In this episode, host Terri Kellums discusses the importance of passion in life and how it can provide fulfillment, energy, and motivation. She shares her journey of finding her passion for helping midlife women and creating a podcast community. Terri emphasizes that not all passions lead to a purpose and suggests exploring new interests and keeping an open mind to discover passions. She also highlights the importance of aligning passions with core values and overcoming roadblocks to pursue them. Terri encourages listeners to let go of passions that no longer serve them and make room for new ones. The episode concludes with a reflection on new beginnings and a wish for a happy new year.
Takeaways
Passions provide a sense of fulfillment, energy, and motivation in life.
Not all passions lead to a purpose, and it's okay to have passions without turning them into a career or purpose.
Explore new interests, keep an open mind, and put yourself in new situations to discover passions.
Align passions with core values to create a meaningful connection.
Overcome roadblocks and prioritize passions by scheduling them like important appointments.
Let go of passions that no longer bring joy or fulfillment to make room for new ones.
Embrace new beginnings and opportunities for personal growth.
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Speaker 1:
You're listening to the what Women Want Today podcast. If you love the idea of being part of a community of women who are looking to thrive, not just survive, you're in the right place. Join hosts Terry Cullums and Amanda Keeper each week, as they bring you topics and guests to help you improve your relationships, your health and your emotional and spiritual well-being.
Speaker 2:
Hello and welcome to today's episode of the what Women Want Today podcast. I'm your host, terry Cullums. Today is day six of our 12 Days of Christmas series and today we're talking about passion. Well, I want to talk to you about passion today because I truly believe that having a passion in life, that pursuing our passions, provides us with a sense of fulfillment, it gives us energy and excitement and it really does motivate us and challenge us.
Speaker 2:
And when I was thinking about that earlier this morning, I was thinking about the podcast actually, and I was thinking about how I really had a passion for helping midlife women feel like they weren't going through this time alone. If you've heard the story about my mom and how I felt like she suffered in silence and I didn't really realize that until I started going through the midlife journey myself. So I became very passionate about how can I help these women. I took a course for life coaching through the John Maxwell group with my beautiful friend, amanda and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with that. I knew I wanted to help women. I didn't really know exactly how I was going to go about that and then from that the podcast was born. But it wasn't just about I mean, the big picture was about the podcast and helping women and providing a community for women to feel like they could go to somebody and not have to go through it alone, the steps along the way to learning how to do a podcast, to overcoming all the challenges, to learning the software and learning how to edit and understanding the platforms and all the many things that go into podcasting. It motivated me and challenged me and I think that's something that we need in midlife. I think, if I use my mom as an example of something that I really the path I really don't want to take myself. It's kind of settling in in midlife and not fighting the comfort zone and just kind of like sitting in the chair and watching a lot of Lifetime TV and letting her uncomfortableness be the motivating factor to just stay in her apartment and not socialize and not pursue things. So I do believe passions are very important.
Speaker 2:
I will say that you will hear a lot of people say that passion leads to our purpose and I'm not going to say that doesn't ever happen. I just don't think it happens with every single passion. So if you're already passionate about something and you think well, how can I turn that into my purpose? How does that become my purpose? I don't think they always do. I have several passions that I don't plan to do anything with. Actually, I'm going to be interviewing a woman for the podcast Look at her beautiful cookbook right here. I'm looking forward to my conversation with her. Her name is Deborah Johnson, and I'm excited for y'all to meet her and learn about her passion and how it led to her writing that cookbook.
Speaker 2:
But I think a lot of people might say, like, how do I find my passion? Like I don't have any. I don't know how to find them. There are actually quizzes that you can do online. You can go online and do a quiz.
Speaker 2:
But I think there are some steps that we can do. I'll just give you a few today for you to think about. Put yourself in new situations and keep yourself open to possibilities. I know for myself I'll speak for myself for a moment as we age and if we don't have knowledge on something, we can be pretty quick to reject it and be fearful of it, and so I'm going to encourage you to explore new interests. Keep your mind open to possibilities.
Speaker 2:
I'm reminded of a friend who said to me that she didn't know what her passions and purpose were in life. And we were talking about this, about like, what are you interested in? Is there anything from your childhood that could be revived, that you might be interested in? And the funny thing was, is it really kind of? What happened with her was really just born out of her being really open and getting herself out in her community and volunteering for some things, and it just it was like I saw it like a domino effect, like she got involved with a campaign, a political campaign, and it just kept leading to other new opportunities and it was exciting to watch that for her. So, keep yourself open.
Speaker 2:
Don't automatically do what I sometimes do. It's like no shut down, like if someone said to me Terry, do you want to go skydiving? Nope, I wouldn't even have to think about it. I have no desire, and so sometimes I will use, I will take an opportunity and shut it down because of lack of knowledge and fear. So look at your core values and ask yourself are there passions that can be attached to my values? So I will use my husband, brian. I talked about him earlier this week in the podcast where I said that he has gotten very passionate about volunteering at this animal shelter. He has a very strong core value to being generous, not just with money but with his time as well, and he channeled that into helping this pet rescue, this animal rescue. In fact, he's even gone so far as to getting or at least I think he talked to them about I'm not sure if he was actually successful, I think he was for next year getting it so that where he works they can channel their giving, their yearly giving through the United Way. They can channel it to this animal rescue.
