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    PassionKey Newsletter

August, 2003 -- "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." - Carl Jung -- Pen, Paper, Passion! Journaling your way to the path that's right for you Your passion pursuit (that is to say, your career) is a never-ending stream of choices and decisions. Which way do I go? What's the right thing to do? How could I make that happen? It can feel pretty overwhelming at times. One excellent tool for taming that sea of questions is journaling. Don George, Global Travel Editor at Lonely Planet, knows that better than most. Over the years, his choices have led him to a career that many only dream of, but those choices haven't always been the "logical" ones. He attributes much of the credit for his ability to make the right decisions to journaling. An avid journaler since high school, he describes it as a way to listen to that "core inner voice." Years ago, while living in Japan, Don was the host of a national TV talk show with ten million viewers. He was well- known and making good money, but he opted to leave that behind, returning to the US as a complete unknown to launch a writing career. Leaving fame and fortune for uncertainty didn't seem the most logical step, but it felt right - and in the end it *was* right. Faced with a transition, Don says, "I just sit with myself and listen. The voice is almost like a compass, and as long as the compass needle is pointing in the right direction I feel, OK, I'm fine." Journaling is a way to let him think externally. "When I see it in words," he says, "when I shape it in words, it really does give it more focus and clarity. I can let the different parts of me speak, and by the end of that somehow I figure out, well, this is it. This is the way I want to go." For some people (like Don), journaling is as natural as breathing. Others (like me) know the value of journaling but just can't bring themselves to do it. Often, it's a case of not knowing what to write. I've learned a simple trick that gets me past that roadblock. Rather than looking at my journal as some amorphous exploration of all things, I approach it with specific questions. If there is something I'm trying to work through, I ask it in my journal, and proceed to think through the answer in writing. You have the answers to a lot more of your questions than you might realize. The key is stopping to listen. Why not give it a try? Make a list of questions that you have, pick one, and answer it on paper. You may be surprised how useful and easy it can be. -- Try this! So many of our ideas, insights, and inspirations get lost because we have them when we are out and about, away from a place to record them. I often encourage people to use a Daydream Catcher. This is a small notebook (I use a small one that slips comfortably into my back pocket) that you can take with you anywhere. Carry it at all times, or maybe just keep it in the car to capture the results of those rush-hour musings. The key is to catch those daydreams before they disappear. You never know what might be an important piece of the puzzle. -- Ask the Passion Catalyst! Q: What if I identify my passion, but I can't do it? Then I'll be stuck with no dream! A: There is a common misconception when thinking about passion in our careers that there is one option out there, and if we miss the boat on that, we're out of luck. The reality is, there are dozens of juicy possibilities out there for each person. When you get out of the "what" mentality, and start taking an in-depth look at the underlying pieces (i.e., not what you love doing, but why you love doing it), it opens up an endless array of possibilities. Think of it as an erector set for a career that lights your fire. When you identify the building blocks, you can put them together in all sorts of ways. And there are conceivably an endless number of possibilities that would incorporate those elements in different ways. In my work with clients, the idea of peeling back the layers of the onion to identify the "why" is a central piece of helping them build their Passion Core (think of it as an internal compass). Once they have that, they can start using it to help them start brainstorming new ideas for potential career paths.