For some people, their passion and skills go hand in hand. They love what they do and they’re good at it. They’re happy about what they’re good at because it’s their passion as well as their occupation. For example, an architect who has a passion for painting or photography; she has to have an eye for both of those- that’s a God-given gift. When you have that kind of natural talent, and you’re skilled at drawing and designing, the two complement each other nicely. Or, perhaps they balance their skills and their passion, but the two are completely separate. Let’s say a person has a love of fishing, but they’re skilled at mechanical engineering. The passion and the skill are vastly different, but the passion is a way to release the tension from the skill. After a long week of critical thinking, crunching numbers, and testing formulas, what a welcome relief to follow your passion by escaping on a quiet weekend of fishing. Your passion is a way to overcome the pitfalls of your occupation.
Not everyone has this marvelous mesh of passion and skill. For some of us it’s a struggle when what we love to do (our passion), and what we’re good at doing (our skill), don’t mesh at all. In those instances, how do you cope? What can you do to make your life easier? You could go out and seek a new passion. That would be the easiest solution, but definitely not the most favorable. If you sincerely love your passion, and derive great pleasure from it, why would you give it up? No, the answer isn’t in giving it up and getting a new passion, although you can certainly have more than one! Life is full of challenges, and learning to balance the positive and negative components. This is just one of those things you need to balance.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. A man is a successful airline pilot. He’s worked for a commercial airline for the past fifteen years, traveling all over the world. One year, while on a two week vacation, he takes a resort pool-lesson on scuba diving. He passes the test, and goes out with his instructor to do an ocean dive. He loves it. He can’t wait to try it again! The next vacation he does it again. He joins a local dive group in his town, and becomes engrossed in underwater photography. Diving has opened up a whole new world for him, and he can’t wait until he can go again. So how does this present a problem when his diving passion is obviously not related to his skill of being a pilot? Well, this man flies all over the world, and many times has a layover in a tropical location where he could just rent gear and go diving. But there’s a little snag. A person cannot go scuba diving and then fly in an airplane in the same 24 hour period. The shock is too hard on the human body. You can get “bent” or decompression sickness from diving underwater and then flying. So although our pilot friend would love to dive every time he has a layover in the Caribbean, Hawaii, or the South Pacific, he isn’t able to enjoy his newly-found passion unless he’s actually on a vacation. Though being a pilot and a scuba-diver are not related, they collide with each other if you’re trying to perform one or the other regularly. But all is not lost. This man has adjusted his passion of scuba-diving to not merely just diving; he’s become interested in snorkeling, too. He found he can snorkel, and still photograph many beautiful things. And he has no trouble getting on his flight the next morning. He also has become more involved in his group of divers, giving talks and presentations of his photos. He has learned to enjoy his new passion in the capacity that doesn’t interfere with his job.
You might find that your passion is cooking or baking, and you love to eat what you make but your occupation is modeling, so you’ve learned to love making delicious things for others, and just having a taste for yourself. You also find that you can make just as delicious goodies from no-sugar recipes. You have adapted your passion to fit your occupation. Similarly, let’s suppose your occupation is that of a librarian, while your passion is music. You love listening to all kinds of music, and you play the piano and cello. You aren’t able to enjoy music on the job, but you make time in the evenings and weekends. You have become accustomed to enjoying the quietness of your job, focusing more on the assistance you provide to others, than the atmosphere in which you work, and you’ve learned to appreciate your free time more because it allows you the ability to play your instruments and music as loud as you like.
Not every situation has an easy fix. I understand that. Sometimes, we just have to learn to balance our skills and passions. In my own life, I find I have a passion for creating beautiful things but my skill is more in the business-end of things. I love watching others create beautiful crafts but I question my own ability on how good my creations actually are, especially if I’m doing something from scratch! Recently, my friend, Kelly, from Girl Upcycled Studio, told me to paint something free-handed, and I cringed. “Go ahead, be creative!” she exclaimed. I immediately became flustered and said that I can stencil, or trace, but free-handed isn’t my style. I’m more of a teacher of how to BE creative when it comes to things like that. I love to paint, design, and arrange, but I doubt my ability sometimes when it comes to trying new things. I think we all do. Sometimes we have to go out of our comfort zone to show ourselves how much we can do when we put our minds to it, even when our passion collides with our skills. My skills do not include free-handed painting, but my passion to create is stronger than my doubt in myself. Believing it can work is half the battle. Believe in yourself. God gave you the ability to shine in many areas. Enjoy your passions and make them work with your skills. Find that balance to keep your life fun and fulfilling!
Tami Loves…finding the balance in everything to make life exciting!
