Some Additional Thoughts on Passion

This is going to be one of those posts where I ramble a bit about what's meaningful to me and matters in the way I view life. I know some of my readers like these posts, connect with them and that some of you are just waiting to find out what's going on with Dr. Mario; but writing these posts is important to me and, in a way, has to do with why I quit my job those many months ago.

A few things have happened in the last week that have really opened my eyes a bit to who/what I want to be. Very much like the conference I went to a few weeks back (see: Reaffirming Conferences?) these things are helping me to see what's truly important. The details aren't important but I will tell you that I planned an event for my job - something we'd never tried or done and I was nervous to the point of freak out about how well it would go. I also helped a friend with a project of hers that means a lot to her and has grown to hold a dear place in my heart too.

Like I said, the details aren't important. It doesn't even matter necessarily how many people I touched/reached/brought together. What does matter is how I felt about these things and what they have shown me.

I am a passionate person - I'm sort of known for over-emoting - but there are a few things that really dig deep for me, that connect with a part of me that lives in my core (and because it is so core, sometimes might get overlooked). I am really good at connecting with people and I really love it. I love to bring people together around a cause - whether it's 2 or 10 or 100 people - and I love to connect people to each other, to me, to a cause, to... whatever they need to be connected to.

There are career paths and things that are always important to someone who is ambitious - money, title, management experience, etc. - but it's important to remember that there is a life path too. A life of passion, happiness, and engagement... a life that is full of purpose and focus... how do you account for that when you calculate your net worth?

It's something that I admit, I'm not great at remembering when I think about success. In a world where we accrue value in a very monetarily driven way, it can be easy to de-value emotions and connections. The moments when you see those things - those emotions and connections - is beyond valuation.