Tag Archives: Passion

Go For It! It Is All Perspective After All

Posted on by Denise Dahl, Epiphany Planning & Development, LLC

More and more lately I’ve been talking with fabulous people who are working in amazing jobs and loving it!  These are jobs they are crazy passionate about and jobs most of us would think ‘oh, I can’t do that, I wouldn’t make enough.’  Some of these fabulous people are making a ton of money and some are making a decent amount and some are even working a second job to fuel their ability to do what they love.

My question of the day is this…  Have you traded passion and “right work” (work that is good for you and the world) for a job that makes you money to buy stuff that will end up in the junkyard one day?

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a Kate Spade purse and deeply enjoy rocking out a good pair of shoes.  Having said that I’m also willing to live low-end house wise to experience and work in a high-end, magical, amazing, changing the world job. In the big picture it isn’t a tradeoff for me as it fits perfectly with me and my values even if it doesn’t fit with others.  All I sacrificed was believing others know more about me than I do.  It is all perspective after all!

It is tough to pick passion and decide being a change agent is more important than another or nicer car.  And we’ve often been programmed to prioritize what we have over what we contribute.  Is it possible to have it all.  Yes.  But the trick is not getting sucked into the need to “earn a living” over “making an amazing difference.”  As I mentioned I’ve had a lot of conversations lately proving the two are not mutually exclusive.

What Makes You Happy? -I don’t remember

Posted on by Denise Dahl, Epiphany Planning & Development, LLC

In the past few weeks I’ve made it a point to ask both clients and friends what makes them happy.  What are they passionate about? There has been a shocking amount of similar answers.  What is concerning is that answer is “I don’t remember.”

How does losing what your passionate about and/or what you love to do happen?  How does anyone forget what it is that makes them happy?  The answer is this…”slowly.”  Slowly we lose touch with what it is that WE want by daily accommodation of others.  Sometimes it is our family, friends, co-workers, boss, etc.  Whom we accommodate is not as important to ‘why’ we accommodate them.  It is a signal that somewhere along the way their importance surpassed your importance.

Do we have to accommodate the boss.  Most likely if we want to get paid.  But can we broker a scenario that isn’t all or nothing?  Yes, yes that indeed is possible.  People don’t however because they feel uncomfortable asking.

Next time you feel uncomfortable asking for a compromise to retain some of what you enjoy, love and/or are passionate about think about how much easier it is to ask, than to forget who you are.  A few minutes of feeling uncomfortable, whether it is with your boss, friends, family, etc. is well worth the lifetime of enjoying what you do.  I certainly don’t mind 30 minutes of discomfort knowing it will result in staking claim to who I am.  What about you?