Follow your passion through journaling

A recent article in the Rutland Herald told the story of a local woman who reinvented her life at the age of 54 to become the owner of a very successful bakery business, Castleton Crackers. Of her achievement, entrepreneur Whitney Lamy said:

 It validates to me how important it is to be creative and to follow your passion.

 Unfortunately, many people put their dreams aside to pursue a "real" job or raise a family, or because they consider the fantasies of their younger years meaningless and silly. In the midst of the chaos and stress of everyday life many dreams are abandoned and our confidence in them (and ourselves?) all but vanishes.

Journaling is a way to re-discover your authentic passions and access both your creativity and confidence.

 By asking yourself a question, such as "What makes me happy?" or using a sentence fragment like, "I always wanted to...", if you let go and let the pen do the work for you, you will (re)discover something you have always known but may have forgotten.

 There are many famous quotes based on the premise that if you can envision something you can make it happen. ("f you can dream it you can achieve it" [Zip Ziglar]; "If you can dream it, you can do it" [Walt Disney]) but Christina Baldwin, in her book, Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest writes in more detail of this process:

 In order to create a path towards what you desire you have to first envision what that is. In the process of making a commitment to discover our purpose, we need to dream. We need to make images, try on various fantasies, explore... Vision starts with a vague sense of something desired, something missing, a hole we want to fill...

 Find your inner passions and start following them... on the page, then in your life. Dream them, write them, do them!

 For a list of my other articles organized by topic, please visit the INDEX PAGE.