January 2017 Editor's Fix

When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain.  ~ Rumi

Last fall, I came across an article called, Screw Finding Your Passion by Mark Manson. It intrigued me, yet I was on the defensive from the get go. “It’s great to have passion, why is this Manson dissing having such a fundamental purpose?” After the first couple of paragraphs, I found myself nodding in agreement. Mid-way, I was shouting, “Yes!” at my computer screen. And by the end, I was sharing on FaceBook and sending to friends as a “must read.”

As a popular writer and blogger, Manson received numerous emails from fans asking for help. They didn’t know what they wanted to do with their life. “How can we find our passion?” they asked. Eventually, he hit a breaking point, which instigated the article. The whole point is not knowing, and then doing something about it he says. “All of life is like this,” he adds, following with, “I call bullshit. You already found your passion, you’re just ignoring it.”

We all tend to be hard on ourselves, especially in January with the New Year upon us. We put the pressure on, and take a magnifying glass to our lives. Are we happy? Are we doing our best? Do we love what we do? Are we contributing to our community? Are we good kids/friends/partners/parents? What more should we be doing? This kind of thinking keeps us looking for more, both in ourselves and in everything around us. And while we may think it’s giving us purpose, it’s more than likely setting us up for disappointment.

Mark finishes his article with this statement that really hit home for me.

“If you’re passionate about something, it will already feel like such an ingrained part of your life that you will have to be reminded by people that it’s not normal, that other people aren’t like that.”

I would waiger that this has you thinking, too. About those things that you do so regularly and with such an ease, that they have become almost mindless. Beginning today, let’s make an effort to acknowledge these parts of ourselves. Let’s be grateful for their presence in our lives, and enjoy the peace that comes with knowing that we are passionate, we do have purpose, and by being kinder to ourselves and others, what we need will continue to flow to us.

Happy 2017.