How do I know what I am passionate about?

My boss during some appraisal cycle mentioned to me that "Purwa, you don't know what you don't know!" That really put me to a thought and started to question myself on "What am I really passionate about?"

These are the questions I asked myself.

1) What are you good at?
Unless you’re just starting out in life, you already have some skills or talent, shown some kind of aptitude. Even if you are just starting out, you might have shown some talent when you were young. Have you been good at ideas, connecting people, gardening, selling? Give this some thought. I took 30 minutes going over this question. Also, there could be a situation that the list is long. Pen it down on paper.

2) What excites you?
Is it something at job? Is it something outside job? Is it something with your family, with your kids? What excites you the most? Check the items listed question 1 against this.

3) What do I read about?
I found question 2 a little difficult to answer. So thought to ask myself, if I am excited about something, I will go out of my way and give time. Is it something that I read about a lot.

4) What have you secretly dreamed about?
You might have some ridiculous dream job you’ve always wanted to do — to be a novelist, an artist, a designer, an architect, a doctor, an entrepreneur, a programmer. But some fear, some self-doubt, has held you back, has led you to dismiss this idea. Maybe there are several. Add them to the list — no matter how unrealistic.

5. Learn, ask, take notes.
From the list obtained, pick one thing from the list that excites you most. This is your first candidate. Now read up on it, talk to people who’ve been successful in the field. Make a list of notes of things you need to learn, need to improve on, skills you want to master, people to talk to. Study up on it, but don’t make yourself wait too long before diving into the next step.

6. Experiment, try and banish your fears
Here’s where the learning really takes place. If you haven’t been already, start to do the thing you’ve chosen. Maybe you already are, in which case you might be able to skip to the next step or choose a second candidate to try out. But if you haven’t been, start now — just do it. This is the biggest obstacle for most people – self-doubt and fear of failure. You’re going to face it and banish it. First, acknowledge it rather than ignoring or denying it. Second, write it down, to externalize it. Third, feel it, and be OK with having it. Fourth, ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

7. Find the time
Don’t have the time to pursue this passion? Make the time, dammit! If this is a priority, you’ll make the time — rearrange your life until you have the time. This might mean waking earlier, or doing it after work or during lunch, or on weekends. It will probably mean canceling some commitments, etc. Do what it take.

8. Make it your living
This doesn’t happen overnight. When you get to the point where someone would pay you for it, then you’re golden — there are many ways to make a living at that point, including doing freelance or consulting work, making information products such as ebooks, writing a blog, selling advertising, etc

All of this made me realize that it needs a lot of self-reflection, then the courage and learning and experimentation, and finally a lot of commitment.

Dreams

Dream Big and Achieve big. This is my motto. Everything begins with a dream. Every great achievement was once a dream. If you can dream it then you can achieve it. Follow your intuition and in turn success will follow you.

I still remember my HR professor in college who told us to draw up our vision board. We did laugh a lot that time and felt it weird but I guess how it helped me was to put my dreams into a concrete form! This is what he told us to do:

1) Collect all those old magazines
2) Find the glue and scissors and painting material
3) Big chart paper
4) Make a collage of what are your dreams

My Vision Board today is 12 months old already. I still use it when I need to, without fail. It can be a long time before you reach ALL of your goals as some are very long term and some are short term.

But the true fact is, it makes to meet your dreams everyday!

Happy Birthday Siya - 5 years

Dear Siya,
It is been a wonderful experience from 6th April, 2005 to 6th April, 2010. These five years, I have truly understood that it is the baby that gives birth to a mom! There are no words that I can write here that would be able to express what you are to us, but I still feel like just writing them anyways (we want you to read once you grow up). From the day we knew that I was expecting, we realized that God had chosen us as your family. From then, we have been talking about you all the time. In spite of the fact that neither mom nor dad are around through the day, you are a part of us wherever we go. I am proud to be known as Siya's mom more than Purwa Jain herself.
I still remember 6th April, 2005. Your mom has always been afraid of doctors, medicines and hospitals. When I was told that day, I will be undergoing a surgery, for the first time, I was not scared but decided to fight back to get you in this world! After seeing you, I was peaceful and calm. I stopped worrying about me and just was overwhelmed with joy.
By 6th April, 2006, you had learned by then to talk, walk, laugh, play and not to forget fall :-). You had achieved all your milestones well and much before time. I would just enjoy seeing you for hours and hours and learn from you. The energy, the enthusiasm, the curiosity to know everything around has always been a inspiration for me.
By 6th April, 2007, you grew up to a complete sporty girl. You started to recognize those flash cards and words and pretty much knew almost 300 patterns! Remarkable right! You will read this someday and feel extremely proud about it. And so is mom today. You also started going to playschool and that is when we realized that you love socializing. While all your friends were crying on the first day, you were pretty ok to be away from your mom for few hours.
By 6th April, 2008, we had to decide your school. You again did pretty well there in your interview and again mom and dad did not have to struggle much for the same. This year I had tried innovative ways to handle your tantrums (bird language, etc). What I liked most about you the most this year (rather what I learned from you) was if you made a mistake, you would accept it. You would come to me and apologize and I would be all geared up again to do something to hear the word "sorry" (mean mommy, i know).
By 6th April, 2009, we mainly tried to focus on your interest area be it dancing, skating, cycling, etc. You started schooling this year and as usual was pretty smooth start. You performed on the stage umpteen number of times this year and also got a good number of certificates and medals. You would just not settle for less than what you were worth and that really put me into thought many a times. I am really not sure if that is right or wrong but I surely know that if you have to learn from your failures too.
By 6th April, 2010, you have grown up as a extremely talkative and a supportive daughter. Getting water when I come back from college or office, making sure I sleep well, making sure you talk to me every afternoon when in office, and many such incidences just get tears to my eyes. You have been so caring and so adorable. You have started to write and read and this is basically your first entry to the world of information. You have shown interest in reading newspapers and books and always is looking forward to outings to Crosswords. All that I would like to tell you on your birthday today is (of course told to me by one of my friends a few days back) your future is decided by choices and not by the chances that you take along the way. Everyone in this world (including us) will have a opinion but the matter of fact is that only you can decide what can make you happy.
And always remember our world revolves around you. We love you, we are very proud of you and we do accept that you are growing up. Just know that you will always be our baby.
Happy Birthday Siya and God Bless!