4 Things keeping you from actually doing something about your passion // Alt. Title: Why I don't write

Jul 24

Jul 24 4 Things keeping you from actually doing something about your passion // Alt. Title: Why I don't write

Sunday mornings aren't normally my go-to for writing, but when you oversleep the family car ride to church, you run the Keurig, toast a bagel and drag your clunky Dell out on the front porch.

Welcome to my sanctuary. For the past few weeks I've been keeping a note titled: "What's holding you back". While this list could arguably be as long as my house, my list still only has 4 and I promise that's enough for us to chew on this week.

1. Passionate≠easy....at least not if you want passionate=excellent.

Somewhere along the way we stopped doing hard things. We started ignoring that spark in our hearts that quietly but confidently drew us to what we were created for and swapped those moments for tasks we could quickly and cleanly accomplish. But here's the thing: Our passions will most likely require the most sweat and attention from us if we really want to see them come to life-and hear me when I say, you should want that. The flare of passion in your spirit is the kickstart necessary to propel you into many days of learning, reading, practicing, failing, and trying again. You've got a personal romance going with your soul, and at the end of the day you want to be able to sing "Too Good" to your passions-not "Somebody that I Used to Know".

2. Validation can’t be your gas

This one is pretty simple in theory, extremely difficult in execution. Here’s the problem: we live in corners that plea with every other corner to validate our corner. Your passion is NOT an Instagram post and we cannot operate in life waiting for our likes to reach 100 to feel as though we have accomplished something. The value of the things your create must begin with you. But get this: placing value on your work goes beyond the creation stage. Placing value on your work is publicly backing yourself and your creations. Placing value on your work is putting you face on the back of that book and knowing if it goes down you go with it. Placing value on your work is saying, "I’m willing to die with this project, and when it fails I will try again because this is what I was made for."

Your passion doesn’t have a voice unless you give it one, so speak up.

3. Your basket is full.

#3 is my cry to all creative humans to stop being "Jack's of all trades". Stop, take off that name tag. You were not called to be good at everything, to have your hand in everything. And I know it is possible to do this and to be good at many many things, but the more energy, thought, and heart food you spread thin, the less hearty dinners your passion is getting. Listen here, You're not Gatsby. You don't have to kill everything to be great. So let that fall off your shoulders. But you do have to kill your thing. Stop picking up things no one asked you to carry, your arms are going to get tired, and furthermore so will your heart. When we pick up the need to be all things, we unknowingly pick up anxieties should have been left on the ground, so in the words of my girl Elsa, freaking let it go.

4. Nowhere's Perfect

I landed on number four when I was having a discussion with a friend about her job hunt. We had talked through potential options and with pros and cons chart in hand she reported back with a discouraged: nowhere's perfect. And she was right, as many of us will encounter in our journey to seek and live out our passions. No job or opportunity is going to have everything you want, no book your write or piece of art you create will be flawless--but that doesn't mean none of these things will be absolutely right.I truly believe there is an inseparable link between the passion you were created with and the mark you are meant to leave on this planet, and to be blunt with you, everything you create that is beautiful is reflecting the guy who created you, because He gave you that passion in the first place. So maybe instead of looking for perfect, we start looking for the places 1) our passions can most flourish and 2) the opportunities that will most expand Jesus' kingdom on earth. When we do that, we can shift our focus away from the comforts we want in a perfect workspace, to the elements essential to a productive workspace.

So that's 4 friends. That's the hope. Don't let your passions die. Feed them more than fish food, and keep the lights on in your heart.