Rediscover Your Passion

Finding your passion may not be as big of a quest as it seems. For many people it’s discovered in childhood…what happens to it from there is another story.

As we begin Larry King’s My Remarkable Journey, we learn that Larry’s passion for radio broadcasting developed at age nine after his father’s unexpected death left his family living on government-funded Relief and struggling to survive. Between The Depression, the war and growing up in poverty, Larry faced some dark years early on, but listening to the radio was where he found solace.

Considering that Larry is often remembered imitating the radio broadcasters he listened to, it’s not all that surprising that his own career began as a Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s. Being on the radio, he’d discovered at an early age, was what he wanted to be when he grew up.

Larry’s story makes me think of all the people out there who are struggling find their passion. But what if it was discovered long ago?

When I was younger I could usually be found with a book in hand, whether it was one that I was reading or one that I was writing. As a child, I loved reading so much that I once spent an entire summer reading a book a day. And I remember constantly trying to cajole my friends into collaborating on writing a book with me (which usually didn’t end well because of…differing creative visions).

I was such a die-hard book worm that I even got grounded from reading once. (Now, in case you’re wondering what kind of parents ground their child from reading, of all things, I should tell you that I did sneak my Nancy Drew book into a restaurant menu after I was explicitly told that I was not allowed to read at the dinner table.)

Given this obvious passion of mine, why then did I go to college and earn a degree in something completely unrelated? Like many people, I suppose, pursuing my passion simply didn’t seem realistic.

Sadly, the first few years of my career left little time for reading and no time for writing. I was busy trying to adapt to “the real world” and in the process, I abandoned a huge piece of myself. In recent years, incorporating those passions back into my life has been an important step in reclaiming my happiness and feeling more fulfilled.

I suspect there are many people out there who have had similar experiences, which is why there seems to be this big movement around discovering one’s passion. But maybe your passion doesn’t need to be discovered, perhaps it needs to be re-discovered.

Conversation starter: What was your childhood passion? Does it still have a place in your life today?