What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you follow your passion?

What were your earliest passions?  Now were reaching back!  You really can’t start from the very, very beginning. Not everyone grows up to be what they wanted to be as a kid; if they did, there would be a plethora of princesses’, cowboys and astronauts in this world.  So at some point in our life, most of us redirected our focus.  You need to focus in on a period of your life when you were developing your real interests. 

I can remember when I was a kid I wanted to either be a stunt man (okay all you children of the 80’s- remember the Fall Guy) or go into advertising because I loved drawing, loved commercials and I wanted to be creative.  Needless to say the stunt man thing went along the wayside relatively quick (the show was cancelled.  It was a sad time), but I did want to pursue advertising and marketing.  I can still remember sitting in the guidance counselor’s office at the beginning of college telling him I wanted to go into advertising.  He told me that it would be very hard to get into that in our town, and I should probably either look into moving out of state, or pick another career.  So as a naive 18 year old, I took the guidance of the counselor and went into business management, went for a year and then dropped out! I later went back to school, but only after I had a wife, a kid, and working fulltime in a job to make ends meet (sound familiar).  I changed jobs a couple of times based on what others thought I should do, and the hopes of a higher hourly rate.  I never chose one based on what my talents were or where I had an interest.  I just thought that it was the way it was suppose to be.

So what is it that captured your interest, or utilized your talent when you were young and fearless? (We’ll talk about talents later).  Make a list, and then go through it.  Some things may only be a passing interest at the time, but some of them may be things that you’ve carried with you your whole life and never acted on them.  Look at your interests now.  Ask yourself these questions:

• What do I love to talk about?
• What kind of books or magazines do I enjoy reading?
• What are my three favorite movies, and what do they have in common?
• What are my hobbies?
• What have I always wanted to try?
• What things do I find myself drawn to?