#passsion #bills #life
“Passion doesn’t pay bills.”
So says the beginning of a TV ad for Etsy.
This makes one think of childhood, and something everyone’s parents may have said.
You may passionately want to be a rock star, the conversation then proceeds, but not everyone can be a rock star. You have to find something steady that will make you a living.
Play your guitar at home, during your off hours.
While it’s certainly true that not everyone who wants to be a rock star will be. Competition is fierce, and there’s a lot of talent out there. The difference between one who makes it as a rock star and one who doesn’t may involve a lucky break or two, or meeting the right person.
But the conversation with one’s parents almost always seems to devolve into encouraging the child, regardless of age, to settle for something he or she may not want.
We can extrapolate further. How miserable, and regretful, will this child be 40 years later that he or she did not pursue his or her passion?
Very likely, a lifetime of paid bills may be no consolation.
One should have a twofold consideration in the pursuit of life. What do you WANT to do? What do you have to do to get what you want? If you don’t get what you want immediately, what do you do in the meantime? The second part is: What do you do to ensure you have a good life throughout? What plan do you put in place to make that happen? How do I make enough to live well, save well, invest well for the future etc.?
The answer is to be both idealistic and practical. Give yourself some time to pursue your passion. If you fail, put a Plan B in place as you continue to pursue your passion. What you earn in Plan B can buy you time to get to Plan A.
Sock away a portion of what you earn toward your future, and invest it prudently. Don’t raid that stash for frivolous expenditures.
Perhaps you are the person who has not yet found his or her passion. Perhaps you started with a relatively secure Plan A, and it is treating you OK. You are content. Yet, you want something more.
(Remember, too, that secure Plan A’s are fleeting. They may not last as long as you want them to.)
Or, you may have a passion that is not necessarily paying your bills, but you want to keep pursuing it.
Fortunately, for either of those types of folks, there are programs out there that can help you generate a potentially lucrative income with a strong, part-time effort, while enabling you to help others at the same time. No specific education, experience or background are required – only the willingness to look at something you may never have thought you would do.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
In short, if you have a passion, don’t be afraid to pursue it. Pursue it because you enjoy it. If it pays off financially, consider yourself fortunate. Do something, preferably something you don’t hate, to accommodate your practical needs for as long as you need to. (Hopefully, for as long as you want to.)
Try to live the life you want with few regrets, so you can reach your death bed not wondering what could have been. Not everything you want to happen will happen, but make sure that if things don’t happen, it is not because of something you did, or didn’t do.
Passion may not pay all of your bills, but if they pay some, you would probably have achieved your goals. If they don’t pay any bills, make sure your Plan B does not stop you from pursuing your passion.
Peter
Tag Archives: passion
FINDING YOUR PASSION REQUIRES LOOKING FOR IT
#passion #FindingYourPassion #LookingForYourPassion
People advise us that we won’t be truly happy unless we find our passion.
But, according to a study from Stanford and Yale-NUS in Singapore, searching for one’s passion may actually make it harder for people to figure out what they love to do.
The study was quoted in an article on the subject published July 28, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The Idea of ‘finding’ one’s passion implies that people have built-in interests just waiting to be discovered, and if you can simply figure out what they are, you will magically be able to embrace them,” the article quotes the study, which will be published in the journal Psychological Science.
True passion develops, and is not found, the article says. It develops “through being open-minded about delving into a new topic and being willing to put some work into it,” the article says.
Let’s look into this further. Let’s say you have a passion for art. You know it’s there, and you pursue it. It may not make you a good living, mind you, but you pursue it anyway. Then, you figure out how to make a living.
Now, if you have a job that’s hardly your passion, and you have no outside activities that you are really passionate about – OK, watching your favorite sports team, or other sedentary activities, doesn’t count — then, you have to find something that produces both passion and profit.
That requires LOOKING, rather than sitting and waiting for it to come.
It also requires THINKING — contemplating whether you could make something your passion.
Locating your passion requires action, not reaction. It requires pursuit and creativity, not serendipity.
Your passion could be placed in front of you by someone you know, or someone you don’t know but have just met. A person who truly is looking for his or her passion will look and listen when someone presents a new idea to him or her.
Again, if you are in a job that is NOT your passion, find something about the job that, if not arousing passion, will make you want to go to work every day with a smile.
Meanwhile, be open to new opportunities that may be presented to you. There are many great ways out there to make money outside of your job, that won’t interfere greatly with what you are already doing. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Going along and getting along will probably not produce passion. We all have things we have to do to take care of ourselves and our families. That doesn’t mean we can’t take time for things we really enjoy.
The ultimate passion comes when we love what we are doing, regardless of what other reward we get from it. But if that other reward is handsome, that’s a real bonus.
Yes, you can become passionate about something you know nothing about now. You have to look for that passion, and you have to know it when you see it. Then, you have to pursue it – with a passion.
Passions aren’t like snowflakes that fall from the sky. They are more like fires that have to be started, stoked and maintained. In other words, YOU have to ignite your passion.
You may not know it when you see it initially, but you must have the drive to create it, perhaps from some unexpected source.
Peter
ARE YOU A REBEL? IT MIGHT BE A GOOD THING
#rebel #manners #wolves
Are you a rebel?
