August 2008

Photo by Wisdom for World Domination

If you had a choice between pursuing your passion and getting a job with a steady paycheck, which one would you choose?

After I spoke to a room full of students in a career talk session months ago, one of them asked: “How do I pursue my passion if it is deemed an unprofitable career?”

The young girl said she wanted to be a theater actress. But her parents want her to study nursing, to go abroad as a caregiver and to earn dollars she could send back home.

She was still in high school and her parents are the ones spending to send her to college so “disobeying” their wishes was something she said she could not do.

But what about her dream of becoming a theater actress?

Remember how we were dreamers?

Photo by kcc_10

When we were kids, dreaming and having an ambition was an easy thing.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” somebody asks.

And we would just say it out loud. “I want to be a doctor!” “I want to be a lawyer!” “I want to be a ballerina!” “I want to be a movie star!”

We say it with certainty, fully believing that our dreams would come true someday.

But the sad thing is, when we grow older, we suddenly become aware of the harsh realities of life.

• Wealth versus poverty.
• Being ambitious versus being practical.
• Pursuing your passion in life versus having a real job.

More often than not, being practical and getting a real job wins over pursuing our dreams and our passions.

We are told that we need to have real jobs that can put clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads and food on the table.

We are told that it would be stupid to pursue something just because we want to especially if there is no salary or profit guaranteed.

Bottom line: We need to earn money to survive.

We see many of them: people who jump onto the wheel and get stuck in jobs they don’t even like doing because they need to earn money to pay the bills.

They comfort themselves saying, “It’s okay. I’ll get to do what I want someday.”

But when will that someday come?

For passion and money

Photo by Placebo Effect

One of the best pieces of advice I picked up from reading self-development books is this:

Find out what your passion is and devote your life to make a living out of it.

Oprah loved talking to people and she was real good at it. How did she make a living out of the one thing she loved to do? Have her own talk show.

Sounds simple and easy? Not really.

Before Oprah got her own talk show she first became a host for a radio talk show in Nashville in 1971.

Two years later, she became a TV correspondent and co-anchor for the local news program.

Three years later, she moved to Baltimore and became an anchor for the local 6 o’ clock news.

Two years later, she became a co-host for the local talk show.

Finally, seven years later, she moved to Chicago which became the birthplace and permanent home of “The Oprah Winfrey show.”

Add up all the years together and you’ll see that that it took Oprah 14 years to achieve the ultimate dream.

Since then she had expanded her passion to become a television pioneer, a magazine founder, an actress, and an online leader. On top of that she also became a TV and radio programmer launching shows that help change people lives.

But more than being one of the wealthiest women in the world, her biggest achievement was becoming a living angel extending helping hands to millions of people around the world.

All because she did not choose between her passion and a paycheck.

She acted to make her passion the source for her paychecks.

So how do you do this?

Photo by Altus

This is a process I’m going through myself. And to illustrate the steps below, I will be giving my own examples. Normally, these questions would trigger pages and pages of writing in my journal but I’ll just be giving you the condensed answers below.

1. Find out what you are passionate about.

This is a very important step because your passion will guide you to the path you need to take. There is a good list of questions on how to find your passion, but here are a couple to get you started:

Q: What excites you?

A: I get excited when it comes to the area of personal development. You can set me loose in a humongous bookstore, but you’ll only find me in the self help section. The books there are treasures for me because I consider myself a student of life and a work in progress.

Q: What do you love to do?

A: I love reading personal growth books. I love writing in my journal. These two loves have been part of me as far back as I could remember. But I also discovered as I was growing up that I love teaching, conducting speeches and facilitating seminars. In high school, I remember some of us were given the opportunity to be teachers for a day and I loved it immensely. I also loved it when we had public speaking exercises in class and I always chose inspirational pieces from my favorite authors.

Q: What are you good at?

A: I consider writing and speaking as my primary strengths.

Q: If you did not need to earn money for a living, what would you do?

A: I would establish an organization that promotes self-development. Start my own lifestyle show. Write an inspirational and motivational book. My friends say my optimism is inspiring to them. And I consider that one of the greatest compliments I have ever received. I want to inspire and empower people to pursue a passionate and positive life.

