Finding Your Passion

      BOBL encourages you to build a life full of passion. While some people know exactly what that looks like to them, others aren't quite sure, and some even stress over the idea of "finding their passion." This post is for anyone who would like some insight on the subject.

     Let's start with what your passion isn't: It doesn't have to be just one clear-cut thing; maybe you thrive by doing a little bit of everything. It doesn't have to be lifelong; it can be ever-changing. It doesn't have to be unique, trendy, or impressive.

     Here are some questions to help you decide what to create more of in your life. Your answers will be similar for most of these - I wanted to ask in a few ways since different things resonate with different people. Hopefully some of these will work for you:

     •  If you knew you'd be successful at anything, and you never had to worry about money, time, obligations, judgement, fear, or anything else, what would you do? 

     •  What are you doing when you're at your happiest? What do you get excited about or love to talk about? What makes you feel alive?

     •  What were your childhood dreams? I know you didn't know much of the world at the time, but in turn, you were less conditioned by it - you were just you. What did you love to do? Is there anything you've always been drawn to?

     •  What do you find yourself fully engaged in, causing you to lose track of time? When do you feel the most aligned, like your truest self? What do you feel pulled to? What feels "right"?

     •  How do you want to feel? (e.g., excited, relaxed, free, proud, etc.) What would make you feel that way?

     •  Would your goals be the same if nobody could know about your accomplishments? Would your desires be the same if nobody could find out about them?

     Make sure you're being honest with yourself. It doesn't matter what looks cool on the outside, or what you think should make you happy - it's whatever truly makes you feel the most alive. It doesn't have to sound good to anybody but you.

     If nothing comes to mind for most of these questions, you might need to experience some new things. Perhaps spend some time trying different activities, meeting new people, traveling, and/or learning - get to know more of the world. It's okay if it takes trial and error to discover what you truly love. Nobody comes out of the womb with life all figured out.

Suggested:  Mindset for Success (13 Beliefs/Thought Patterns),

You've Been Programmed: How Your Beliefs Have Created Your Reality

Poem: The Spark

 

     For more A.E.Long poetry, follow @poetryael on instagram.

Poem: Soul Fire

 

For more A.E.Long poetry, follow @poetryael on instagram.

Poem: Do You Remember?

For more A.E.Long poetry, follow @poetryael on instagram.

Other People's Opinions (25 Quotes)

1.  "Care about people’s approval and you will always be their prisoner."
- Lao Tzu

2.  "For your own self-respect and sanity, your creative freedom, you have to be careful that you don't rely too much on other people's opinions of what you do because it can stunt and inhibit you."
- Luke Evans

3.  "Someone else’s opinion of you is none of your business. You’re afraid to move forward because of what he might think or what she might say or what your in-laws think. That fear will keep you small."
- Rachel Hollis

4.  "Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination."
- Mae Jemison

5.  "I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing."
- Richard P. Feynman

6.  "Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable."
- Wendy Wasserstein

7.  "Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others."
- Roy T. Bennett

8.  "Some people say you are going the wrong way, when it’s simply a way of your own."
- Angelina Jolie

9.  "I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings."
- Mozart

10.  "Some people around you will not understand your journey. They don’t need to; it’s not for them."
- Paulo Coelho

11.  "When someone judges you, it isn’t actually about you. It’s about them and their own insecurities, limitations, and needs."
- Lulu

12.  "No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise."
- Laurell K. Hamilton

13.  "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

14.  "Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own?"
- Brigham Young

15.  "A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep."
- Vernon Howard

16.  "Just because they disagree, doesn't mean you ain't right."
- Toba Beta

17.  "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed."
- Ray Goforth

18.  "Small minds can't comprehend big spirits.  To be great, you have to be willing to be mocked, hated, and misunderstood."
- Unknown

19.  "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
- Mark Twain

20.  "History shows us that the people who end up changing the world - the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries - are always nuts until they are right, and then they are geniuses."
- John Eliot

21.  "Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.  "There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."
- Aristotle

23.  "Don't be afraid of losing people.  Be afraid of losing yourself by trying to please everyone."
- Unknown

24.  "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind."
- Dr Seuss

25.  "Freedom on the inside comes when validation from the outside doesn’t matter."
- Richie Norton 

See more quotes by topic here.