A Dodge Ram truck ad asks the following questions: If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you do it too? Where are your manners? Were you raised by wolves? All this to see whether you are “rebel “ enough to buy a truck and drive it off road.
Let’s take the questions individually. Jumping off a cliff is not for everyone, but if it is your thing, you probably would either be equipped with the proper soaring apparatus, or you’d be jumping into deep water. It’s one way, certainly not the only way, to display your inner rebel.
Secondly, one does not need to have bad manners to be a rebel. In fact, bad manners are usually just bad taste. The point of this question is to see whether you are willing to break with convention. One can do that in a very mannerly way.
Thirdly, one does not have to raised by wolves to be a rebel. Rebels can have perfectly good parents, who may not understand their passion. A word of caution here: if your parents do not understand your passion, and you are too young, or are unable, to live on your own, you may have to wait until you are on your own to exercise your passion, assuming that passion is not destructive to you or others.
So when is it appropriate to be a rebel? You may discover that your ambition is taking you in a certain direction, even though others warn you against it. You may have a great idea that you need to pursue to an uncertain conclusion. If you don’t pursue it, you’ll regret it. If you do, and it was not what you’d thought, you would have at least made the effort.
Or, you might just realize that what you are currently doing, or what others want you to do, is just not for you, or is not going to take you where you want to go. So, perhaps, you follow the plan for a while, at the same time looking for something better. Perhaps you don’t follow the plan at all, and look for something better.
Your gut tells you what to do. Friends and family may tell you to follow your gut, but they may not mean it. They may just think you are nuts for being, well, unconventional.
Of course, the definition of “conventional” is fluid. Something may be “conventional” until it’s no longer conventional. Some things are seen as “conventional,” but shouldn’t be. Or, what’s conventional may not give you the results you want.
If your inner rebel is prodding you not to listen to “conventional wisdom,” follow your passion. Naturally, if your passion will not make you a living, you may have to follow it while doing something else. If you need help to get the funds to follow your passion, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll see and hear the stories of several people who saw their passion, followed it and prospered.
For some, finding their passion is elusive. They are either so in love with routine that they can’t possibly see anything else, or they haven’t latched on to something they really want to do. They should keep looking, because their passion is out there somewhere. Only they will know what it is when they find it.
Again, take great care to ensure your passion is not destructive to others or yourself. Passion usually involves risk, and one should be calculated in his risk. Being a rebel does not mean being reckless. Take whatever precautions you need to mitigate your risk. You may not eliminate the risk, so embrace risk carefully.
Rebels don’t always get what they want – at least immediately. But often, the joy is in the pursuit. The best revenge against naysayers and “conventional wisdom” is ultimate success.
Peter
BEST TIME TO START A BUSINESS
Decades ago, starting a business was hard.
You needed money – either your own, or investors’.
You needed sophisticated and expensive marketing – a big cost.
All of the above was hard to come by. If you failed, chances are you were devastated. If you failed, you probably would have decided to take your skills and ideas to an employer and help make HIM rich.
Today, as Darren Hardy, publisher of Success magazine puts it, starting a business has never been easier.
In a 2013 audio from his series, Hardy points out that the Internet and social media and the related technology makes starting a business easy. It’s relatively cheap, because you don’t need a lot of that sophisticated and expensive marketing. If you have a good idea, and a computer, you can tell the world about your idea relatively easily.
Because starting a business is relatively easy, and relatively inexpensive, failure is not as costly. If one idea fails, try another one. Chances are, you won’t be financially devastated by your first failure.
If you are entrepreneurial, you can keep trying things until one works. Entrepreneurs know that eventually, if they keep trying, they will succeed.
Couple the ease of starting a business today, with the difficulties in the workplace. Job security is almost impossible to find. Companies are looking for, as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has put it, “cheap genius.” If they don’t find it nearby, they’ll find it somewhere in the world.
Your good ideas, taken to an employer, may be able to be replicated, even improved upon, by someone who will work for less money than you make.
If you are young and starting your career path, take a look at what you are good at, what you are passionate about, and think about how you could parlay that into your own business. There’s nothing wrong with working for someone else for a time, even a long time, especially if that person is helping you succeed. But chances are, if you are good at something, and are passionate about it, you’ll have the drive to strike out on your own if you choose.
Sometimes, it’s a matter of taking your passion and figuring out how you can use it to help others. Then, figure out how much others will pay you for helping them. If you are passionate about art, and have a talent for it, you don’t necessarily have to sell your drawings or paintings. But you might sell yourself as someone who could help, say, architects, stagers etc. Ideas, plus passion, plus drive might be a good formula for success in whatever endeavor you choose.
What if you have drive, but no ideas and no passion yet. Where do you go to find the idea and passion to which you could apply your great drive? There are many good business ideas already out there waiting for the people with drive to pursue them. To check out one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. All you need to be successful is the sense to see how good an idea it is, and the drive to share it.
Even though Hardy says it’s relatively easy to start a business today, whatever you pursue will require hard work. But if you are passionate, the work won’t seem so hard. As the saying goes, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
In these conditions, passion, plus idea, plus drive is the perfect formula. The passions and ideas can be found elsewhere. The drive has to be within you.
Peter