Q: What is that one thing that you love to do that you are willing to do it for free?

A: A few months ago, I was invited by my former high school to be part of a career talk session. I wasn’t paid a single cent but I loved every minute of it! Given the chance, I would volunteer again for free.

Take the time to answer these questions for yourself if you still haven’t found your passion or when you need to re-focus your passion.

Remember that when you do this, you have to focus on yourself. This is the time to shut out other people who tell you what to do. Believe in the power of possibilities. Replace thoughts like “I can’t do this” or “This is simply not possible” to ” I can do this” and “If I act, anything is possible.”

2. Brainstorm ways you can make a living out of your passion.

Now this is a challenging part because it’s often easier to just think about the usual ways to earn a living like getting a 9 - 5 desk job. Not to mention, easier to implement too.

But remember this, while changing your life for the better means you need to take a huge step forward, it also means you will get a huge reward in the end too: a full life lived with passion and purpose.

When you start thinking of the ways to earn money from your passion, connect it with the things you love to do.

If one thing doesn’t work out, open your mind to other possibilities. For every single thing that doesn’t work out, there has got to be a dozen doors opening up for you. You just have to open your eyes wide so you can see them.

Remember too that it has to be something that feels natural to you. Because if it doesn’t, then it probably means it’s not what you should be doing in the first place.

A personal example: I wanted to establish a career on television and dreamed of making it big just like Oprah. I thought it would be cool to follow her path and be a news anchor first. So I took action, I applied believing it was the one for me without really thinking if it was the right path to take.

But the moment I started my audition and faced the camera, I felt like fish out of water. It all seemed so unnatural to me. I was made to annotate a video footage taken of soldiers engaged in warfare and I went blank.

All the while I was thinking: “What are you doing auditioning for a news anchor position? You don’t read the news. You don’t like news!”

Who was I kidding? I didn’t like covering stories that dealt with death, war, crime, politics, corruption and all the negative things you can come up with. Yet there I was putting myself on the spot.

Later on, I realized, I mixed up making it big with making a difference.

Being on TV sure gives me a shot at fame but that is not the only way I can pursue my passion.

So what other doors could open for me?

Blogging because it comes so naturally for me. It’s just like writing in my journal only that you get to read it.

How will I make a living out of it?

By making my blog an income earner. And if you’ve been around the blogosphere long enough, you’ll know of those people who are making a steady income off their blogs. I’m just taking baby steps but that is a path I’m exploring now.

Another option is becoming a professional motivational speaker. Judging from the career talk experience I mentioned above, it was definitely something I’m all fired up about. In the future, I’d like to expand it by actually conducting seminars and workshops that would not be just about speaking and motivating people but real doing and moving people to take action and see results.

I’m sure there other ways I can explore my passion. (If you’ve got suggestions, I would appreciate them too.) But these are the doors I’d like to enter now. If and when I do close them, I’ll just move forward and open another.

3. Make a plan based on your answers in number 2.

Take it easy and just explore one thing at a time, one step at a time, one day at a time. Remember that planning to perfection may tire you out and get you nowhere. So the best way to go is, make a simple plan and work on it right away.

For example, I’m focusing on blogging and making my blog an income earner. So my basic plan would be like this:

Phase 1:

1. Determine the focus topics of my blog.
2. List down possible articles.
3. Pick one topic and write about it.
4. Publish on blog.
5. Repeat letter b to d.

Phase 2:

1. Get traffic to my blog.
2. Find advertisers.
3. Set up income streams on my blog.

Of course, each step is composed of more micro-steps but by just outlining the basic action plan, I already have a good idea of what I need to do to get started.

4. Act on your plan! Now!

Once you’ve got your basic plan, act on the first thing right away. If possible, right now!

Since I decided to relaunch this blog, I have been challenging myself to publish at least one blog post a week. One seems like an awfully low number but right now, it is the most realistic number for me. Once I get the hang of things, I will raise the bar higher and challenge myself to post more frequently.