Speaker 2:
So look at your values and ask yourself if you can use that to develop a passion. And so you might be saying well, what if I put myself out there and I pursue a passion and then I decided I don't like it? Great, now you know there's one less thing that you have to try, you know. Then you just crossed off the list and you move on to the next one. I will tell you this passions are often a strong emotional or intellectual connection to a particular pursuit, and with that comes roadblocks, so you may run into roadblocks. As women, we have so many priorities on our plate. We're pulled in different directions. We have obligations. These will always exist.
Speaker 2:
But if you are, if you feel strongly about putting pursuing passions on your list for 2024, you're just going to have to schedule it like you would a doctor appointment. You know, a couple of weeks ago I was going to go on a walk with a friend and there was so many things conflicting with my schedule that I Well, originally we were going to go on Thursday and she also was taking care of some things with her mom, who is elderly and I offered that, you know, hey, let's just push it to tomorrow. It sounds like tomorrow will work for both of us better. Well, when I woke up that morning I don't know if you ever have this happen, but you're like thinking about your day and you're like, oh my gosh, how am I going to get, how am I going to get all this stuff done today? And I was really tempted to take myself off the list. I was really tempted to text her and say you know, gosh, I'm really sorry but I'm going to have to postpone again on you. And I said, no, you know what? I'm not going to take myself off the list. This is very important to me in developing this new friendship. It's also very important to me to get out and move my body. So I am going to keep myself on the list and I'm probably just going to ask for help later, when Brian gets home. I'm just going to ask him for help. So you know, schedule it just as you would a doctor appointment.
Speaker 2:
Um, what else do I want to tell you about passions that I believe strongly. I think they wane over time. I don't. I think we need to give ourselves a little bit of permission to let go of something that's no longer working for us. So what would an example be? Say that you know you enjoyed playing piano for years and you know you did it. You stopped enjoying it as much and then you did it to please your parents for the longest time. And now you've just you've invested in this. You know beautiful baby, grand piano and all these lessons and so much of your time, but you just don't have the excitement for it that you used to give yourself permission to let it go. Make room for a new passion.
Speaker 2:
Um, I have had many passions over the years. If any of my daughters are listening, they would probably laugh, because they can probably, you know, start thinking of things that I've gotten myself involved in and then decided that it just wasn't working for me, it wasn't right for me, it wasn't, it just didn't fit me very well. In fact, I remember a brief moment in time where I decided that I was going to crochet. I was going to learn to crochet, or was it knit? It was knitting. Sorry, I know there's a different, I know there's a big difference. So I was going to learn to knit. So I invested in the yarn and the needles and I took some lessons.
Speaker 2:
And you know, not just money but time as well is a big deal for us, right? We got to get picky about what we spend our time on and I thought you know what I really want to learn to do this? Because it was a trend there for a while. Everybody was knitting or crocheting and, um, after, you know, trying to do it for a little, I just wasn't. I wasn't good at it and I wasn't enjoying the frustration that was coming along with it. So I let it go. I mean, I still have all the stuff. I'm still leaving it as a possibility for the future, when I'm able to sit still for longer periods of time, but for now I've taken that off the list.
Speaker 2:
So don't be afraid to let go of something that no longer feels like a passion for you. Make room for the new passions in your life. All right, that's all I have for you today on passions. I do have a 12 week course on pursuing your purpose and you know if you're interested in that program, we can go a lot more in depth on the purpose part of it.
Speaker 2:
But I do want to leave you today with the definition of the six geese lane. So six geese lane can symbolize fertility. Well, I think if you're listening to the podcast in your midlife woman, that's probably off the table for us. But it can also represent new beginnings, which I love, because 2024 is an opportunity for a new beginning. So just think about the concept of renewal and starting fresh and embracing new opportunities. That is your reflection for today. I'm so glad and thankful that you've joined me. If you found value in today's episode and you're watching this on YouTube, be sure to give it a like button. Remember to subscribe so that you are notified when future episodes become available. All right, folks, for today, I just wish you a very happy new year. Stay safe out there and I'll talk to you again tomorrow. Amanda, I don't know if this ever happens to you, but I sometimes will learn something really cool on a podcast, on a YouTube, video, audiobook, whatever. I think I'm going to remember it and then I forget. Does that ever happen to you?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I call it brain after 40 all the time.
Speaker 2:
That's what we'll officially call it, but we've come up with something. Do you want to introduce it?
Speaker 3:
Sure, Okay, it's from an app called Quick Jim Quick, and it's an acronym called FAST.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and the F stands for Facebook. So we're inviting you officially right now to come over and join us on Facebook. Get involved with the community, share your favorite episodes with your friends on Facebook.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, the A is go ahead and take an action, so you can't remember anything if you don't act.
Speaker 2:
And S is for subscribe. Make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel.
Speaker 3:
And then T is teach what you've learned to somebody else. Share the love.
Speaker 2:
All right, we hope that works for you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next week.