Project Optimism: Passion or Bust
An amazing girlfriend recently sent me a link to a blog that hit all my buttons and made my brain spin. The post was great, but it wasn’t so much the post that got to me, as the underlying theme.
Passion.
I love passion. LOVE IT. I love that crackle in the air that makes you excited and a little sweaty and makes you feel like you can take the world by storm. Sometimes it’s physical, but the passion that I’m talking about here is the passion for something, not someone.
Don’t get me wrong…I’ll NEVER say no to this kind of passion, either.
(photo from radiobigboy.com)
THIS is what I’m talking about today. See this woman? PASSION.
(photo from philosophyforchange.wordpress.com)
I’ve always wanted to have a burning passion. Something that I just lose myself in and know EVERYTHING about and want to spend all my time talking about and that makes my eyes light up when you mention it. But you guys, I don’t even have a hobby.
Sure, I like to read. But not PASSIONATELY so that I can tell you about all the classics or all of ANY specific genre. I just LIKE it.
Yeah, I like music. But not a specific instrument. I couldn’t even tell you my favorite band.
Sports? Not really. I enjoy fitness, but you only have to look at me once to know for sure that I’m not PASSIONATE about it.
Art? I like pretty things. But but but…you get my drift, right? NO PASSION.
I’d say that the only thing that I’m really passionate about is finding something to be passionate about. Because I WANT it, you guys! I WANT something to drive me! I WANT to champion a cause! I WANT something to get me out of bed and motivated every day. ***Just please don’t let it happen due to any tragedy. I’ve learned that sometimes you need be specific with the Universe!***
It will happen, kittens, I’m OPTIMISTIC. I will find my fire. I will take the world by storm.
Until then, I’m happily nurturing a love of wine (not passion, just a LOT OF LOVE) and a newfound commitment to a hot hot hot body. They may not lead to passion with something, but they fuel the passion with my favorite someone. And that makes me happy.
What are you passionate about?
This elephant is PASSIONATE about the trapeze!!!
Project Optimism is passionate about wanting to spread the joy. Check out the blogs on our page to feel some love.
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You are passionate about your family! And wine (yum). Thanks for the link. 🙂 now all your readers will see I have a shopping problem. xoxo
But really…passionate about my family? How can I translate that into a hobby? I don’t want to make more of them!
You WILL find your fire my girl! For now, keep nursing that wine and working on looking HOT! Those hobbies are good enough. As for me, I wrote about what one of BIGGEST passions today. MUSIC! It bypasses my mind and aims straight for the HEART! 🙂
I love it!!! That makes me want to take a road trip with my iPod!
Looking on the bright side, you’ve determined what your NOT passionate about! That’s a start!! My problem – I’m passionate about EVERYTHING!! Every time I try something new, eat something new, hear a new song, read a new book, (you get it??!) suddenly I’m ALLLLL about that! For example, I learned to crochet back in November. I spent WEEKS staying up until ridiculous hours (hello 5am….) crocheting hats & scarves because I just loved it SOO much! Everything feels like it’s my “thing” and then I wind up being exhausted because I’m so passionate about everything I don’t have enough time to sleep – or even shower some days! But because this is Project Optimism and there’s no room for Debbie Downers…..I love having so many things that turn my crank! And there’s always an activity/recipe/book, etc., to share with someone else! Why limit myself to one thing to be passionate about, why not be passionate about EVERYTHING?!!! Happy Monday 🙂
See…but that’s how I feel often, but because I cycle through things so rapidly, I think of them more as quick obsessions rather than passions. Those are such fun periods though, aren’t they? Just being consumed with something for a few weeks?
I’m passionate about you. Does that count?
It might…I’ll need some photos of how you express that passion.
Love this post. I feel the same way! I am always searching…but I actually may have found it. I have been making art using acrylic paint, scrapbook paper and gluing buttons on after the painting is finished. I have made about 10 art pieces, button trees, button napkin rings and now I am moving on to button bracelets and necklaces. I love buttons, collecting them, searching for just the right color to add to my paintings, talking to people and having them give me their button collections because they want me to make an art piece with them.
I am incorporating my absolute love of nature with buttons and I am SO HAPPY. I can’t stop, I don’t want to stop. It doesn’t feel like an obsession like I have had so many times, it feels like a great fit 🙂
That’s FANTASTIC!!! I want to see some of your work!
Its funny, just as I was finishing up writing my post I read your post for today, happy you were able to see some of what I was describing, it makes me SO HAPPY.
I was struck as usual at your similar line of thought, although I was excited about my new found passion and you are still searching…I think if you are embracing the second photograph like few I know. I feel your passion for life, your family, how much you love to laugh and drink wine and feel life fully. I feel it in your writing so I know you are accomplishing something few dream of. Enjoy!!
