I’ve been talking to you lately about finding joy in your life. One of the most important things you can do in life is to identify your passions and then act on them!
Why is this so important – because if we don’t identify our passions we can just drift through life or be driven through life by others so that we end up not doing anything that is really important to us or fun and we will struggle to find purpose.
As you know I am recently retired and had most plans thwarted for several years because of the pandemic but I have been able to find some fun things to do in the mean time including writing my blog! But for years I just drifted and allowed a very bad habit to rule my life. If you have read some of my blog posts you will know that I am and have always been a workaholic. (I’m still working on the problem!! HAHA.)
My tendency to throw myself into my job meant that I didn’t spend any time thinking about my life – between work and family responsibilities life just flew by!
It was actually deciding on what the blog should be about that helped me work out what my passions were in life.
I realised that most of my working life had been spent in roles where I tried to help people – the roles I played were all very different but had that common theme. I realised that being helpful gave me purpose and the need to help people is still there- but I also realised how much I love to write – it really is a passion and something that I have done for other people a lot but not often for myself!! So now I can write for my self and hopefully in a way that helps you and others!
My other passions and the things that bring me joy are exercise – specifically swimming, yoga and walking and; Scottish music, culture and language. If you are thinking about your passions don’t expect that they will be logical or even practical! My first passion – the swimming came out of a time when I was really overweight and in pain. The last thing I really wanted to do was swimming!!! But out of that pain came something that is sooooo important to me now. I have been swimming for over 12 years now – it keeps me healthy in mind and body!
I learned yoga when I was in high school and really enjoyed it but was not given an opportunity to take it up again until around 12 years ago. It has certainly become a passion and a blessing, particularly over the past few difficult years!
My second passion which I guess you could say was anything to with Scotland, took me by surprise a few years ago when we were holidaying in the UK. We were so taken by Scotland and the Highlands that we thought we might move there!! That is not likely to happen now but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to learn more about being Scottish. One of my current passions is learning Scottish Gaelic – I have no real need to do it but every day I spend about an hour on Duolingo working through many topics and learning to say things like ‘ Look I have no underpants on’ in Scottish Gaelic! I have been learning for around 480 consecutive days now and I keep on wanting to know more!! I doubt that I will ever have to speak the language but it helps me understand the lyrics to some of my favourite songs and that gives me a thrill! Learning languages has always been interesting for me and now I am indulging myself with this passion every day.
I would never have indulged myself in language learning or daily yoga when I was working because I was too focussed on the job and doing what I thought was the right thing i.e. working hard. It stopped me from having fun for so many years.
So if you want to enjoy life more, if you want to find the joy in 2023 and beyond take some time out to sort out what you are passionate about and let yourself enjoy those passions! You will get such joy from don’t the things you love!
Ask yourself what you really enjoy doing now and what you enjoyed doing when you were young. Perhaps there was something you loved doing before you studied or had a family or took on a full time job. There is no reason why you can’t reignite the passions from your younger days now!
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Until next time,
Gillian (and Andrew)
