Taking Time for Your Passion

Say, "Yes!" to your passion!

How often do you engage your passion?

For way too long, I have largely ignored mine - writing - but that all changes now.  In her last post, Chantel talked about the solstice as a time of abundant energy and vibrance when we can make bold moves and take giant leaps.

I, for one, am taking her up on the idea and I hope you will join me.  I plan to channel this high energy time into my writing passion using the simple formula I've been using for my blog, The Wonder of Runes, since last fall.  I have committed three hours one morning a week to writing and sharing my blog with others and, since that time, it has flourished and I am amazed and grateful to see the interest in and response to my efforts.

Yeah, nice idea.  Why is this important?  What if I'm just too busy with other things to do anything about my passion?  I have to work, ya know.

When you focus all your energy on things that simply suck the energy out of you, you are draining yourself.  Engaging in your passion is one way to refuel or replenish that energy.  I write for a living, but much of that entails writing things for other people or editing their work.  While I enjoy it, it is not the same as the three hours I spend writing my blog entries for The Wonder of Runes.

Therefore, between now and the autumnal equinox on September 22nd, I plan to dedicate a similar amount of time, like that which I dedicate to my blog, to different writing projects each weekday and there is no shortage of supply.

I write my blog on Mondays and that will not change.  Making that commitment is one of the best things I've done for myself in recent years.  This a a wonderful example of the benefits of engaging your passion.  Not only has it paid off for me personally, but professionally as well.  And now it serves as the formula to expand that benefit and write more.

Tuesdays will be dedicated to writing the sequel to my novel, The Son of Nine Sisters.  I began writing it last November as part of the NaNoWriMo challenge, but haven't really touched it since.  Sure, I've gone over it a hundred times in my head, thinking through details, making links, and solidifying characters and story lines, but I'm not sure I've written a word in it this year.  Since I want the first draft completed around the autumnal equinox, I had better get a move on.  So, Tuesdays for my sequel.

Once I published my novel, my daughter decided she wanted to write a book too, so we are working on one together, a young readers series about time travel.  The first book draft is literally about 500 words from being finished, but it is a series, so we need to write at least more and the synopsis for a couple beyond that.  That ought to keep me busy on Wednesday mornings.

Of course, there is little point in writing all these books if I don't do any marketing.  Even though it's not my favorite thing to do, I will spend Thursdays marketing both my creative writing and professional writing services.

Friday is for another, much newer passion, gardening.  You may recall my last post was about my new love of growing food.  Yes, this is the first and trial year, but I've already learned a few things and I can't wait to get back and dig in literally and figuratively.  And, I have to say, I am amazed how engaging with Earth helps clear my mind and accelerate my creative and critical thinking, a grea way to come up with or clarify story ideas.

Ah, now that's the way to spend a week.

I don't have time to dedicate three hours each morning to my passion.  Are you crazy?  I have a job and I have to clean the house and shuttle the kids and go grocery shopping, and do the laundry.

I'm not suggesting you follow my model exactly.  I am suggesting that, as one way to engage your inner wisdom and refuel yourself that you take time for your passion once a week.  The only catch is that you have to set a dedicated time to do it and stick to it until the equinox.  You can make excuses or make time.  Which will it be?

I would love to have you join me in this solstice to equinox quest, especially my fellow writers.  We can spend a morning writing together.  To that end, here is your challenge:

Practice Engaging Your Inner Wisdom:  Take time or, more specifically, arrange a set time once a week to engage your passion.  Tell me what it is.  Share your experience with me.  Are you an artist?  Show me some of your work?  A fellow writer?  Share an excerpt or poem.  Are you spending time in nature?  Take some pictures to show us.  Email me a sample of whatever you do and I will dedicate a blog post or two (or however many it takes) to sharing your experience with our readers.  I look forward to making this journey with you.

For those of you still questioning whether you have time to spend engaging your passion, how about this?  All you have to do is monitor me.  You can check into this blog over he next three months to see what progress I've made or, you can follow Engaging Inner Wisdom on facebook and see regular updates there.  That way, you can decide whether it was worth it for me to take this time or not.  Maybe that will inspire you to take time for yours.