Purpose and Passion: The WHY of it all?

I've been reluctant to write this post, but here it is... I've been utterly uninspired by things lately. Uninspired by my job mostly. That's where I spend the vast majority of my time, like most people, and that spills over into other areas of my life.

A couple of weeks ago, there was an article in the New York Times entitled "Follow a career passion? Let passion follow you." Cal Newport wrote, "Growing up, we were told by guidance counselors, career advice books, the news media and others to “follow our passion.” This advice assumes that we all have a pre-existing passion waiting to be discovered. If we have the courage to discover this calling and to match it to our livelihood, the thinking goes, we’ll end up happy. If we lack this courage, we’ll end up bored and unfulfilled — or, worse, in law school." Oh yeah, went down that path.

I didn't lack the courage to "discover" my calling, but I haven't matched it to my livelihood. Yet.

I always had an idea of what I like to do in my free time, things I might even consider myself "passionate" about-- you know, the things you're doing  when time just seems to fly by. That passion has followed me and, periodically, when friends encouraged me to pursue it as a career, I'd respond, "Oh, that's not a job. It's a hobby."

Well, I'm happy to say that I've taken the first steps to pursue my passion. Although it can't be a career yet, I've at least taken some action toward finding my purpose. And maybe there will be a career change on the horizon.

I know I'm being a cryptic, but the details are forthcoming if I can make things happen. Right now, I'm just content that I'm no longer uninspired and feeling stuck. 

This post has been full of pinterest style quotes that make some people want to gag... Sorry. Lighter stuff is on the way tomorrow with Three Things I'm Loving Now.