Silence those doubting voices and take a chance
This is the time of year when we are most likely to feel a tinge of excitement about pursuing our passions. After a restorative break, the new-year mentality revives our energies.
We start playing with thoughts of whether we are ready to make the professional transitions necessary if we are to live out our passions and use them as a means to have an impact on the world. This transition could come in many forms: finally switching roles or jobs, or, better yet, pursuing that entrepreneurial concept we have always had.
Given the early signs of increased confidence in our economy, it follows that this might just be the right time to finally take that leap and spend our time on the things we are most passionate about. It is far easier for an employer or a company to invest their resources in a person who is passionate and energised by what they do than in someone who is clearly stuck doing something they loathe.
The same is true for the individual: it is a fruitless exercise to spend our professional lives doing something that is not aligned with our passions. Many fail to realise that we spend most of our waking hours working — not with our friends, families and hobbies.
Instead, many of us spend our days in misery, dreading every moment that lies ahead. This is not sustainable and is taxing to ourselves and those around us.
If we investigate why we do this to ourselves, the reasons are always to do with doubting ourselves before we even get started with the transition. We predict that we will eventually fail and then lack the courage to even get started, thus remaining trapped in the status quo — continuing to wallow in our misery.
Some people are even scared to share the big transitions that they have decided to pursue in their careers, for fear of the judgment that will follow should they fail.
This is an erroneous approach, and a sure way to ensure that the misery never ends. This attitude focuses our attention on the outside world’s outcomes and perceptions, which we have limited control over.
Instead, the sure way to improve the chances of our success is to increase the inward focus.
For example, let’s say the big idea this year is to ditch the job and launch an entrepreneurial innovation that we have always been passionate about. Instead of focusing mostly on the outside world, it is important to focus on our own inside world — that which we can control — as a way to increase our chances of success.
We must ask ourselves: “How can I build the reliance I need if I am to stay on course with the innovation and not let it become deprioritised? How can I prepare myself to absorb the inevitable failures along the way
Leverage the beginning of the year as a wake-up call
and learn from them instead of being defeated by them? What specific community of supporters do I need to help me stay the course?”
These questions are merely a starting point on the journey: starting with the “self”, instead of the “other” that we cannot control.
When we go after something that we are passionate about, our first thoughts should never be about what others can do for us to help us succeed. The dominant focus should be on what we can do for ourselves to be better prepared for success.
Making the decision to try something new takes a lot of courage. It is not easy to make a major change on how we spend most of our waking hours — after all, the familiar routine is much easier to live with than the chaos of the unknown.
However, if you think of the world’s most successful artists, business people, athletes and scientists, they would not have been able to leave their mark on the world if they had not had the courage to follow their passions.
I strongly believe that when we live out our passions, we are living out our legacy — effectively making that impact on the world that each of us is supposed to have. This is why we are all unique.
Let us not miss the opportunity of leveraging the beginning of the year as a wake-up call to infuse energy into our own new beginning — one that is probably long overdue.