So passion seems to be the theme of choice at the moment.

Passion confession

I ended up admitting that mine would be dance, specifically contact improv.  Only I hesitated to say it, and I hesitated to acknowledge it.  Now, I thought I was avoiding it because I had some basic ‘fear of success/fear of failure’ type thing going on with it, only in truth I know that’s a pile of bull.  I know I can do it (it’s one of the things the group I’m in do best) and I know I enjoy it.

So I had a think about why it is that I’ve been avoiding it and I suddenly realised that I was shoulding myself.  The voice in my head was going something like this: “if it’s a passion you should be wanting to do it all the time, you’ll have to do it every day and travel all over to get more of it”.  Now I don’t know about you, but that sounds more like an addiction than passion, and it certainly wasn’t attracting me to the idea.

Today I worked out that it was because of this quiet little voice (you know, the kind you don’t hear out loud until you start doing things like Shiva Nata) that I had been worried, and that actually, when I think about it, all I need to do is look to make sure that I’m getting some contact improv in my life – as much or as little as I want.

So I’m going to chat with my dance buddies and see what happens.  We meet on Mondays, so feel free to call me on it after that

I’m allowed to have more than one

My other passion would be self-growth.  This is the one that more closely fits the “whatever I’m doing I’ve got to get me some of this” type of description.  Though again, it’s less of a craving and more of a drive.

Another should warning

Now, the whole “What is your passion?” question (which should really be ‘What are your passions?’) first got on my radar because I was looking at what my perfect job would be.  And so I’ve got in my head a line of thought that goes: Work out your passions – Practice them to get good at them – Go make money at it.

This would be another should however.  I don’t have to do that at all.  It’s simply a shorthanded way of saying that if I practice what I enjoy so that it becomes a marketable skill then I could paid to do something I love.  That’s too far down the road to know what’s going to happen however, in this crazy, churned up, constantly changing world, so for now I drop my shoulds and simply state an intention: to keep living my passions.

Want to see more? Try one of these posts:

• Passionate about human connection
• Following a thread as far as I can
• One last word (for today) on passion