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Finding Your Passion

© Ami McKay

"Work begins when you don't like what you are doing. Tension, a lack of honesty, and a sense of unreality come from following the wrong force in your life. As an adult, you must rediscover the moving power of your life."
Joseph Campbell

I consider that quote on a daily basis. I keep it near my computer and it also sits, nestled in my heart next to my other favorite Joseph Campbell quote, "Follow your bliss". These two thoughts keep me aware of how I go about my life. They remind me that living life to its fullest potential is nothing to put off for the sake of society's approval, or for 'someday'.
Someday is not a day of the week.

In the PBS 'Power of Myth' series, Bill Moyers engages Campbell in conversation about what it means to 'Follow Your Bliss'. The story he then relates shows precisely how lost we can become when we don't take the path of the soul's desire.

Campbell had been sitting in a restaurant, dining alone, taking in the conversations around him. He heard a father say to his 12-year-old son, "Drink your tomato juice'. The son quickly replied: "I don't want to".

The father kept insisting and finally the mother intervened and said, "Don't make him do what he doesn't want to do". The father was outraged and responded with: "He can't go through life doing what he wants to do. If he does only what he wants to do, he'll be dead. Look at me, I've never done a thing I wanted to in all my life."

What kind of life did that man have? What kind of example was he setting for his son? What can we do to find our passions in life and feel that we are truly living? Here are 4 pathways to finding your passion.

Remembering Your Dreams
Remembering your dreams is one of the first steps to finding your passion in life. Too often we throw the dreams of youth away merely because we feel we need to 'grow up'. We cast aside imagination and creativity as if they were lesser forms of thought and expression. We devalue the dreams of the past and replace them with 'sensible and stable' plans of action that will get us to success and security.

Take time to remember the dreams of your youth. Honor them, they show you the infinite wisdom of your soul's deepest desires. What would your 10 year old self think of where you are now? Is your life everything you imagined it would be?

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