I hope everyone who reads these words, no matter where you are at in your life, accepts that becoming what you dream to be will take a lot of effort. The question is, are you ready for that commitment? If your goal is to do just a satisfying job at what you are given then less effort is required. That’s OK, it just depends on your priorities. Maybe you prefer a more balanced life instead of focusing on one particular passion.
I usually focus on the balanced life aspect of living, but that doesn’t mean that I put off the hard work to accomplish my passions, it’s just that I don’t give them 100%. You hear all the stories about Olympic athletes spend 6 -8 hours per day for years at a time so that they can excel at their given sport. To be excellent at that level requires putting everything else in your life on hold, much of which you will likely never be able to get back.
I sometimes ask myself “What have I given 100% of everything to? Truly 100%?” There are moments, even days and even a few months, that I can proclaim I gave 100% but to become “excellent” at something just doesn’t seem to be my nature. I can look at some of my role models growing up and no matter how many people told them to stop wasting their time on some fleeting passion they stuck to it.
The last time I checked, there’s nothing wrong with being a well-rounded human being. You might not be the best or the greatest of all time at anything, and that’s okay. You don’t have to go down in history to be happy or to feel successful. What matters is your happiness. Your peace. If you can find gratitude in the small brush strokes that paint the big picture.
I have too many passions to want to put all my time on just one of them. You might say that my overall passion in life is to keep learning and asking questions till I take my last breath. One of my primary passions is writing/blogging. It gives me an outlet for passing on things that I learn, so it is really connected to the overall passion, I guess? But, I enjoy so much more than this.
- I love photography, trying to find that particular picture that speaks to me. Out of the thousands I have taken I have perhaps 20 that meet that description.
- I love history, it shows me why we are where we are and maybe teaches us how to avoid present and future mistakes.
- I love working on my µRV. I have been fabricating it for about five years now. It gets my hands dirty and lets a particular brand of creativity loose.
- I love traveling, particular in my µRV. I have made about 30 trips in it and plan on making as many as I can going forward.
- Even though I complain about it to myself at times, I love my 2.5 acre homestead. Keeping it up is more difficult as time goes by now. I will have to face that fact sometime, but not yet now.
It seems my passion is having passions. How about you? Do you feed your passions every day? Do you have one that dominates your life?
Life On The Margins 