Finding Your Passion

One of the things that has always made me somewhat jealous of my wife is her passion. She loves her horses, and helping people. She would quit her job in a minute if I would let her to train horses every day. And train people. As long as I’ve known her, she’s had this streak of wanting to make other peoples’ lives better. In different ways over the years, but it’s been a consistent part of her drive, and it’s amazed me.

I like working with wood, building things, running, karate, reading, a bunch of stuff. But none of it really drives me with a passion. The closest I got was a steady volunteer effort at the food bank for awhile. I would see that, or Habitat for Humanity, as a place I could pour myself into some day. Other than that, everything with work, even my nearly-two-year running streak is a bit of a “eh, it’s fun”, but not passion-generating for me.

However apparently there is something that I hadn’t realized. I’ve been working with an organization for years, on and off, to various degrees. They’ve frustrated me and there have been more than a few times that I was ready to throw up my hands and completely divorce myself from them. A few others I know have nearly done that as well, or have. Not a great reputation or endorsement for an organization. In many ways they remind me of the US government, with the disgust and frustration that so many people have when dealing with them or even reading about their work.

I have debated becoming more involved for years, alternating with the whole throw-up-of-the-hands. However it seems that I am involved, blogging about it (one of my larger tags), and discussing it with friends and co-workers on a regular basis. As I think about it and debate the idea, it seems that I am involved.

A friend of mine, who is involved, talked to me recently about committing more. We’ve debated this, and he respects my reasons for holding back, but he also had a long talk where he said that he thought I could make a big difference and that I should think about how to mitigate some of the issues (like time, travel) and then evaluate. I respect his opinion, and he’s somewhat of a mentor for me.

So I talked with me wife. We had a chat while she was on the road, and I talked about how I felt, and some of the issues. She asked a few questions and then said it was a no-brainer. This was my passion, or at least one of the few places I’ve shown a lot of passion and that I should pursue it.

I was surprised by that since I’ve been searching for a passion, but hadn’t realized this was it. It’s funny how you learn things about yourself. I’m nervous, and a little worried, but I’ll throw my hat in the ring and see what happens.