I really didn’t enjoy them. Either way, they were part of the puzzle. So if you are seeking your passion, allow yourself to bounce back from things that don’t work out and keep moving forward. Don’t take the setbacks seriously. If you do, you might give up altogether and THAT would be the most serious setback of all.

Love

Donna.x