Discovering your passions
Growing up I had one passion. It was basketball. I spent all my time playing basketball because it gave me a lot of joy doing so. I got pretty good at basketball and eventually earned a college scholarship. However, I remember sitting in my dorm room one day realizing that basketball would one day come to an end. I was 6’1 165 pound white kid from a small town in the middle of nowhere in the state of Washington. Playing in the nba wasn’t really in the cards for me. So I started asking myself. If basketball was going to come to an end, what would I do with my life? What else was I passionate about that I would want to do? I didn’t have answer for that question.
At the time I was a kinesiology major and I wasn’t really enjoying what I was studying. I chose this major because it honestly seemed like the easiest one since I was a college athlete I didn’t want to have to deal with challenging classes especially during basketball season. Other than playing basketball I was good at binge watching netlfix on the weekend and over sleeping and missing class. I was also good at complaining about things that were going wrong in my life. I also enjoyed chasing after girls and cracking open a beer with my friends. However doing these things left me realizing that I was living like 95% percent of people (made up statistic that should probably be higher) and I wasn’t living a lifestyle I was passionate about. I was settling in my life. This quote by Nelson Mandela sums it up perfectly “There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” I was capable of so much more and it was time to take control of my life.
I remember a friend of mine recommending me a book called the Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. This book would become one of the most influential books I’ve ever read. From reading it I discovered a passion for learning and writing. This got the ball rolling for me as I started journaling and reading books. One of my teammates saw my passion for reading on road trips to games and he recommended this podcast called Knowledge for Men. I started emerging myself in all types of different books from personal development to psychology. From listening to knowledge for men I discovered other great podcasts like entrepreneur on fire and smart passive income. These podcasts taught me that I could take what I’m passionate about, do it every day, and make money while I’m doing it. This was so inspiring to me and I wanted to share this with other people.
So I quickly went from only having one passion to being passionate for writing, reading, learning, leadership, inspiring, personal development, and entrepreneurship. I wanted to use these passions to inspire and add value to the lives of other people. The only thing was that everyone around me was telling me to go for more schooling and make a career out of the degree I was studying. To me this seemed like the safe and secure route. It also meant a lot more debt from student loans. I didn’t want that. So I used a lot of my time going after my passions. I started taking a public speaking course to hone my communication skills and get over my fear of public speaking. I created a blog and began writing as often as I could because I really needed to improve as a writer. I actually failed an English class in high school but I knew that if I really practiced I could get good at it. I’m currently studying marketing and business in my free time so that I can one day turn my dream into a reality. It does matter where you’re at in life you can follow your passions.
