My good friend Jill and I just had an amazing conversation about what it is to be a contribution in life. Most of the time, I think many of us, including myself, relate to contribution something like this: I figure out what I have to contribute — money, time, insights, skills or some such thing — and then I “contribute” it and hope that people like and value it.
Even if it’s just offering what I think might be an insight about this, that, or the other, I hope in some way that it’s valued and appreciated. What we offer could be anything …. contributing time to church or a charity, picking up the kids from school, lots of stuff.
Whatever it is, I know that I want to feel that my contribution is appreciated. And if it’s not… then at some point, I quit “contributing” to that person or that group. For sure there have been times when my contribution is not appreciated, and it’s been very upsetting. I feel like I really, really tried to help and somehow it just wasn’t appreciated and now I’m resentful that I wasted my time. This has probably been as much of an Achilles heel for me as anything else I can think of.
So Jill shared her latest insight with me, and she said she recently saw that the best form of contribution is to identify what you do that brings you joy and then do it. Really choosing what you want to contribute is where the real contribution lies. Just because you are an accountant does not mean that you have to do your charity’s books as your contribution.
The question is what would bring you joy? What would you enjoy contributing? If you look at contribution from that point, even if no one else appreciates it, you got to enjoy doing it! Even further, by doing what you enjoy, you contribute that joy, versus doing something that you have a bad attitude about.
So my friend and I continue to inquire into this whole thing. And as often happens, our insights build on each other in this spectacular, organic way. In the end, one of the insights I got for myself is this. I have known for a long time that I enjoy writing philosophical kinds of things, ponderances you can bring into your every day life. In fact, every morning when I wake up lately, I’ve had a thought about something that I think “Wow, that would be great to write on my website!” And I think about the point I want to make. And then I forget about it and get to work doing my daily business.
In talking to her, we pondered this question, “I say that I would love to doing all this writing and that I’m passionate about it, but yet I don’t do it. So does that mean I’m really not passionate about it? Or does it mean that something is in the way of me expressing that passion?”
As we discussed it, I realized that part of what’s in the way is that I do, in fact, still need to make a living. And part of the reason I was not doing this is because this site is more of a passion project — it’s not how I make my living. However, I could feel inside of me that I had a deep desire to begin to write… to get the thoughts out of my head and onto the page.
And it finally registered with me exactly what I’ve told many of the clients I’ve worked with over the years. If you are really passionate about something, you need to do it even if you’re not getting paid for it. When it hit me that I could just write for the joy that it gives me and for the possible contribution that something I write might contribute to someone else, then it freed me up and I sat down to write.
Jill then brought up the superstar celebrities of our culture. Many of the most famous musicians, actors, filmmakers were doing their craft for no pay at all, long before they made any money. We are attracted to that passion — that passion is one of the components of the X-factor that makes so many people fall in love with them.
It brought to mind something I heard superstar screenwriter Shane Black (“Ironman 3”) say a couple of weeks ago at the Great American Pitchfest. He was talking about the group of guys that he came up with in Hollywood. He said they were constantly writing and exchanging pages to review with each other. They were constantly out making little films. They were so passionate about it that it was very exciting. In fact, he told the audience of aspiring screenwriters, “I wish I were in your shoes right now.” And he was referring to that passion that is part of being new and fresh at something.
Shane Black gets hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for his screenplays now… and he says he wishes he had the passion of back then.
I think it’s safe to say that most of us agree that the best of all worlds is having the passion and the money. But how the money comes is a different part of the conversation, and I’ll write about that in another post. It’s the passion that I’m talking about right now.
Honoring your passion is something that can be addressed immediately. You can start doing it today if you want to express more passion in your life.
I am very happy to have written this first post on a site that has been sitting here for a while. A site that I have wanted to start writing on. This is a new beginning for me. I hope you join me for this ride as I begin to fill the pages here.
I’m a bit worried that I’ll drop the ball, but so what. I’ve taken this step, and I plan to take the next one and the next one. That’s all I am going to concern myself with regarding that fear.
Meanwhile, I ask you:
What is your passion?
Where can you begin to express it today?
In signing off, I say, go out and express a passion that you haven’t been expressing as fully as you would like.
Live Your Great Life … and live it today.