Today I spent more time in conversation about discovering one’s passion and life purpose. I have been on a bit of a roll about this over the past few days, ever since spending time at a daylong retreat designed to help put me in touch with my life purpose and the gifts and passions that go along with it. Helping people discover their passions and talents has been a passion of mine for many years, so answering for myself some of the same questions I’ve asked students and clients over the years has been really interesting. I am grateful for the jump start that the retreat has given me in defining more clearly what it is that I want to be about in the world at this time in my life. I had set an intention that early in 2012 I was going to spend time actually working through a number of exercises I’ve seen in different places that are designed to help answer the question, “what do I want to do with my life?” Going to the retreat really opened that up in a really big way.
I recently talked with someone who expressed the fear that he perhaps doesn’t have a dream or a passion or that perhaps time had already passed him by and that it was too late to pursue it. I shared with him my belief that we all have dreams and often the gifts and talents that align with the dream. What happens to many people, in my opinion, is that their dreams get buried under piles of practicalities and rationales. They get discouraged or “nay sayed” by important people in their lives–parents, teachers, counselors, etc.–to the point where they give up and conform to the expectations of others that what they choose to do with their life should match to some societal norm. In other words, they let go of the dream. We start out with them, and though we might lose track of them over time, they often remain, waiting to be rediscovered and given a second chance.
To his second fear that perhaps it was already too late for him, I offered the optimistic view that it is never to late to pursue the dream. The pursuit might look a bit different than it would have say, 20 years ago, but it is not too late to begin pursuit. Once I passed my 40s it became clear that my dream of being a gold medal winning Olympic athlete was probably not going to happen (unless there are some truly unique events that I could compete in.) But as I look back, it really wasn’t a true passion, one that I simply had to pursue. It was more fantasy than dream. I believe that when we really listen to what calls to us, our true dreams will reveal themselves to us. And when they are revealed we can begin walking in the direction of those dreams even if they might not come into full completion during our time on the planet. As I begin looking at and fleshing out the thoughts and ideas I wrote down during the retreat I recognize and acknowledge that some of these indeed might not come to fruition, they might not be fully realized. Some of them might not get off the drawing board. I believe what’s important is that we take the step toward pursuing our dreams.
Henry David Thoreau said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” Don’t just go, go confidently! There’s no statute of limitations on this. So I say we go for it in 2012. As I wrote in this blog a few days ago (LIG Day 192: http://walkinyourpower.com/blog/?p=789) , we might not see how something is going to happen to move your dream forward but our first job is to get clear about the what and let the Universe/God/Creator work on the how. I’m grateful to be on this journey at this time in my life. It is never too late and nothing is ever wasted. So I am all set to try this approach in the days and weeks ahead. Stepping out on faith and letting things line up to help me move forward. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, may we all know happiness and the root of happiness. I have to believe that in part it begins by being true to ourselves, aligning our passions with our purpose, letting go of the expectation of others, and see what happens. I’m looking forward to getting even clearer about what comes next. Let it be so!
One Response to Lessons in Gratitude Day 194