Take the First Step

I think there are many people walking through each day wishing they could figure out their passion and then start following it. I know I have often floundered in the thoughts of wondering what I was supposed to be doing, what would bring fulfillment into my life and what would give the happiness I often seem to be missing. I have struggled with these thoughts and never made any move as I always wanted a plan in place. I needed to know what I was going to do and how I was going to pay the bills and where I was going to end up. This rarely, if ever, happens.

If you speak with anyone who is doing what they love and making a difference in the world, they will all tell you plans tend to change, focus tends to change and the direction tends to change. Every day brings new challenges, new knowledge, new ideas and new paths for us to follow. We will never be able to plan out the rest of our life (or even the rest of the month) because we will never know what is to come. Everything is not going to work the way we want, just because we want something to happen or events to unfold in a certain way. This doesn't mean we are going to fail; it means we are going to make choices along the way to keep on moving forward.

Of course, make some plans, but realize they are very likely to change. Yes, you may need to think about how you are going to pay the bills before making a radical decision. There are always going to be reasons why you should or shouldn't do something and the reasons why you shouldn't are going to be the loudest voices in you head. This voice loathes risk, hates taking chances and abhors change. This voice rarely has anything good to say and focuses on the worst case scenario (and usually even exaggerates these). We are so used to listening to this voice, we usually don't even realize when it is speaking. This voice may seem very rational, but it is not. We all have to learn to listen for this voice of fear and find the best ways to ignore it.

There is one sure way to start your journey towards finding your passion and allowing your purpose to embrace everything you do. Take the first step. Yes, it is going to be scary, but the other option is to sit back and listen to the voice and continue to hope you will one day be smacked in the face with your passion and everything will be given to you on a silver platter. This is never going to happen. Start searching, start doing, start dreaming and start moving towards something. You don't even need to know what that something is just yet, but for most of you reading this, you know what you have now and what you do now isn't everything. For most of us, we have a lot more to offer the world. We have a lot more art to make and the only way we are ever going to find the courage is to start moving forward. Once you start moving, it will take more energy to stop than to keep going. You will never know what doors will open for you along the way unless you take the first step.