Day #228: Make Your Passions Work

Passions

Struggling to rise and shine? Struggling to jump out of bed? Then why not focus on your passions?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that sometimes a sleep in is much-needed. After a long week, a long day, sleep is important for recovery. But as soon as you find yourself awake and you are fighting for 5 more minutes or getting up and facing the day ahead – I think you need to ask your self the question…

Might you consider making your passions your work?

Nicolas Cole started his love and his passion back when he was 15. Back then he loved to play video games – so much he gave up every other pursuit in his life, including his skills in hockey, so that he could play more video games. 

Now to the contrary, his father who is a renowned spine surgeon and his mother an active performer and teacher, both placed a heavy emphasis on grades and a strong work ethic. While at the same time they also encouraged doing what he loved and following his passions.

They said – it was a better quality of life being a poor, happy artist than being a rich and unhappy businessman.

Being naturally creative, Nicholas said he had made his decision stating he will be a professional gamer. 

In response, he was told that his passions… “they should be, you know, something respectable.  Like music!  Like performing!  Video games aren’t a passion.”

Obviously, he disagreed and he stuck with his heart, even when there were attempts from both his parents to derail him from his ambitions of becoming a professional gamer. 

By the time he was 17 (2 years later) he was one of the highest ranked players of an online game in North America and he also had a blog of 10,000+ daily readers. He was being paid to write. He made more money writing about video games than a dead-end job at the ice cream parlor down the street his parents forced him to get so that he would “learn life lessons.” 

The key message here was he was happy. He took the core of what his parents had taught him, doing what he loved and to be the best at what he did and he applied this to something he loved doing every day of his life. 

You want to become successful, you want to make money, you know you’re smart and you know you are capable, but the work you’re doing isn’t making you happy.  So who are you doing it for? 

If you can’t get yourself to do the work, that means you aren’t doing what you love. – Nicholas Cole

You’re doing what someone else loves.  You’re following their dream.  You’re trying to be someone you’re not, and you know it.  Deep down, you know it.  Because when you’re doing what you love, you can do it forever.  You forget to eat and poop, you’re so focused on it.  You stay up all night doing it.  You wake up excited to do it.  You can’t stop doing it because you can’t stop being YOU.  That’s what it’s like living in line with your passions.  And suddenly, it does not work.  You’re just doing what you love.

Do what you love.  Do it relentlessly.  Do it with so much heart and excitement that people call you obsessed and try to tell you to stop. You’ll accomplish things you never knew you could accomplish.  And you’ll be happier than you’ve ever been in your entire life because you found success on your own terms.

As per Cole’s website (http://www.nicolascole.com/about/)

Today – 

Nicolas Cole is a writer, musician, entrepreneur, and creative strategist.  His work has been published in TIME, Forbes, Fortune, Inc Magazine, Thought Catalog, Huffington Post, and Business Insider.  He is a Top Writer on Quora with over 3,500,000 million article views, and is the author of the eBook series “Skinny to Shredded.”  He has helped a variety of fitness coaches, professional bodybuilders, physique models, personal trainers, gyms, and health and fitness brands with their marketing strategies.  He is currently working on his debut memoir titled “Confessions of a Teenage Gamer,” detailing his years becoming one of the highest ranked World of Warcraft players in North America.  Cole is best known for writing about self-development.

So go on. Get out there and be passionate about what it is you love to do and do it.

Photo Credit: Instagram @godsonsamuel888 | Location: Clifton Springs


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