Never Forget About Your Own Passions
You know how “they” tell you to always follow your passion? That if you can make a career of your dream then you’ll never work another day in your life? Well, that might be true but there is another aspect to this that you might not have thought of. One which just smacked me in the face.
There is a YouTuber named Peter McKinnon who just released a video that solidified things in my head. He apparently has perfect timing, even though he’s never heard of me. For you see, he articulated something I’ve been trying to put into words for some time now.
And his message was sent straight to my soul. (Dramatic version)
The video was called ‘A Message For ALL Creatives’ and had the simple lesson ‘Do One For You’. Here’s the premise … creative folks who make creativity their career oftentimes get wrapped up in the routine and they no longer find new passions in their work. That photoshoot, video, painting, whatever that was commissioned by someone else is just another in a long line of ‘work’. All of which is fun and enjoyable, yes. But when was the last time you did something as a creative … just for you?
I’ve been dancing around something for a while now, and his simple utterance went right to the heart of the matter. At first, I started thinking … “Rick, what new video idea have you been wanting to do?“. But I quickly realized that (1) speaking in the third person was annoying, and (2) I was also not getting the message quite right. It didn’t have to be a deliverable. It just had to be a passion.
As you may or may not know, I’m taking a year off from life starting in 2022 and releasing my inner creative. No “work work”, just creative work. So I could be forgiven for mistaking my own passion project for something that comes out of video editing software. But what my real passion is … is the world. Call it travel, adventure, cultures, or food (I really love food) … my greatest joy comes from immersing myself outside of myself. In discovery. And while that is a huge part of what 2022 will be, I hadn’t thought that the entirety of what I’m calling ‘The Pivot’ is really my passion project.
Sure, I’ve got a ton of video and blog ideas. Even more travel and exploration plans and desires. But it’s the sum of everything that defines what I need. And I need to highlight that word “need”. So NEED NEED NEED is the phrase of the day. The Pivot isn’t a want. It’s something that I need as much as air and sex. And food. Can’t ever forget about the food. For you see, I have spent years working on my burnout. Toiling away in a comfortable career, living the life of the average, all in preparation for this moment of choice between enlightenment and freedom … or a slow and utterly boring death. (Doubly dramatic version)
So let’s pivot and talk about what The Pivot means.
It means allowing myself to wander as life takes me. Without timestamps. Sure, I could babble on here about nomadic travel, minimalism, and the art of packing light. But this isn’t really about that. Nor about my cameras. It’s actually about what happens after. Sure, I’m going to spend a year (or three) wandering the globe, but what I’m really doing is undoing decades of compliance. All of the teachings that said I had to live a certain way with a certain mindset. What I do with my life for the rest of my days will be determined by what I do now.
To put it simply, I can choose a continued life of low-level burnout … with periodic remissions of joy. Or I can choose to step outside of what I know and explore what may be just out of sight. Risky? Sure. Guarantee of success and happiness? Nope, not even close. But I can feel inside me that even the most horrific of failures will still be more entertaining and educational than another year of contributing to my 401k, all in the hopes that I can watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune well into my 90s … while balancing my dwindling finances between food and prescriptions.
In my next-to-last video I made a statement that said … “If I don’t allow you to see me sweat, to show you my fears, failures, and successes, then I’m not showing you all of me”. And I believe that deeply. But it wasn’t until this moment that I realized the opposite is also true. And what I hope you’ll take away from this diatribe. That you must also show yourself sweat, fear, failure, and success. Otherwise, you aren’t showing you the real you.