Suggested: Your True Self / Authenticity (40 Quotes),

Peace, Kindness, and Our Power to Change the World (20 Quotes),

You are a Badass by Jen Sincero: Short Review and 10 Quotes

Your True Self / Authenticity (40 Quotes)

 1.  "This above all: to thine own self be true"
- William Shakespeare

2.  "There is only one you for all time. Fearlessly be yourself."
- Anthony Rapp

3.  "Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?"
- Charles Bukowski

4.  "'Finding yourself' is not really how it works. You aren't a ten-dollar bill in last winter's coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people's opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. 'Finding yourself' is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you."
- Emily McDowell

5.  "You don't need a mirror to find your authentic self; you only need to stop trying to be anything, and simply just be.  You become your
authentic self by letting go of who you think you should be."
- Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

6.  "Authenticity is when you say and do the things you actually believe."
- Simon Sinek

7.  "You are who you are when nobody’s watching."
- Stephen Fry

8.  "A person who suppresses his or her own self is in danger of missing the point of his or her own existence, of surrendering what being human means."
- Byron L. Sherwin

9.  "Only when we stop pretending to be something we are not - when we no longer feel the need to hide or overcompensate for either our weaknesses or our gifts - will we know the freedom of expressing our authentic self and have the ability to make choices that are based on the life we truly desire to live.”
- Debbie Ford

10.  "Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love."
- Rumi

11.  "By being yourself, you put something beautiful into the world that was not there before."
- Edwin Elliot

12.  "Existence wants you to be you."
- Osho

13.  "Let's dare to be ourselves, for we do that better than anyone else can."
- Shirley Briggs

14.  "The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you."
- Neil Gaiman

15.  "Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you."
- Eckhart Tolle

16. "Be yourself to free yourself!"
- G. Brian Benson

17.  "I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing."
- Alicia Keys

18.  "Anyone who really loves you wants you to be authentic.  And anyone who doesn't want you to be authentic doesn't really love you."
- Nathaniel Branden

19.  "Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance."
- Brené Brown

20.  "But who can love me, if no one knows me?"
- Sheldon Kopp

21.  "Being honest may not get you many friends, but it’ll always get you the right ones."
- John Lennon

22.  "Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently."
- Lance Secretan

23.  "Try not to be too focused on pleasing others and end up losing your true self."
- Edmond Mbiaka

24.  "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

25.  "The superior man follows nobody else’s path."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

26.  "Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

27.  "There is only one you. And there will never be another one. That’s your power."
- Mel Robbins

28.  "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."
- Bruce Lee

29.  "Self-improvement isn't about trying to become someone you're not; it's about becoming the best version of yourself."
- T. H. Russo

30.  "It doesn’t matter what everyone else is wearing or eating or watching or buying. Be yourself."
- Joshua Becker

31.  "Always be you, never be someone else; don't pretend to like something that you don't; don't consider anyone a friend who you can't be yourself around; live your life as who you are not who you think others want you to be like."
- Catherine Pulsifer

32.  "Life can't work for you if you don't show up as you."
- Jason Mraz

33.  "When you dance to your own rhythm, life taps its toes to your beat."
- Terri Guillemets

34.  "You know how every once in a while you do something and the little voice inside says, ‘There. That's it. That's why you're here.’ … and you get a warm glow in your heart because you know it's true? Do more of that."
- Jacob Nordby

35.  "Learn to… be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not."
- Henri Frederic Amiel

36.  "Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."
- Malcolm S. Forbes

37.  "Understand: you are one of a kind. Your character traits are a kind of chemical mix that will never be repeated in history. There are ideas unique to you, a specific rhythm and perspective that are your strengths, not your weaknesses. You must not be afraid of your uniqueness."
- Robert Greene

38.  "Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is you-er than you."
- Dr. Seuss

39.  "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else."
- P.T. Barnum

40.  "Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."
-  John Stuart Mill

See more quotes by topic here.

Suggested: Other People's Opinions (25 Quotes),

Self Development (32 Quotes),

You are a Badass by Jen Sincero: Short Review and 10 Quotes

Poem: Let Go

 

For more A.E.Long poetry, follow @poetryael on instagram.