Passion

image copyright Steve G Jones 2008

PASSION: What is your passion? No, I'm not talking about that. What would you pay to do? What would get you up at 5am even on a weekend? I ask because this has been a week of questioning motivation, confidence, satisfaction at work and a week where one person close to me was forced to question precisely what his passion is. Of course, we've all been there at one or another. Learning as many languages as possible in just 1 year sounds like a mad idea and it is. I knew the risks. I knew I might have so much information in my head that I might crack and lose my marbles. I knew I might fail. Not only that, I knew I might fail in dramatic, spectacular fashion: learning just one or two languages up to a conversational level and barely improving my French.

I knew the risks. I saw the drop from my position high on the cliff...but I still jumped. Even if you fall you were, for a brief, wonderful second, soaring like an eagle.

I'm a stubborn person. Most people are sensible when it comes to starting out as a freelance journalist: they get a staff job, work their way up, network and make contacts they can use to help their careers advance once they take the plunge into freelancing. What did I do? I just decided to set myself up as a freelance journalist. Published in national magazines, a former local newspaper columnist and a piece on BBC Online means I haven't done too badly for myself so far but what was it that made me see all the risks but still jump in? I saw the risks. I have my moments but I am a sensible, methodical, cautious person to the point of OCD: if I tell you the door is locked, it's locked because I've checked it 17 times in half an hour. So why did I throw caution to the wind? Why did I "just do it anyway"?

Well, I'll tell you: the risks were big but not as big as the rewards and the feeling I would get if I succeeded. The opportunities and rewards were worth rolling the dice. The way they drive around where I live, I could be run down the moment I step outside my front door. But I still go outside. I am not advocating senseless disregarding of risks and I urge people to take proper safety precautions and evaluate risks when they present themselves.

Back in 1997, my life fell apart. Everything went wrong and everything collapsed around me. I thought there was nothing left and I thought nothing good would come from my life. But that wasn't the end of the story and, no matter how bad things get, the story will go on and there will be other chapters. There will be good times, there will be laughter, there will be new places, new people, new loves. Whether your run from a challenge or stand and fight, there will be another day and these difficulties which so dominate your life right now will become memories from the past and lose their power to harm you.

So, with that in my mind, why not learn a new language? Why not roll the dice? Failure and feedback are so close together that one can be mistaken for the other. Even if you don't get the desired result, what you do get might be even better. Fortune favours the brave. Be prepared. Be prepared to jump (just to be clear, I'm talking metaphorically here) and be prepared to fall.