How to grow a business & not lose your mind (Part 3- Passion)

I am thrilled to welcome guest blogger, Fawna Bews, to share insight into releasing passion… for passion is one of the 7 essential resources for part-time or small business entrepreneurs!. Fawna, a dear friend for 25 years, is a mom of 3, a cancer survivor, and has a Masters in Counselling, to name but one of many professional credentials. She recently wrote the e-book Your Cancer Companion to celebrate 10 years cancer-free. She is possibly one of the smartest, happiest, self-aware people on the planet. And she inspires & helps others to be the same. She has overcome adversity in her life by being passionately committed to happiness. 

Passion

When Kim invited me to be a guest blogger (thank you) my mind went to the thousands of articles, books and blogs on this topic- Finding Your Passion, What is my passion, etc.

My answer is- YOU are your passion, your passion IS you! You might ask “why don’t I know what I want to do then, how come I can’t see it?” or “Why doesn’t my work feel like a passion? It feels like work?”

Think of yourself as a river- a river that originates from endless headwaters. When you are a little girl- you are pure passion- joy in every box, every bug and every funny sound. But then in this world, from day one, you begin to add twigs.  Yet, you are still a girl that grows until the passion that is you is running as a stream.

Considering the fact that you are reading Kim’s blog- you must be hearing at least a trickle of your passion.  The trickle that says “start your own business,” or, “you are an entrepreneur” And the ONLY thing that could hold back this flow are the twigs!! 

So consider the title of the ebook that Kim has contributed to (shameless promotion) “Dump the Junk (and be happy)”.   If thinking about your passion as a flowing river, that is encumbered by twigs, is making any sense to you, you may be saying “Yeah, but what do I do?” to ditch those twigs and dump that junk?

There are two ways to approach this.  I invite you to play with both:

1. The first is to remember the river- take the time to look back at what  you love to do.  What things would you do even if you were not paid?  Which things make you feel 5 years old again, meaning- lost in the activity- losing your sense of time and worry?  Consider the things that you loved to do before the age of 12 (puberty adds some good logs!). 
2. The second “Dump the Junk”  effort is to  LOOK at the twigs.  Where did they come from?  Are they True- capital T- True?  Are they helping you or holding you back?

Have a good time with this, pull out your crayons, your fancy markers and your journal or a giant piece of paper.  Draw the river and the twigs and label them.   Then- notice how you feel- noticing is an amazing first step.

When you have cleared some twigs- your passion will become self evident- you will be “in the flow”.  Kim and I will be doing some workshops on finding your passion- I’m looking forward to connecting with some ‘raging rivers’. And in the meantime, try one of her classes. Her passion alone can help push some twigs away!

Love, Fawna

Kim’s Note: Thank you Fawna! I’d like to add, like water, passion ebbs and flows. But it is critical to constantly nourish because being a small business owner can have some really challenging days, when you might even feel like giving up the good fight. But if you always have your passion, you will always come back another day renewed and revived. The world needs entrepreneurs. We must help each other in the pursuit of our passions! Please take a moment and share yours in the comments. Shameless self-promotion is always invited here…

Previous article in this series is:
How to Grow a Business & Not Lose Your Mind (Part 2- Money)

Next article in this series will be:
How to Grow a Business & Not Lose Your Mind (Part 4- Technology)

More resources:

• 7 Essential Resources for Part Time Entrepreneurs- FREE class
• Fawna Bews’ website – counselling, Your Cancer Companion, science-based alternative healing
• Fawna Bews’ blog – June feature: Hot Tips for a Happy Life