Scott Dinsmore (Live Your Legend) offered a wonderful guest post last week on the must read Zen Habits. The post offered 3 steps to making money from your passion. A central element of the post's premise is that each of us has a skill that we do better than anybody else in the world.
I'm all with Scott about making money and (hopefully) earning a living from our individual passion. I'm on that path but that is another post for another day. Life's too short to spend bundles of time doing something that's merely tolerable or worse. But that's Scott's portfolio. I want to make this one step simpler.
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| source: morgueFile |
It's simply not enough for family to be a personal passion. Dedication to family is not only a key to a well lived life, dedication to family is central to a well lived life. There has to be more. You see it plainly in amateur singers, painters and gardeners. These committed enthusiasts spend time visibly pursuing their passion. Their life is imbued with the energy they have for their passion and all their other activities and obligations benefit from the energy that radiates from their passion.
Scott said it best: "If you've been on this earth for at least a couple of decades, I guarantee you're an expert at something." Identify it, pursue it and do it. Scott's right, you should do it for money but at the very least, do it FOR YOU. You'll have more energy for your family, your friends and even for the boss of the job you detest/survive/endure. Find something you love and do it.
Do you agree? How would you start? What obvious visible passions have I neglected to mention?
Hi Barry,
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree. Like I've mentioned in several of my posts, I'm a bit of a late bloomer, but there is no wrong time to really embrace something you're passionate about.
I kind of stumbled upon social media fairly recently, but my blog has become an accountability platform for me. Like a hub that helps me learn, generate ideas and get out and "do." And the more people you tell about this, well the more they come back and encourage you to keep pushing. If it isn't enjoyable though, it's time to move on to something else.
Thanks, Barry!
I too have stumbled upon social media recently (two years as of Nov. 30, last post in Nov.) and I'm learning by reading and doing. The SM community is very kind and supportive and it is a great hub from which to learn.
ReplyDeleteAs for late bloomer, I think Col Harlan Sanders was broke until his late 60's. Although he sold his business for much less than it was eventually worth, he still came away with more than chicken feed. Thanks for stopping by, please don't be a stranger.
Hi there. I heard of your blog through Twitter, of which I am a brand new member. The person retweeting your blog was @hollisthomases! way to go. I thought I would drop in and congratulate you on a thoughtful blog. I noticed that when I tried to re-tweet your story, the URL took up all the space. Does blogger have a plugin that will shorten the url for you? Dan
ReplyDeleteDaniel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for saying Hi. Needless to say I'm a big fan of Hollis Thomases, as well. I even used her book "Twitter Marketing An Hour A Day" as a primer for learning basic Twitter stuff.
Thanks for the heads up about the links; I never RT'ed from the blog so I didn't know about it. Learning every day and working on it right now.
There are multiple Daniel Millsaps on Twitter. Follow me and I'll recip. Let me know how I can help or support you on your SM journey.