Follow Your Passion!

What If You Have More Than One?

(Not to be confused with the May 13, 2016 post Follow Your Passions)

More and more these days you hear people saying, “Follow you passion!” Gone are the days where you landed yourself in a “sensible” career and did that until you retired. Back in the day, kids graduated from high school knowing they would follow in their parents’ footsteps. If dad was a mechanic, chances were that little Johnny would follow suit. Or, if dad was a doctor, then Johnny better start looking at medical schools. If mom was a housewife, then little Sally would be too. If mom was a school teacher, Sally would likely do the same. You simply did what would logically put a roof over your family’s heads and food on the table. Whatever you actually had a passion for often got put onto the back burner with the thought that perhaps one day after you retired, you’d get to do them. More than not, those passions died out, never to be explored.

Today, there are choices. You get to pick what field you want to go into. Today, if Sally’s passion is cars, then she can be a mechanic. She can be a police officer, firefighter, military, doctor, lawyer, etc. right along with her brother, Johnny. And if Johnny and Sally both want to follow their dreams of being artists and musicians, then they can do that too.

But what if Sally has a passion for both art and music? Most people, school counselors included, would tell her to pick one. Well, what if she likes them both, equally? What if each one fulfills her equally but each in its own way? It happens more often than you think. Take the artist/musician in the video below, Zac Roane. He’s an artist with Sideshow Collectibles, a company whose business is creating the most beautiful, lifelike statues of our favorite superheroes, villains, sci-fi and horror characters. But that career only halfway fulfills him. The other half is fulfilled by music. Take a look and see for yourself.

Zac Roane, artist at Sideshow Collectibles and musician.

So don’t let anyone dictate how you should live your life and what you should do with it. Don’t let anyone make you choose between your passions, if you happen to have more than one. What I would suggest is figuring out a system of time management that allows you to do what you want to do in a way that truly fulfills you. It will probably be a struggle. Nothing worth having ever came easy. But when it does get tough, ask yourself if you would rather live your life on somebody else’s terms or your own.

The fact is, people are always going to put in their two cents whether you ask for it or not. Here’s a tip…you don’t have to listen! Their intentions might be good, but even though they think they know what’s best for you, they don’t. Why? Because ultimately, they’re not you. They don’t have your drives, your passions, or your goals. If you do choose to listen, then take it with a grain of salt. There may be words of wisdom that might be useful to you. But apply them in a way that will help you to live your passions to the fullest. Now go out there and be YOU!