What's your passion?

What’s Your Passion? Candy Daniels

Who doesn't like to have fun? As children, we wake up in the morning with the one goal of wanting to play. This is because play is fun. To get a child to bed is often hard work because they want to continue in their play. Yet as we grow in maturity we tend to forget how to play, and fun dulls from our lives. Our focus changes and we end up getting out of bed because we feel we have to, rather than because we want to explore what the day may have to offer us. Staying up at night is most often not because we are having fun but because worry, anxiety and stress have stolen our peace and we don’t implement self-care boundaries. The space we once created in order to have freedom for fun has gone. Fun and play call us to be creative and expand our imagination as we get to explore the impossible. Often the older we get the more we lose our sense of passion.

Dreams are what we have that cause us to think about our passions. The fulfillment of dreams will often bring us happiness because we are working towards something. Yet moving towards achieving our passions brings us joy, because we find peace and contentment in living from a place driven by passion. Those who are motivated are driven by the passion that burns inside their heart. Let me also say that we can often have more than one dream. In the end they will all lead us towards fulfilling the passion within us. I call this finding purpose. Passion doesn't consider the cost but is aware of it. Passion is what keeps us going, driving us forward and reducing fear of failure.

We may take up hobbies to keep a sense of fun active in our lives. However, we may give even these up if we don’t find reason behind them and only see hobbies as things we do for fun. Some hobbies can often become a pathway that fuel our passion or financially support our passion. Most often we may not even think about the cost (time, energy, money) of pursuing

a hobby, yet cost may hinder us from pursuing our passion. One of the greatest killers of passion is fear.

For those who are successful at what they do, there is a sense of passion that drives them. Don’t ever try to duplicate what another person does, because we will never know what they have been through to get to where they are. Passion can’t really be duplicated, because passion is original. There can be similarities in what individuals do, but never attempt to duplicate what someone else is doing or has done. Passion ignites a fire in your soul and spirit. In your life, what is it that fires you up, gets you out of bed, keeps you up at night, and perhaps even takes your breath away at the mere thought of it? True passion has a purpose behind it. It not only is gratifying to the passion holder, but it also serves as a purpose and benefits others.

I have come to understand that passion is one of God's gifts to us and fulfills purpose. God offers us many gifts that are life-enhancing, some of which are salvation, grace and mercy. These life-giving gifts await our discovery. Once we find them, we have the choice to accept them. These are not hidden very far from us; as a matter of fact, they are knitted in our heart from the beginning of conception. We just need the desire to seek this treasure. For some of us it takes longer just because we have let doubt, fear, opinions of others, etc., pile up on top of the treasure chest of our heart.

Today, take a steptowards finding yourpassion. It may lead you towardsgreat adventures, self-discoveriesand fulfil purpose.

LIFE Edition 09, Issue 35 2019 Page 2