My family and my blog… my blog,mostly because its MY SPACE… the only space I have that’s completely my own and in my control… a place where I can share all my other mini passions on a daily basis that reminds me of all the wonderful things in my life that make me smile!
I love that!
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I know the problem – I don’t have a passion. I have a lot of short term hobbies, but I lose interest once I have started acquiring some skill. Normally about the time other people start saying ‘You are doing well. Can you make one/draw one/ do one for me?’ and it stops being about my hobby and starts being everyone else’s needs.
That’s exactly it! Like once you kind of “get it,” it’s over.
Yep – maybe, being writing types, it’s because we are more about the new experiences and finding out new things (being nosy) and less about concentrating on one thing only. (My excuse and I like it!)
What a wonderful post! You WILL find it! And if passion is your passion, so be it! Seek out those things in life that make you feel wonderful and feel your passion that way.
My passion has always been writing and it was something I pursued voraciously through college. But once real life set in, it went to the backburner and there it has stayed. It’s still a passion, but something I’m rediscovering. I have a new passion in yoga though. It’s something I can’t get enough of. I dream of going to new classes and discovering new instructors. It’s not something I expected, but it’s such a great feeling to feel so passionate again!
That’s exciting! I’ve never been a yoga person, but a girlfriend is sending me a yoga dvd that she swears I’ll love.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pilates and wanted to become an instructor, but I find it’s WAY too expensive to keep up.
Maybe that’s my problem…I can’t AFFORD a passion.
funny you should mention it – i find my passion{s} subsiding lately – what i used to be passionate about i could take or leave. photography? it’s great, but it’s hard to stand out in a sea of iPhones. cooking? i love it but i’m not on TV. being healthy? that’s almost more a “must” than a passion these days… i’m almost in a state of apathy. not here to be negative in the slightest on your project optimism day, i just find it interesting because i almost need a passion again. or a reignited version of the current passions i have. or maybe be passionate about ME in general… see, i’m an instant gratification type. if i get passionate about something, i want to dive into it and experience the glory of the outcome almost immediately.
i should be passionate about PATIENCE! 😉
I’m with you on the instant gratification. I have no patience and no bank account, which is what I think are my major stepping stones to finding something to be passionate about.
I TOTALLY think you should be passionate about YOU. I happen to think you’re quite fantastic!
i’m so so so so so grateful we met! xxoo
Ditto, chick! You make me HAPPY!
Happy Monday!
I think my new passion may be improv. I just started taking classes, but I feel myself getting sucked in.
That’s AWESOME!!!! What a fun and dynamic thing to have as a passion!!!
Could your passion not simply be “being passionate about being PASSIONATE”? I mean, look back at all your posts….eveerything you think and feel is so full of passion and conviction. Maybe you are not one of those people to have one thing but in fact MANY things. I have a lot of things I am uber passionate about. And I could never pick just one more thanthe other. I really feel it all depends on how you’re feeling that day, that month, that year. You exude fun and excitement and positivity and LIFE, how could YOU ever just have one thing?! I don’t see it being possible
I’m passionate about LOVING THIS COMMENT!!!
I suffer from a horrible ALL OR NOTHING attitude, and I think that makes it hard for me to say I’m passionate about something. Like, I would LOVE to say I was passionate about fitness, but I only go through fit PHASES and I’m not the most fit person in the Universe, so how could I possibly call it my PASSION…know what I mean?
Im pissed, just had the MOST PROFOUND comment…and I lost it! Fuck!
In a nut shell, I agree with nothingbythebook. I don’t think a passion means having 24/7 thoughts on one thing. I see that as more of an obsession. To really be “passionate” about something like that would be dman exhausting. So much energy comes from being in a moment like that, being so involved and invested in something like that. You’ve got passion for so many things you just percieve it in a different way. Ex. it’s been 15 years, and no matter what just the mere thought of the first moment I laid eyes on B OMG I melt. I’m over-whelmed with an insane passionate love. My life is devoted to her, her happiness, her well being. Her future. But life takes over, parenting takes over and thanks GOD because having that feeling for 15 years would be tooo much. what makes you melt, cry tears of sheer joy, make your heart skip a beat no matter how much time has past? that’s passion baby, pure and true
I love it. You’re brilliant!
I go through passionate phases too–as per your comment above. Passionate about my writing–and then chill on it. Totally immersed in motherhood… and then slightly insane as a result. So madly passionate and enveloped in my lover nothing else matters… and then, sanity returns. But maybe that is not a bad thing? A great many wonderful things happen when passion drives you… but the return to equilibrium and valuing other things is not such a bad thing sometimes…