Right now, what matters to me is I write posts that are easy to understand as well as pleasant to read. More than meeting a weekly quota, I want to post meaningful and valuable entries that would make a difference to you.

Sometimes, I hit a brain slump and I can’t seem to process ideas in my head

Sometimes I get a motivation slump and I just can’t move myself to write.

But one thing’s for sure: I just keep trying and doing it until I get it done.

After I’ve achieved my goals for this blog, then it would be time to expand and reach for bigger goals.

What if….?

You’re really running in a rat race and you can’t afford to stop now or else you’ll be in debt.

You have a family to support and children to feed .

You have no capacity to support yourself yet like the student I mentioned in the beginning of this post.

Are you in a dead end and you have absolutely no choice but to stay where you are?

Only if you choose to.

I believe that in every situation, everyone has a choice. Sometimes we just don’t think we have a choice because the other options are often harder and riskier to take than others,

I am married with two kids and I work in a regular job.

I could either stay in my regular job and benefit from the steady income it would give me or I could just drop everything and plug away at my blog hoping it will bring in the profits fast enough.

Of course, the second option sounds stupid and impractical because I have a family to support but it doesn’t mean I should stay stuck.

The best thing to do: maintain my current job and set aside time to work on my passion project. Until such time that my passion already brings me the paychecks enough so I can quit my regular job.

Sounds hard? Maybe. Workable? Definitely!

I would give the same advice to our confused student. Follow your parents and take the course they want you to. But find ways to explore your passion on the side. Join theater groups, undergo theater training or perform in local plays. When you reach a point that you can make a living out of your passion career, devote your whole life to it and give up everything else.

Re-frame your thinking about your current situation.

Rather than seeing challenges as obstacles, look at them as stepping stones.

It means you have to work harder and manage your time smarter, but when you’re finally living the life of your dreams, you’d know it was all worth it.

How do you choose between your passion and a paycheck?

You don’t.

You find a way to make your passion bring you the paychecks and watch your amazing life unfold.

How are you pursuing your passion?

I used to ignore those little orange buttons with a dot and two slanted parentheses. Besides, the words “RSS Feeds” sounded too technical to me.

But when I started blogging actively and reading other people’s blogs too, these handy little buttons became my instant bestfriends.

They did not only save me time, they made my blogging experience so much richer and they proved to be good for my soul too.

This post is divided into two sections: the first one gives a simple explanation of RSS Feeds and subscribing to blogs and the second part is where I share the blogs on my RSS reader that “feed” me.

If you’re a blog expert or you already use a feed reader, you can skip this part.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. And the simplest way to explain it is: RSS allows you to receive updates from your favorite blogs or information resources as soon as they publish.

If you’re a voracious blog reader, this would be the easiest way to keep up to date.

But it gets better than that when you use a feedreader.

What is a feedreader?

A feed reader is a tool that fetches all the blog and website updates and gathers them neatly for you all in one place.

Think of it like a dog that fetches your morning newspaper.

There more popular feed readers are: Google Reader, Bloglines and Netvibes.

For ease of use and convenience, I suggest you use Google Reader if you already have a Gmail account. According to a survey by Problogger, Google is the top feed reader too.

The good thing about this is you receive information almost in real time but you can read them for later too because Google Reader will just keep them there for you.

Another neat thing about a feed reader is you can organize your feeds into different folders. I like to organize my feeds like these:

Plus, you can place a star next to your favorite blog posts so you can easily retrieve them if you want to read them again.

Why should I subscribe?

1. You get information fast for free.

2. You save time from typing one url after another (only to discover the blogger hasn’t written a new post!)

3. You can access the posts and information you want, anytime you want, all in one place.

How do I subscribe?

There are three ways to subscribe:

1. Click the link “Add Subscription” inside you feedreader and enter the url of the blog or website you want to be subscribed to.

2. When you’re on the blog’s home page, click on the RSS button and it will prompt you to choose what reader you’re using. Most bloggers and websites place them at the top of the page or at a very prominent location. They can come in different colors and shapes now but the symbol remains the same.

You can also subscribe by email and it will work just as well. Most websites provide this option just next to the RSS button.

