{"id":60421,"date":"2018-11-05T19:44:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T03:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=60421"},"modified":"2018-11-07T19:52:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T03:52:31","slug":"align-your-life-with-your-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/align-your-life-with-your-passion\/","title":{"rendered":"Align Your Life With Your Passion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

What do you want to be when you grow up?<\/p>\n

Remember in\u00a0grade school when everybody would ask you this?<\/p>\n

A firefighter? Astronaut? How about president?<\/p>\n

For me, it was a writer. I remember the weekends when my mom would take me to the library. I was a very active child and the only way to settle me down was with a book in my hand.\u00a0When I wasn\u2019t devouring tales of adventure and mystery, I would weave my own stories and share them with my classmates.<\/p>\n

Now fast forward to your high school graduation.<\/p>\n

You finally accept your diploma and the\u00a0whole world\u00a0opens\u00a0up to you. After\u202fa\u00a0decade of\u00a0weeks structured into\u202fcourses and periods, you\u00a0now\u00a0have the freedom to choose to do what you want. To be who you want.<\/p>\n

Until\u202freality kicks in.<\/p>\n

You quickly learn that life isn’t\u00a0very\u00a0accommodating to your passions.\u202fIt\u2019s strange how\u00a0your kindergarten dreams seem so distant on the cusp of adulthood.<\/p>\n

Rather,\u202fyou and I were indoctrinated to pursue\u202fwhat is practical. What works. What most closely guarantees an acceptable degree, an acceptable paycheck, an acceptable livelihood, which all leads up to\u00a0an acceptable retirement.<\/p>\n

Be\u202fpractical.\u202fBe smart.<\/p>\n

When I graduated college, I was quickly pressured to\u202fbecome a\u00a0nurse.\u00a0All\u202fof my family members, cousins, aunts and uncles, even classmates were\u202fin the medical field. They all said the same thing:\u202fIt\u2019s a good paycheck.<\/p>\n

However, nobody told me how much they loved it.<\/p>\n

Naturally, being\u202fthe rebellious teenager\u202fI was at the time, I\u202fpursued what I loved: reading and writing.\u202fRather\u202fthan\u202fgoing to medical school, I declared myself as an English major. I got myself a job and paid my way through college.<\/p>\n

At first, I loved it.<\/p>\n

I loved\u202freading\u202fliterature and I loved writing about literature. Shakespeare. Hemingway. Yeats. These incredible writers were my heroes\u00a0because\u00a0I was\u00a0forever\u00a0fascinated\u00a0by\u00a0how\u202fthese literary masterminds could summon\u202fthoughts from the universe and string them in beautiful sentences that inspire\u202fpeople.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0wanted\u00a0that.<\/p>\n

To\u00a0write and\u202finspire readers\u202fthe same way\u202fthat\u202fthey did\u00a0would be a dream come true for me.<\/p>\n

However, somewhere\u00a0in the process, I\u202fburied this dream. I replaced my\u202fpassion\u202ffor writing\u202fwith anxiety and worry about my future.\u202fIn my head, the same question played on an endless loop:<\/p>\n

What am I doing with my life?<\/em><\/p>\n

At this point,\u202fI was doubting my ability to become a writer.\u202fI was doubting myself. Even worse was that\u202fI was allowing others to tell me what was best for me.<\/p>\n

People told me that I wouldn\u2019t be successful as a writer. That I wouldn\u2019t make money with a degree like yours. It\u2019s not too late for me to do something more practical.<\/p>\n

I dropped my Kindergarten dream of becoming a writer.<\/p>\n

Feeling lost,\u202fI consulted with a career counselor and asked what practical and\u00a0respectable\u202fcareers\u202fcould\u00a0an\u202fEnglish degree\u202fcould lead me to?<\/p>\n

Her\u202fanswer: law school. Many English\u202fmajors excel in law school, partly due to their writing skills.<\/p>\n

Perfect! Becoming a lawyer was an acceptable, even admirable\u202fcareer choice. It pays well and is far more stable and structured than\u202fwriting, right?<\/p>\n

