I’m writing this blog today because of the picture I posted on our twitter feed for #motivationmonday. It really spoke to me and it's been guiding me all week. I can't stop thinking about it. I’m actually going to read the bigger work the quotation was taken from and I’ll let you know how it is. If you're interested the book is called Are You Ready to Dispel Fear, Seize Opportunity, and Attract the Success You’ve Only Dreamed of Until Now? by Fabienne Fredrickson and it's a "collection of compelling personal stories from top experts on how finding their life’s passion changed their lives, and how you can find yours too". Buy it here.
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| Source: Pinterest |
Despite the fact that following my literary passion has provided me with a potentially “useless” Master’s degree in English according to some ridiculous scale created by Linkedin or Workopolis (think of an article called "The 30 Worst Degrees") and the slight detail that I haven’t “made it” yet I still
think it’s important, essential really, to follow your passion in life.
If you don't follow your passion you're wasting an amazing gift that you were given. Sometimes, as my yoga instructor reflected in Monday night’s class (life really
does have a great sense of timing doesn’t it?) you have to “work for the man”
as she called it, and put in your time, before you can truly follow your
passion and be self sufficient. She is hesitant to leave her full time position to teach yoga exclusively because of her early failings as a young self-employed
person. She explained that in life you need to have a solid foundation to work
from before you can make those “bigger leaps” of passion. So, like my yogi, I am “working
for the man” (“the man” in this case being my dad) and am building my foundation
before I can follow my passion for writing. That doesn’t mean I won’t do it though. I’ve
always tried to follow my passion despite growing up a “artsy” kid in a “sporty”
family.
As a kid, I spent my free time writing stories, reading
books and drawing. When I wasn’t doing these things I was obsessing over horses and often the two would intersect (I’d design
barn layouts, write stories about horses, and read books about horses like Pony Pals and The Saddle Club – I was an artsy, horsey kid). These things came
naturally to me and just felt right. Unfortunately, in my “sporty” family these
things were pastimes not equal to sports like soccer or baseball and also weren't cultivated as gifts that could ever provide for me in the workforce. It's understandable, really, that practical minds think in practical ways.
One of the worst memories I have from my childhood is the
basketball league I was forced to play in for two painful years in grades five
and six. Not only are those awkward years for a growing girl but I was just
plain terrible at the sport. I hated how rough and hard the basketballs were, (if I had
to play I preferred volleyball at least they didn’t hurt as much when they hit
you in the face), I sucked at dribbling, shooting and running. I couldn’t
pass, catch or get out of the way fast enough. I remember running purposefully
slowly down the court so I’d be out of the line of fire when my teammates were
making a “big play”. I was so bad that I
actually caused a league-wide uproar when they had to trade a good player to our
team to make up for my failings, subsequently breaking up a tight knit team
that had been on a winning streak. The worst part was that the people from the
league actually told me that I was the reason behind the trade like I couldn’t have
figured it out on my own. My dad took to “practicing” with me on Saturday
mornings to improve my skills. I never got better and started to resent my dad for pushing it on me. Now I hated Saturday AND Sunday mornings.
My parents were adamant: sports were what you did to stay healthy
and active. I remember one conversation with them on a canoe ride at my cottage
(worse than a forced car ride talk! Where could I go... the lake?) about the
upcoming school year and how I had to choose a sport to play. They said if I
wasn’t more active I would be fat in my old age. I asked them if they thought I
was overweight and they said well, yes. I have to say I was shocked. Great body image stuff
for a preteen girl, right? The sad thing is I honestly don’t think I was
overweight at the time. In their defence they truly just wanted me to be healthy and in
their sporty minds joining a team was the only way a kid could get there. The
irony of it all is that I would have died to
spend my Sunday mornings at the barn mucking endless stalls and riding horses
and I probably would have gotten more cardio trekking around the barn and carrying water and hay bales (doing something I enjoyed) than
I ever did avoiding the ball on the court.
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| Source: Stall 101 |
Interestingly, as a twenty-something woman I’ve discovered that I do enjoy
being active. I enjoy working out, doing strength training and cardio at the
gym and I particularly love yoga. I love taking my dog for long walks and doing activities that allow me to
focus on my health and well-being without all the bullshit that goes along with
playing a sport. I like the calm and relaxation of going for a run or doing pilates
that makes me feel at peace. In the same way that my brother feels high after a good game
of hockey or soccer I love working out. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like
to get my heartbeat racing or that I don’t want to sweat it out; it's that there are many ways to be healthy. I wish that
someone had told me that when I was a kid. Instead, I felt like a big,
uncoordinated failure and hated the S’s in gym that marked my otherwise straight-E
report cards.
So, whether it’s doing the exercises you like or pursuing
the writing career you know is meant for you take time to think about following your passion this week. Whether
your already have your strong foundation or you’re working on building one for yourself
support yourself and believe in yourself because sometimes no one else will... and maybe no one else has to!
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| Source: Yoga Mats Adventure |
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