3. If you’re using Firefox 3, just click on the RSS icon on the web browser and it will prompt you to choose your feed reader.

If you’re a blogger, make sure to subscribe to your own feed and you’ll have an instant archive back up just in case something in your blog goes awry.

The “RSS Feed Stars” in my reader

I have 94 blogs in my feed reader and I continue to add more everyday.

I love reading different kinds of blogs because whether they’re writing about blogging or personal development, each blogger has a wealth of wisdom to share made special by their unique experience.

And somehow, even if you’re actually strangers and thousands of miles away, reading other people’s blogs gives you that feeling of “connectedness.”

When you read about a blogger who writes about his dreams, you feel that someone out there shares the same dreams and aspirations as you have.

When you see that they bravely pursue their passion, you are inspired to pursue your passion knowing that someone has done it.

And when you learn that they’ve achieved their goals, it encourages you to go for success too.

I always turn to my Google Reader for a daily dose of inspiration and motivation.. And whenever I find a blog gem that really shines from among all the items there, I always give it a star.

Here are some of the starred items in my reader that I read again and again:

1. Problogger

• How to find your passion and what you should be blogging about

2. Christine Kane

• 22 Ways to shine your inner bling
• How to be an extreme encourager

3. Put Things Off

• Find your love: Discover your life’s calling today

4. Rock Your Day

• Wake Up, Damn It! You Won’t Get A Second Chance

5. Steve Pavlina

• How to earn your first love dollar
• How to create a fulfilling career
• Money and the Law of Attraction

6. Think Simple Now

• How to motivate yourself to massive action

7. Zenhabits

• Five things you need to know about finding the work you love
• The ultimate guide to motivation: how to achieve any goal

8. Pearsonified

• How to find your creative zen
• How to kiss corporate life goodbye

9. The Positivity Blog

• John Lennon’s Top 3 tips for getting what you want in life

10. Lifehack

• 10 skills you need to succeed at almost anything

Share with me

What do you think? Did any of these spark a light inside you?

If you’ve got a blog or post you want to share, let me know in the comments section below so I can have a look and read.

Remember to keep it relevant and positive.

If you liked this post and you want to share this passion journey with me, feel free to subscribe via my blog’s RSS feed or via email. Just enter your email adds in the form at the sidebar.

I’d be happy to inspire you everyday.

Photo credits: “Got newspaper” by DillonH and RSS icons by Web Fruits

How did the photograph make you feel?

I felt like a kid again and I wanted to jump as high as I could too.

But when I looked at this picture…

The light and happy feeling seemed to fade away.

How images influence our feelings and actions

Try observing how you feel and act while watching a horror flick.

Don’t you cringe and squint your eyes just as the psychotic villain wields a sharp axe aimed at the victim’s neck? (Okay, I just imagined this one.)

Compare it to how you feel while watching a feel-good movie.

Don’t you feel a tingle in your stomach when Sarah finally meets John in the ice rink in a perfect example of Serendipity?

Maybe you have a high tolerance for gory films or you don’t get swept away by romantic movies. But I’m pretty sure you felt so much better after watching a feel - good movie.

Oftentimes, we tend to identify with what we see. And although we know that what we’re watching is only happening in the reel world, a part of us feels like it’s happening for real.

This illustrates how powerful images can influence our feelings and actions.

And we can use this power to empower ourselves too.

Power up yourself with visualization

I always try to start my morning right and keep a positive attitude throughout the day.

And one of the ways I use to charge myself up in the morning is by watching The Secret’s “The Secret to You” visualization video.

You can download this video for free at the The Secret website.

This video gives me goosebumps every time and I always feel so infused with energy just watching it.

I always say the words out loud and when nobody’s in the room, I shout the last line at the of my lungs!

Try it and feel how empowering it is.

Pick yourself up with beautiful photos

When I feel down, one of the quick ways I pick myself up is by looking at beautiful photos.

I especially like looking at beaches, then I close my lids and I imagine I’m far away in that paradise.

But the magic doesn’t end even after I open my eyes because those lovely images leave me with some positive vibes that I can carry with me to fight the blues.

