SCREW FINDING YOUR PASSION
By external measures, I’ve never achieved wild success at anything, but one thing I do consider a success about myself is that I have mostly responsibly (while supporting and/or equitably contributing to my household) pursued my passions – music, food, law, starting my own business, writing, public self-expression, building a social media audience among them – to the extent it felt right for me at any given point, without too much concern for whether they seemed practical or sensible to others, and without fear of what others might say or think if I decided to cut bait on them when my soul told me it was time to cut bait. (I can’t tell you how many times certain kinds of people have asked me What are you up to NOW, Shinae???
And what that has taught me is that there is a wide and deep sea of wonder, discovery, learning, self-fulfillment, achievement, and development of self esteem between fearfully doing nothing with the interests that call us with their siren song and going for broke (or just going broke) trying to achieve the level of success with them that society tells us is necessary to make them worth the endeavor.
I love what Mark Manson has to say about how we are dogged with this question of finding our passion, and why and how we shouldn’t be.