Tell me, what’s your passion? If you could state your desired message — the one that drives you, even when you’d rather sit still — what would that be? I want to hear it. Maybe you’ve never written or spoken it out loud. Here’s your chance. Go ahead. Tell me.
Your passion is safe here. I will not laugh or smirk or raise an eyebrow. I promise.
Here’s what Bruce Wilkinson says in his book, The Dream Giver:
No matter where I travel in the world — whether among hard-charging Manhattan urbanites or villagers in southern Africa — I have yet to find a person who didn’t have a dream. They may not be able to describe it. They may have forgotten it. They may no longer believe in it.
But it’s there.
If there’s one thing I’d like to do in this world (and there is more than one thing, that’s for sure), it’s to shake loose a few of those dreams we’ve been pressing down, or turning off, or turning out because we don’t think they’ll make a difference. We don’t think we deserve to dream. We don’t remember how. We’ve given up on dreaming.
I’m not a detail person. I’m not a strategist. I don’t have a five-year plan. I have two full laundry baskets of clothes that need to be folded and put away. My suitcase is still half packed from the last trip I took. My sink is full of dishes. When my son was young, he told me he thought he had Lyme disease and I brushed him off. (He was right. He did have Lyme disease.) Sometimes I swear. This is who I know I am. And this is just the tip of iceberg.
This list of mine is enough to squash the dreams right out of me. I’m guessing you’ve got a list like this, too? I want to encourage you to turn down the volume on that list of yours. It’s talking too much.
This one life is the only chance you get to be you. This is the only opportunity the world will have to experience your unique take on life. We learn from our lists. We take what we need from them and we live with the rest, because swearing isn’t the worst thing ever, but getting your child to the doctor when he thinks he’s sick is pretty high on the list of priorities.
And knowing who you are is priceless. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
OK. Now. What’s your passion?