Head on over to Flickr where you can find loads of fantastic and amazing photos. Most of them can be downloaded so try picking one and make it your desktop’s screensaver so you can have a quick relaxing fix when you need to take a break from work. Or print it out and hang it in your room so you can see it every time you wake up.

Motivate yourself with your own motivational posters

There’s a neat tool at Big Huge Labs called the Motivator where you can create your own motivational poster in minutes.

Just like this:

(Photo was by Tutuwon and the text was my own.)

If you’re a Photoshop whiz or you’re good with art, create your own motivational poster, print it and post it where you can see it everyday. Try using your own picture so you’ll have a clear image of your motivated self everytime you look at it.

Surround yourself with positive images

Whether you’re at home or at your workplace, make sure to surround yourself with beautiful and positive images. Choose images that really speak to you and evoke that empowering feeling.

Remember that even if you can’t always control the things that happen around you, you can control how you react to and feel about them.

People and situations can bring you down only if you allow them to.

And using images is just one way you can empower yourself.

What do you do to empower yourself? Do you have a method or a trick that really worked to boost you? I’d love to hear about them.

Have you been constantly waiting for everything to be in place before you go after your dream?

Have you been extremely obsessing for everything to be just right?

Have you been over planning for everything to be just perfect?

If you answered “yes” to all three, knock yourself on the head and face the truth: Nothing will ever be perfect.

So stop waiting, obsessing and planning and start doing!

Always aiming for perfection does not help help you to achieve your dream, but accepting imperfection does.

My desire for perfection almost killed my dream

Next month, this blog turns one year old and I realized how it has suffered from my excessive desire for perfection. You see I wanted to make this blog my dream blog, my passion project through which I would fulfill my grand dreams.

I wanted to make it the best and the greatest. I wanted it to be perfect. So I got busy checking out other blogs admiring how flawless their posts were written and how perfect their blog designs looked.

I was constantly watching and admiring others while I was thinking and planning on how I can do it myself.

I was obsessing about what to write, which posts get published when and what features the site will have. I read and studied other bloggers writing style and how much impact it made on their readers.

And don’t even get me started talking about blog design. I spent countless hours searching for blog themes, tweaking codes, loading them up in my blog, deleting them then starting over. Nothing seemed to look right.

Meanwhile, my blog stayed dormant and neglected.

Eventually, I felt drained with all the planning and thinking I did that I ran out of energy to do anything.

After a year of chasing perfection, I ended up accomplishing close to nothing. I felt so frustrated at myself that I wanted to just forget the whole thing and dump the whole idea into the waste bin.

Thinking and planning is good because it guides you to achieve your goals. But if you overthink and overplan so much so that it becomes a hindrance rather than a motivator, STOP! Just go ahead and do it the best you way you can now.

Striving for perfection is good because it moves you to exert your best effort. But if your perfect-shun-ism makes you shun doing anything for fear of making a mistake and gets you stuck in the hole of procrastination, it’s time to throw it into the trash basket and start taking action now.

Accept your imperfections

We won’t always get it right the first time and that’s okay. Doing something and making a mistake will get you closer to your dream than just planning and doing nothing.

Stop planning perfectly and start doing it imperfectly. Then you open yourself up for improvement: you’ll know what you did good and how to do it better the next time

The important thing is you take action now then improve yourself later.

And that’s what I’m doing now.

As Be Passiotive marks its first blog new year in September, I’m kickstarting it again now with this blog post.

And I intend to fuel this blog with all my imperfect writings about how I’m learning and trying to live a positive life while passionately pursuing my dreams.

I’m sure there are a lot of other things I could have done to make this comeback post perfect to read but this is the best I can do now.

The good thing about it is, you can help me and other readers of this post by sharing your thoughts or suggestions about it.

Feel free to share in the comments section below.

Before you leave, I will leave you with two questions and two action steps.

Questions to ask yourself:
Is your perfectionism holding you back from your dream?
What one action can you do that can take you a step closer to your dream?

Action step to do now:
Take time to reflect on the two questions stated above.
Act on your answer to question 2 and just do it. Now.