What lights you up? What interests do you have that you could do them all day… effortlessly? And now for the big question: Is this what you are doing currently?
Entrepreneurs know how to turn their passions into business. They find what they love to do and then dive in 100% and turn their dreams into reality.
One of the keys to success is to follow your passion. Know what it is you want, fix it in your mind and live from that everyday. I have been very fortunate in my life to know what it was I wanted to do from a very early age. As an artist, graphic design is a natural outlet of my creative expression. Growing up, I always had an interest in art. I could draw and had a good ‘eye’. And I loved coming up with ideas. I always knew (felt) that I would own a company that was in this career field. And this dream came to fruition in 1995.
As the years have gone by though, people’s passions shift. We may find ourselves engaging in one cause or purpose at one point in our lives and another a few years later. It’s human nature for us to want more from ourselves. Our desire for growth is built in. We want to be successful.
Where we really succeed in life is when we find our purpose, I mean when we really find it. I think if we all search deep down, that is what we truly want. How many times have you thought to yourself “Why am I here?” When you can honestly answer this question… then you have found your passion.
This is the stuff that you could do all day even without getting paid for it. Often times it’s derived from a hobby or outside interest that we love to involve ourselves in.
To elaborate, a fun thing for me to do is to create unusual gifts for family and friends. And these gifts are very personalized, reflecting the individual’s personality. I love ‘spoofing’ products, events and other stuff, and this translates into some very unique gift ideas.
As an example, when my brother hit the big ‘50’, I wanted to create a unique gift for him. Keep in mind my brother has always been a bit of a jokester and has always had entertaining stories surrounding him. What I decided to do was to create a board game of his life. Being the middle child, my brother Randy often complained of the ‘middle child syndrome’ so that was the inspiration for the game… all the silly things that happened to him over the course of his life.
I collected a bunch of photos of him at various stages of his life and a ton of stories. I went to our local Walmart store, bought the kid’s game Chutes & Ladders and designed my board game to fit it. I went to work creating the board game, game pieces (miniature cut-outs of my brother) and the game cards. I even wrote the directions with a comedic twist. I located a local printer to have them ‘re-skin’ the Chutes & Ladders game including the box with my design. Printed the playing cards and packaged it all up including shrink wrapping the box.
Needless to say, I was into it. I worked for several days on this, well into the evening and morning hours. As I continually worked on this, time meant absolutely nothing to me… I was having way too much fun recollecting some of the crazy stuff my brother did. I had found my passion… my true love.
To this day, I reflect back on this experience and wonder “How can I turn this into something I can do every day?” And believe me, this thought surfaces more and more often. Have you ever had an experience like this? I bet you have.
Although I have a day job running a graphic design and marketing firm, I have passion for that too… it doesn’t equal the passion I felt creating my brother’s birthday gift.
I have a new dream now. I have found my passion and I am going to chase it and grab hold of it with both hands.
So the lesson here: to find your passion, you need to chase your dreams. Experiment with various experiences, try new hobbies, travel to new places. Your true calling awaits, I promise. Now go and find it.