You Have to Make a Plan to Pursue Your Passion

“Without passion you don’t have energy, without energy you have nothing.” – Donald Trump

When you’ve found your true passion or calling in life, you undoubtedly have a huge surge of excitement that helps drive you.  This reservoir of energy is what keeps you focused, causes you to dream, and pushes you to advance.  When you tap into your passion, you are willing to take the necessary risks to achieve success.  But be smart.  You would not leap without first looking.  The same goes when pursuing your passion.

Planning is crucial to a good beginning and sustained progress.  What exactly is it that you want to do?  Maybe you want to be a writer.  Perhaps you are an entrepreneur, and have a great idea for a business. Maybe you’ve always wanted to be a chef.  It could be anything, because it is YOUR PASSION.

To begin your pursuit you have to be prepared.  You need to ask yourself a few questions to get yourself off the ground and thinking in the right direction.  Here’s a few to start with.

Have I clearly identified my goal?  You need to be as specific as possible.  You don’t need to say “I want my own business”, or “I want to be a chef.”  You need to be specific.  You need to say “I want to start my own Internet security consultant business”, or “I want to open my own Italian restaurant.”  You really need to zero in on your true passion and establish your long-term goals.

Do I need additional training to develop my skills more?  You want to make sure you have the knowledge and skills necessary to make your dreams a reality.  Your passion could be something you’ve always been interested in, or it could be something that you discovered recently.  Either way, you probably have a big hunger for knowledge.  Feed that hunger.  Read everything you can about the industry you are interested in.  Research as much as you can.  Take a course if you need to.  For example, if you want to be a chef, take some culinary classes to enhance your skills or if you enjoy building web pages, take a web design course.  Also, talk to someone that is already doing what you want to do.  Hone your skills and become an expert.  You can never learn too much.

What are the costs?  You need to assess your financial obligations for your new endeavor.  Do you have a reserve of cash you can tap into?  Will you start small and build cash as you go?  Do you need a loan from a bank?  Decide the best way to finance your passion.  Not only do you have to determine the financial costs, but you also need to assess the personal costs.  Pursuing your passion will occupy a large portion of your time.  If you have other obligations, such as a family, you have to realize that this will take a large portion of your free time.  You have to be willing to devote the time.  You may not have extra time to do other things like you did before.

There are many more questions you need to answer.  The main point here is to PLAN.  You will never be able to plan for every situation that might occur, but you need to go into this with eye’s open.  Set your goal, and map out the steps it will take you to get there.  Then get out there and do it!

Share the knowledge!  Post your comments, questions, and encouragement below.

You Need Patience to Find Your Passion

Some people are very fortunate that they found their passion early in life. Other’s of us hit a few distractions along the way, and didn’t realize we’re missing something until much later. Remember one thing…it is never too late to begin the search for your passion.

As we begin the New Year, many people make resolutions. You know, things like “I’m going to get in shape this year”, or “I’m going to stop smoking”. Finding your passion should not be a New Year’s resolution, because we all know that most resolutions don’t make it past February. Instead, finding your passion is a commitment to yourself.

Each one of the steps I wrote about in my previous posts take time to complete. They don’t happen overnight, and most of the time you do not have some sort of epiphany or eureka moment. It can happen that way, but for most people it is a gradual understanding of yourself, and an in depth reflection of your life up until now. This requires patience.

Your future and your present are too important to rush into, only to become discouraged. And yes, you will have times when you get discouraged, but don’t give in to it. Commit to take an action or step every day to find your passion. As long as you are moving forward, you are not sitting still.

The Internet has created a great opportunity to develop a community of people with similar goals. Each one of us has something to offer. You may be able to help someone else reading this with their search. You never know. Feel free to share in comments.

What is your commitment to yourself?

What steps are you taking towards finding your passion?