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"Seven Follow Your Passion Strategies"
By Edel Jarboe

Do you love to paint, cook, or write? Are you a whiz with financial data? Do you love teaching others? Whatever your passion, there is a way to make it a regular part of your life. There is a way to bring your passion to life so that you can add more meaning to your life and feel like you are living up to your true potential.

What do you want to see happen by following your passion? Do you want to become a commercial artist? Would you like to have your own cooking show? Would you like to put together a collection of your favorite recipes? Do you want to become a freelance magazine writer? Have you always had a hankering to be a financial analyst for a Fortune 500 company? Do you want to teach the next generation the fascinating possibilities math and science has to offer? Do you want to go back to school and get your medical degree? No matter what your passion, there are steps you can take to make your dream a reality.

1. Create a success plan. Spell out what you want, and then get busy making it happen.

Is it a solid success plan? Is it realistic and achievable? Does it match your values? If you value your family, for example, would you choose to pursue a goal that would involve a great deal of travel and consequently time away from your family? In other words, what do you want out of life and what are you willing to do to achieve it? This depends on your goal.

Would you be satisfied if your passion were a hobby, something you do for fun and relaxation, or do you want to share your passion with the world? In other words, what is the true purpose of your passion? What need does it fill? Does it satisfy your need for personal fulfillment, financial success, achievement, or status and recognition? Knowing why your passion is important to you helps you decide how you want to manifest it.

2. Give Yourself as Deadline

Be very specific about the results you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them. What milestones do you want to reach and by when? A great way to stay on track with your goals is to build in rewards for reaching each milestone. For example, if you get your website up and running in the proposed 6 months time reward yourself with a new book on Internet marketing or buy a mug that says "I'm the Boss"

Moreover, even if you absolutely love to write how will you keep at it day after day? Will you use all forms of writing, from journal writing to nonfiction articles to copywriting, as a way to sharpen your writing skills on the days you don't feel like working on your collection of short stories? Will the act of writing itself keep you motivated? In other words, what specific aspect of your passion will keep you motivated and moving forward despite obstacles?

3. Ask for support from friends and family.

Family support could range from pitching in to help with the kids and housework so that you could attend a class to strong verbal and emotional support. You could also enlist a friend or a group of friends to help keep you on track. For example, you could make an agreement to email or call each other weekly to share strategies, frustrations, and successes. You could also join an online support group to meet other people who are pursuing a similar goal such as weight loss. In the same vein, if you have just started your own home-based business you could join a local networking group for small business owners.

4. Find out all you can about the field you are interested in.

Soak up all you can about your passion. Take a class, read books, and study your competitors. What's a good way to do what you want to do? How has it been done in the past? What are they doing and how will you do it differently? What is working for them and why? What isn't working and why? What lessons can you learn from your research? Take notes and keep them handy when writing your success plan.

5. Ask for advice from people who are already doing what you long to do.

Write a letter to a well-known person in the field you are interested in. Let them know how much you admire their work and ask them how they got started and what one thing they would recommend for someone starting out. Also ask them the one thing they wouldn't recommend doing. In other words, learn from their mistakes so that you can drastically decrease the number of mistakes you will make. You don't have to reinvent the entire wheel - just a few spokes will do. In short, find or create a mentor in your field.

6. Do Your Dream on a Small Scale.

What do you need to prove to yourself before you can commit to your passion full-time? Do you need to prove that you can make a decent living doing what you love to do? Do you need to ensure that you won't get bored? Do you need to make sure that this is truly your passion? For example, if you are thinking about starting a home business, do you need to find out that you get lonely without at least one weekly outside contact? Do you need to prove to yourself that you have the necessary skills? Do you need to prove that you have the discipline to stick with it? What fears need to be calmed before you completely commit yourself to following your passion?

7. Now Go Do It

Often we tell ourselves "I can't" when what we really mean is "I don't deserve it." Be honest with yourself. Check to make sure that this isn't happening with you. Whenever the thought of doing what you long to do pops into your head, what is your first response? What do you keep telling yourself about your dream?

What do you need to do in order to start making your dreams come true and are you ready and willing to do it? Moreover, are you going to continue to hide behind flimsy excuses and blame everyone and everything for why you cannot succeed? Is this how you your life to be? A life filled with regrets and self loathing because you did not have the courage to grasp your dream with both hands and do the very thing that you both fear and desire? Only you can give yourself permission to be happy and to follow your dream.

About the Author:

Edel Jarboe is the founder of Simpler Living (http://www.simplerliving.com), an online self-help magazine helping you create a better life. She also publishes a free weekly newsletter, which features advice on goal setting, stress management, coping with difficult people, and overcoming obstacles: Subscribe at Subscribe page or send an email to: Subscribe

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