Harvesting Your Passion CategoriesThis Boomer's Life

Harvesting Your Passion

Goals 2018! With the advent of the New Year I reassess my life goals, which are so different at 55 than they were at 25, 35, and 45. What is important now? I have been thinking a lot about what makes a good life…and how to come to terms with midlife and beyond.

I used to make goal setting such an analytical exercise. I’m a self-help junkie, and there are so many books, articles, blogs and tools on this subject. I studied and bought many of them. After all these years though, here is what I have learned and what it comes down to: What makes you happy? What are you passionate about? What does your good life look like?

My latest self-help pursuit is to learn how to become a good speaker.  This is a lifetime goal of mine because I appreciate the value of this skill, yet public speaking is an overwhelming fear of mine, and avoidance of it compromised my long career in PR and Communications. So I was listening to the audiobook called Talk Like Ted, by Carmen Gallo, full of speaking pointers from the best TED presenters.

(Do you know about TED talks? They have become a cultural phenomenon; you can find them on www.ted.com–wonderful thought-provoking talks on any number of topics.)

The book refers to academic research conducted by Dr. Melissa Cardon, a professor at Pace University, who studies how passion relates to business success.  She defines entrepreneurial passion as “a positive, intense feeling that you experience for something that is profoundly meaningful to you as an individual.” Of course, passion is a critical component of success as an entrepreneur (and speaker).

You can read the book, it is a good one, but basically, the secret of good public speaking comes down to this: Harvesting Your Passion.

I loved those words! They resonated with me. My last blog talked about the study of happiness. In this one I wanted to take a closer look at the concept of passion. Without happiness and passion, what else matters really?

Passion is what brings energy and meaning into your life, the energy to find your happiness. Yet with middle age, I have observed in so many Boomers, the results of fading passion. I saw it in my parents’ generation when they were at this age. I don’t mean just passion in a relationship, I mean passion for LIFE.

I offer this: It is time to find your passion again if you feel you have lost it somewhere along the way. This ideal is what we are all about at www.boomerconnections.com and that we feel so passionately about passing on. I feel we owe it to ourselves to (and this is my personal mantra by the way) “live a meaningful life your whole life.”

Why. the heck. NOT?!! Live with passion, don’t settle!

So what do you think? Is it time? In my quest for a formula or a roadmap for finding passion—I always go the academic research route first—I found this lovely article on a lovely website that I am going to visit again and again: (https://tinybuddha.com/blog/8-ways-to-discover-your-passion-and-live-a-life-you-love/) (https://tinybuddha.com)

In summary, the article offers some specific actions to take in finding your passion:

  1. Slow Down: introspection and quiet thought and activities like yoga may clear the pathways to self-discovery.
  2. Change Your Story: encourage your inner voice to speak to you of confidence rather than limitations.
  3. Own Your Uniqueness: recognize what talent, gifts and strengths are particular to you and play into those.
  4. Cultivate Confidence: through tools like written affirmations and/or a vision board.
  5. Find the Themes: examine reoccurring themes and patterns in your life, whatyour are drawn to both positive and negative, and what you can learn from them.
  6. Write: process your thoughts for even a few minutes each day in writing and see what appears.
  7. Focus on the Fun: instead of filling the squares and adding to the To Do list, spend some time doing what fills you with joy.
  8. Push Past Fear: identify what keeps you from moving forward.

Such great advice!

And here is another snippet, a bit of a different perspective, but also very valuable, from an article in Psychology Today called “5 Keys to a Passionate Life,” by Gregg Levoy: (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/passion/201502/5-keys-passionate-life)

Very loosely paraphrased, the 5 go something like this:

  1. Take small actions to be spontaneous and act on your passions rather than setting up a “5-Year Plan.”
  2. Figure out what is sucking the life out of you (a job? relationship?) and how you can take action and make changes
  3. Take risks, do some things that scare you
  4. Work at the pursuits that feed your passion: apply diligence
  5. Passion goes viral and follows the law of attraction: if you have it you tend to pass it on and attract others with it. Look for passionate others.

All of this talk about passion led me to mindfully consider what exactly makes me happy now, what do I live for, what do I love? What about myself do I have to discover, or rediscover? It was a most meaningful exercise…to help the self-help junkie set goals!

So New Year, here goes! I have my goals set: I have a blog to develop, my husband and I just got an RV. We have a passion for the open road, so I am going to wander, and write about it. What’s your passion? Think about, and then Let’s Do It!  And if you have any insight to share, leave us a comment! We love to hear your thoughts.

(Note: Check out my next blog for some good quotes on the subject of passion!)

 

 

Gravatar image
By

Cherie is a late bloomer Boomer, born at the tail end of the Boomer generation. She was playing with Barbies while her older sisters marched on Washington and fought for equal rights, but watched and learned. Now she is an empty nester with a whole new future to explore and share at www.BoomerConnections.com! As “Philosopher in Chief” Cherie merely wants to change the world with this blog: to encourage those of us in the midst of our “second act” to look at life with new eyes, open to a life filled with new beginnings rather than endings, and to apply all we have learned to a way of living that is more meaningful and profound. There is SO much to live for, up until the very end.

2 comments

  1. One of my resolutions in 2018 is to not lose track of happiness and passion this year. I believe this is going to be a difficult year for me, and it’s so important to actively pursue joy; it often comes in something as small as sitting in the sun with your cup of tea in the morning, a warm kitty on your lap. This is a moment of perfect pleasure. For me, the trick is never losing your appreciation for the small pleasures, they are just as real and profound as the big ones. I also agree that a little fear keeps you sharp, there’s nothing wrong in doing things that are scary! This is one of the things that I’m working on, embracing frightening things as healthy and part of life. As usual Cheri, you’ve given me lots to think about!

    1. Thanks for your insightful comments Loralee, so agree with the value of finding pleasure in the small moments, as well as the life changing action of facing your fears. 2018, bring it on!!

Comments are closed.