What does it mean to have a passion? To pursue your passion and let it consume you? Let me ask a bigger questions. What's holding you back from pursuing your passion?
Passion, as defined by the English Dictionary, means strong and barely controllable emotion. If that's what passion means, how often do we experience passion? I know, according to that definition, I don't have many encounters with it. But, at the same time, it clarifies what I am passionate about. I have a passion for filmmaking but recently I've had an even bigger passion for traveling (in case that wasn't evident in my last blog). If you get me talking about filmmaking or traveling, I could easily talk your ear off about the movies I want to make, the projects I've been on, what I think of the movies out right now...the places I've been, the places I want to go, the stories I have from my excursions, and so on and so forth. I have uncontrollable emotions for filmmaking and I have uncontrollable emotions for traveling.
So why am I not pursuing those? That's the biggest question you can ask yourself. Why are you NOT pursuing your passions?
When you think about it, the answer's kind of stupid. I mean, part of it comes down to money and part of it comes down to time. But the biggest thing that holds me back, personally, is laziness and fear. In my opinion, laziness and fear are two of the biggest dream and passion killers out there. And the third would have to be adults. Older adults specifically who have lived life and given up on their own dreams and passions.
I was at a conference last night and the speaker, Mike, talked about why adults are dream killers. He said they have given up on their own dreams and have forgotten what it means to dream big and have passion. Think back to when you were a kid. What were your dreams? What were your passions? And what made you stop dreaming and stop pursuing those passions?
So what would it look like to throw those voices, fears, and laziness out the door and be a kid again? Unabashedly pursuing your dreams. Unbridled freedom. Resolute determination. A complete and utter disregard for the rules. My mentor told me yesterday that it's the ones that break the rules who gets somewhere in life. Where do you want to be? What do you have a passion for? Unbridled emotions for? And why aren't you pursuing those? And what would it look like to fix that? To change your thought process and point of view. To think like a kid and dare to dream big.
How about this, I'll dream big if you dream big. I'll pursue my passions if you pursue yours. Think about it this way, when death is knocking at your door, do you want to look back on your life and have regrets? Or do you want to look back on your life and say "I lived like a child. I lived my life with uncontrollable passion and unbridled dreams." I know which one I want to be. So let's be dreamers. Let's be passionate. And let's live like we are children again.
Love, Taylor
