“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”

– Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

I grew up wanting to become a writer but was discouraged from choosing that career path because according to those around me it wasn’t worth my time nor could I earn a living writing.  I guess nobody believed in me.  I listened to them, went on to become an accountant, a marketing executive, a business owner and still I was always thinking about going back to my first love.

It took me twenty years before I even thought of going back to writing seriously.  I grew accustomed to working in other areas and even though I enjoyed the life they afforded me my first love was writing.  I enjoy telling stories and believe me I have lots to tell.

I was afraid because I felt to do what I love I had to give up what I had grown accustomed to.  Being comfortable in a position that is not right can be very dangerous.  Even though I was miserable, I had gotten accustomed to a miserable existence.

When I finally decided to take a chance, I was scared half to death but knew it was now or never.  The thoughts in my mind were filled with dread.  I began second guessing myself.  I was afraid to fail.  I was afraid others would never want to hear what I had to say.

I started writing daily, a paragraph at a time, and even though I felt it was terrible, I kept going.  The voices in my head were the worse.  I would not allow myself critique to discourage me.  The constant barrage of self-doubt was often too difficult to bear.

I  do not consider myself a writer, at least not yet, but, I believe if I continue to work at it I will become better.  I refuse to continue to ignore my dream while working to make everyone’s dream a reality.

Like me, there are so many people out there living dreams that are not their own.  They have spent their lives building other people’s dreams while their dream is being ignored.

Take the time to renew your passion. The passion that will make you fight for your dream when everything else says quit.  That desire that will make you sacrifice everything to make your dream a reality.

Unfortunately, not all of us find our passion in life.  Some of us are content just to go through life frustrated and unhappy working at dead end jobs. I am here to tell you that to truly live your life to the fullest you need to find what it is you are passionate about and do it.

Here are a few examples of how you can finally find your passion and start living your dreams.

1. Find something that you love to do.

If you haven’t tried to find what it is you are passionate about it might take you some time.  Take whatever time is necessary to find what you enjoy doing and that you could do for the rest of your life even if you weren’t being paid.  That thing that makes you happy when you think about it.  “My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”  Maya Angelou

2. Do your research

Once you think you have found what it is you are passionate about, take some time to do some research on how to excel at it.  Find material that might be updated or even change to make going after your passion easier and more likely to be successful.

3. Get advice

Before investing all your energies into your dream get advice from people you respect and love or people who are in the field.  Getting some sound advice will save you lots of frustration, long hours, and pitfalls.

4. Never give up

No matter what or how difficult things get make a promise to yourself that you will not give up on your dreams.  There will be times when things are not going well, work hard until you realize your dream.  Practice makes improvement.  The more you work at it, the better you become.  There will be setbacks, but that is when you need to dig in deeper and work harder.

5. Be patient

Even though you are now doing something you love, and you are very passionate about it, it will take the time to bear fruit.  You must be patient and allow your dream to grow and mature.  You can never achieve your passion if you are impatient.

6. Never settle

Once you have found, your passion never settle for second best again. Your dream will become your life-long career.  You will have to work at it until it becomes fruitful, and you can support yourself doing it.

7. Keep practicing

It doesn’t matter how much you love what you are doing you will need to improve on your skills.  Keep practicing until you have mastered all aspect of it and when you are through, start again.  When you truly love what you do, you will want to be the best at it.  You will never stop until you are at the highest point of the game.

We all have dreams and aspirations, but only a few take the time to find their passion and go after it.  Make this the day when all that will change for you.  Go after your dream.  The time will never be right to do it so start doing it today.

If you fail, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all again.  You must never have a quitter attitude when going after your passion.  People who are passionate about their dreams never give up until they have realized their dreams and then they work on making sure they keep what they have fought for so long and now have achieved.  You too can be that person living your dream if you make the commitment to go after your passion today.