By Hey guys!!
I had a really lovely Monday this week (my Monday is akin to most people’s Saturday) where I stayed home and cleaned and reorganized some things in my space. So important to do – to love the space where you live, where you sleep, eat, read, write – whatever it is that you do. It should make you feel happy.
But that’s not what I’m writing about.
I rearranged my bookshelf and in doing so found a great deal of pleasure reflecting on my book collection. I buy books pretty often (bought 3 just last week) and have a pretty long list of others that I’d like to acquire; I also had a pretty serious addiction the the Brooklyn Public Library for a while there…
What jumped out at me was the theme that strung through my current collection – lots of healing, empowerment, and of course, yoga. I thought it was such a great representation of me and what I’m truly interested in and PASSIONATE about.
But I remember a time when I didn’t know what my passion was – or, I thought I didn’t know what it was. I had lost interest in my former career and worried that I’d never be really excited about working on anything again. I saw friends who’d voluntarily stay up late and sacrifice a lot of their personal time for their jobs, and I just didn’t see that in me. At all.
What if I have no passion?! I thought.
(*note: this feeling was also around the same time my back went out, as referenced in last week’s email)
Fast forward a few years later and there’s not enough time in the day to read all the books. Sometimes I joke that I wish I could just inject all the info into my head. Furthermore, I have a looong list of trainings I’d like to attend. Just yesterday I told a friend that it’s a serious toss up between saving money for a training or saving money for a vacation. As of late, the training wins. I am hungry for more. To learn, to hone my skills, to share what I can with who I can.
But, just a few years ago, I had no idea what I cared about. So how did I get from A to B?
I just started. I picked up a book that seemed interesting at the time. I spent hours online perusing articles. I followed any little glimmer of interest – and I had to let go of the HOW. I couldn’t always think about how reading a book about having faith in the universe was going to turn into a full blown passion or much less a job. I embarked on yoga teacher training, financially backed by my mom (thanks again, Mom!), and felt the need to reassure her several times: I won’t really be able to make money teaching yoga, I don’t know where this will lead (in other words, no promise on that ROI). But I went, following the interest (it’s worked out okay).
Almost a decade ago I was on a vaca with my mom and sis in California. Sis had just finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed and handed it to me and told me to read it. And so I did. The book is about marriage – in different cultures and generations and how it’s changed and what it is and what it isn’t and how different people make it work. Having just ended a serious relationship, I took a great interest in the topic as I’d never really stopped to think about what I wanted – marriage, kids, white picket fence? AfterCommitted, I found another book, and another, and another. Suddenly I had read and thought through the traditions and modern approaches and women’s roles in family and in career and I even read a book unfortunately titled Marry him: the case for settling for Mr Good Enough. (Yeah, I did NOT read that one in public. Yikes.)
Coincidentally (or not?) I made a few friends around that time who needed help navigating their relationships – deciding to stay or to go, considering what they really wanted, what really mattered. I put them on my book-reading course (I still have the reading list if you want it). My one friend called me “the break-up coach.” I’ll take it. I love helping people break free of whatever’s not serving them.
Anyhoo, my point in all this is that I found a topic that struck some interest and I followed it. I learned so much that year about relationships, and about myself, and I was able to help people with what I gleaned (both those friends are now happily married to people they met almost immediately after they left the jerks they were with when I met them. Just FYI). And these past few years, I’ve learned so much through books and trainings and amazing instructors and just about every person I meet, because I’m hungry for more. Because I followed that little spark of interest and I continue to follow any spark – whether it seems related or not, because my personal variety of interests is what makes me and what I can offer unique.
So if you’re feeling stuck- or even if you’re not – maybe pick up a book? Or enroll in a course? Or ask someone to lunch who seems interesting to you and you want to learn from. There are a million ways to always be learning. Don’t worry so much about how it all adds up – it adds up to YOU being YOU.
What is something you’ve always wanted to learn? What was the last conversation or topic that got you really excited – talking all fast and not paying attention to the time?
Do it.
xo,
m.
p.s. this summer’s Rustic Retreat is almost all full!! Grab your spot now if you want in.
p.p.s. I’m clearly incapable of keeping these short, so I’m just gonna keep making them blog posts on the site as well. Find it here should you want to come back to it or share it! (I’d really love if you’d share it 🙂
