There are a lot of things about being an adult that no one ever told me and I had to discover on my own.
1) Lawn mowers are expensive. Buy the cheapest one and get the two year replacement insurance on it.
2) Grocery shopping/meal prep for 1-2 people is much harder than grocery shopping/meal prep for 6-8 people.
3) You need a credit card to create a credit score to successfully live as an adult.
4) You don't need a credit card or a credit score to successfully live as an adult.
5) Kale tastes bad. No matter how hard you try to like kale, it will still taste bad.
There are plenty more, but they aren't the point of this post.
The thing no one ever tells you about being a real grown up is: Finding a passion, a purpose, and a way to make enough money to be stable doing anything related to those things is really hard.
For the most part, all of us have taken some sort of career/personality test. Whether it was in high school/college or based on your favorite cheese via Facebook, we have taken them. We have learned that preferring water over sports drinks makes us more likely to be a nurse. We have learned that if we like working with people, we should work with people; if we do not like working with people, we should not work with people. On personality tests we learn whether we would excel in leadership or follower positions; we learn whether our ability to make decisions puts us in the supreme court or the food court. For the most part, we all take these tests, and we were all told one thing or another about what our "career" should be... or at least where we might be potentially successful.
There is not anything wrong with taking these tests or looking at their results to see if there really is something on the list that we might be interested in. What I've noticed is that there is no one asks you: What are you passionate about? Or what do you think your purpose is? What I've noticed even more is no one helps you figure this out. There aren't very many books, articles, sermons, etc on figuring out what God's purpose for your life is, or how to discover the passions God gave you. (If you know of some, please recommend them to me.) It is just kind of assumed that you'll figure it out. What is (potentially) even more interesting is that if you are one of the lucky/blessed/whatever ones who does figure out your purpose and your passions, no one tells you how to use those things together.
Example: You discover that you are really passionate about music. You love to listen to music. You love to play music. You love to share music with others. Music is your passion. The Bible tells us that our purpose as Christians is to share the Gospel with others, to love others like Christ loved, and to be examples of that in our daily lives. Okay, so it should be easy to combine music with sharing the Gospel and loving like Christ, right? Except it isn't, because it is relatively rare that that will actually be able to pay all the bills you have doing those things. I know many people who are musicians, who love the Lord, and who make enough money to support themselves, but it is actually pretty rare. Think about it. The story goes one of two ways (normally): Starving Artist or Celebrity Artist. There really isn't an in between. I don't want to be famous (that is a lot of extra, unnecessary stress I don't need), and starving doesn't sound like much fun.
Three things:
1) This is not just an artist/creative thing, but this is part of my perspective.
2) If you are one of the few who does get to pursue their passions and purpose, and you are still able pay your bills: teach me your ways, and be grateful every day.
3) I work hard at whatever it is that I am doing. Whether it is babysitting, designing fliers, building igloos, or tutoring 7th grade kids, I work super hard at it. It is how I was raised. I get that finding a passion, connecting it with my purpose, and making enough money to support my family is not an easy thing. I don't expect it to be, and I don't want it to be.
Here is the thing: I have no idea how to figure out what I'm passionate about. I know my purpose is to serve God in everything that I do, but I don't know how He wants me to do that. I have no idea how to pay bills with tiny salaries.
Here are my questions:
1) How did you discover your passions? (Whatever passion that is: consulting, teaching, cleaning, interpretive dance)
2) How did you connect your passions with your purpose?
3) How did you take those things and turn them into something that was financially stable?
Post written: 67% on hormones; 33% on curiosity.
1) Lawn mowers are expensive. Buy the cheapest one and get the two year replacement insurance on it.
2) Grocery shopping/meal prep for 1-2 people is much harder than grocery shopping/meal prep for 6-8 people.
3) You need a credit card to create a credit score to successfully live as an adult.
4) You don't need a credit card or a credit score to successfully live as an adult.
5) Kale tastes bad. No matter how hard you try to like kale, it will still taste bad.
There are plenty more, but they aren't the point of this post.
The thing no one ever tells you about being a real grown up is: Finding a passion, a purpose, and a way to make enough money to be stable doing anything related to those things is really hard.
For the most part, all of us have taken some sort of career/personality test. Whether it was in high school/college or based on your favorite cheese via Facebook, we have taken them. We have learned that preferring water over sports drinks makes us more likely to be a nurse. We have learned that if we like working with people, we should work with people; if we do not like working with people, we should not work with people. On personality tests we learn whether we would excel in leadership or follower positions; we learn whether our ability to make decisions puts us in the supreme court or the food court. For the most part, we all take these tests, and we were all told one thing or another about what our "career" should be... or at least where we might be potentially successful.
There is not anything wrong with taking these tests or looking at their results to see if there really is something on the list that we might be interested in. What I've noticed is that there is no one asks you: What are you passionate about? Or what do you think your purpose is? What I've noticed even more is no one helps you figure this out. There aren't very many books, articles, sermons, etc on figuring out what God's purpose for your life is, or how to discover the passions God gave you. (If you know of some, please recommend them to me.) It is just kind of assumed that you'll figure it out. What is (potentially) even more interesting is that if you are one of the lucky/blessed/whatever ones who does figure out your purpose and your passions, no one tells you how to use those things together.
Example: You discover that you are really passionate about music. You love to listen to music. You love to play music. You love to share music with others. Music is your passion. The Bible tells us that our purpose as Christians is to share the Gospel with others, to love others like Christ loved, and to be examples of that in our daily lives. Okay, so it should be easy to combine music with sharing the Gospel and loving like Christ, right? Except it isn't, because it is relatively rare that that will actually be able to pay all the bills you have doing those things. I know many people who are musicians, who love the Lord, and who make enough money to support themselves, but it is actually pretty rare. Think about it. The story goes one of two ways (normally): Starving Artist or Celebrity Artist. There really isn't an in between. I don't want to be famous (that is a lot of extra, unnecessary stress I don't need), and starving doesn't sound like much fun.
Three things:
1) This is not just an artist/creative thing, but this is part of my perspective.
2) If you are one of the few who does get to pursue their passions and purpose, and you are still able pay your bills: teach me your ways, and be grateful every day.
3) I work hard at whatever it is that I am doing. Whether it is babysitting, designing fliers, building igloos, or tutoring 7th grade kids, I work super hard at it. It is how I was raised. I get that finding a passion, connecting it with my purpose, and making enough money to support my family is not an easy thing. I don't expect it to be, and I don't want it to be.
Here is the thing: I have no idea how to figure out what I'm passionate about. I know my purpose is to serve God in everything that I do, but I don't know how He wants me to do that. I have no idea how to pay bills with tiny salaries.
Here are my questions:
1) How did you discover your passions? (Whatever passion that is: consulting, teaching, cleaning, interpretive dance)
2) How did you connect your passions with your purpose?
3) How did you take those things and turn them into something that was financially stable?
Post written: 67% on hormones; 33% on curiosity.