Law school it is then!<\/p>\n

So, I enrolled in pre-law courses. Joined a club.\u202fInterned for the public defender’s office.\u202fTook the LSAT. I even quit my job to work for law firm as a legal assistant.\u202fI was so proud of myself for choosing a conventional career that was sure to make me tons and tons of money when I was older.<\/p>\n

Then something started happening.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t noticeable at first.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t quick\u00a0nor\u00a0sudden. Rather, it was a slow, creeping realization. A restlessness with this newfound plan I created.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t see all the red flags. I didn\u2019t hear the question I desperately needed to hear:\u202fwhy am I not happy?<\/em><\/p>\n

Everything that I’ve done for the past two years was\u202fworking\u202fto get me into law school so that I could become an attorney.\u202fMy parents were proud of me. My friends were proud of me. My professors were proud of me.<\/p>\n

Why wasn\u2019t\u00a0I\u00a0<\/em>happy?<\/p>\n

I arrived at the awful realization that this isn’t what I want to do.\u202f\u202fI was a college graduate with no\u202fplan.\u202fI was terrified.<\/p>\n

I sunk into a pretty awful emotional slump for a while. I was\u00a0a wandering young man\u00a0drifting through life. No goals. No plans. No passion.<\/p>\n

Then one day, one of my English professors approached me about an event in which you can submit a paper and\u00a0if it\u2019s good enough, you can\u00a0present\u00a0and discuss\u00a0it\u00a0with\u00a0a panel of fellow writers.<\/p>\n

Why not? So I did it.<\/p>\n

Something inside me ignited.\u00a0Through the reading and the researching and the drafting and the editing, I was re-discovering myself. I was unearthing that dream I buried.<\/p>\n

Presenting this paper was not a course requirement. I wasn\u2019t being graded. I didn\u2019t do it to build my resume either. I did it because I genuinely enjoyed doing it.<\/p>\n

I realized that\u00a0this is what I want to do.<\/p>\n

My life leading\u00a0up to that epiphany\u00a0was me listening\u00a0everybody else\u2019s thoughts at the expense of my\u00a0own.\u00a0I gave permission to my family, my friends, and even my career counselor to dictate what was best for me.<\/p>\n

In doing this, I removed myself from the equation that was my life. I forgot to factor in my\u00a0thoughts and\u00a0my\u00a0feelings\u00a0and my interests.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not doing that anymore.<\/p>\n

I understand now that your life is the compilation of all the little and big decisions that you make. With a big decision like\u00a0deciding\u00a0your future and your passion,\u00a0you\u00a0must<\/em>\u00a0take full ownership over it.<\/p>\n

Because something as amazing as living a life with purpose\u00a0also\u00a0means\u00a0choosing<\/em>\u00a0to pursue\u00a0a dream that drives your passion.\u00a0If becoming a lawyer or doctor is something you\u2019re passionate about, do it! If being a writer or artist is something you love, do it!<\/p>\n

Pursue what ignites your<\/strong> soul.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s scary, I know.<\/p>\n

Especially when you don\u2019t have all the answers you\u2019re hoping for.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re unsure of where you\u2019re heading in life,\u00a0try\u00a0asking\u00a0yourself what was asked of you so many times in\u00a0grade school:<\/p>\n

What do you want to be when you grow up?<\/p>\n

You just might find your answer.<\/p>\n

\n

Dan Recio loves sharing tips on how to create and achieve goals the smart way at\u00a0Motivationalist<\/i>.\u00a0Set yourself up for a productive week with his free guide: <\/span>7 Sunday Habits to Conquer the Week<\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you want to be when you grow up? Remember in\u00a0grade school when everybody would ask you this? A firefighter? Astronaut? How about president? For me, it was a writer. I remember the weekends when my mom would take … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13460,"featured_media":60729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32,5,6],"tags":[4650,4641,1330,66,4629,4640],"yoast_head":"\nAlign Your Life With Your Passion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To live a life worth living we must discover who we really are and what are passion really is. 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