Design your life and find your passion project.
Today, I went for an early evening run, I couldn’t resist the 80 degree temperatures and getting out reduces the level of cabin fever when working remotely. It’s day 24 of the 66 day writing challenge and I’m not keeping up with the daily routine. I’m hoping once the kids start school (TUESDAY!), I’ll have some “free” time to do some soul searching and writing.
On today’s run I decided to catch up on some of Chris Brogan’s podcasts. Whenever I listen to his podcasts I always get inspired. Today, I listened to interview Ryan Holiday about his book Ego is the Enemy and Nick Westergaard and his book Get Scrappy. I tell you each episodes always feels like Chris and his guests are always talking to me directly. Boy would I love to get into that networking circle. I’m ready to purchase books, hopefully there is an audio version, because I never have enough time to read but I can listen while I run.
“The keys to life are running and reading. When you’re running, there’s a little person that talks to you and says, “Oh I’m tired. My lung’s about to pop. I’m so hurt. There’s no way I can possibly continue.” You want to quit. If you learn how to defeat that person when you’re running. You will how to not quit when things get hard in your life. For reading: there have been gazillions of people that have lived before all of us. There’s no new problem you could have — with your parents, with school, with a bully. There’s no new problem that someone hasn’t already had and written about it in a book.” — Will Smith
I was turning the corner on mile three and Chris’s, Design Your Life podcast came on. I’ve heard it before but today it resonated more. I am getting closer and closer everyday to designing my own life. I have the flexibility to work remotely in the California area while working DC hours, which gives me plenty of time to take the kids to their perspective activities. I don’t like being “on” at 6am, but being able to wrap up and cook dinner for the family makes me really happy.
In the same podcast he talked about finding your or a passion project.
A passion project is something you work on (often outside of your chosen career path) that gives you satisfaction, happiness and puts you into a state of flow. It’s what you do to escape it all. Its your tiny (or huge) contribution to the world.
Here are 6 reasons why we will all benefit from starting our own passion project.
- You’ll be able to tap into your state of flow. If you have never been able to work in the state of “flow” you are missing out. I used to be able to do this so easily when I was screenwriting. It’s an amazing feeling.
- You’ll decrease your stress levels. If you’ve never been able to experience life without stress… I mean a stress-free life would be AMAZING! But I would probably stress about not being stressed, yes I’m that person. Focusing on something you are passionate about leaves less room to stress over stress.
- You can get leaner. If you are one of those stress eaters, then less stress and more focus on what you love could make you a little leaner.
- You’ll be in a better mood. Doing something, anything you love will always make you happier.
- It can help you build on your talents.
- You may find an alternate/side career. It could be that your passion project can morph into a business on the side or even full time.
Learn about other reasons to start a passion project.
