AKA Your Jam, Passion, Calling…
For many a reason, people feel disconnected from their calling and spend time “soul searching” to find answers about what it is they should make of their lives. They don’t know what career to follow, what city to set roots in, what hobbies they enjoy, what friends they like to be around, and so on. Relationships, work, and personal state (spiritual, physical, mental/emotional) are complex life components that practically reflect who we are. Most would agree.
Most would also agree that there is a deep issue when these components somehow poorly reflect a person. And there’s much to unpack there.
We are going to walk through various exercises over the course of several posts that bring you beyond the fog and into clarity about your own passions and callings. Because once you are sure about your vision, you can intentionally and strategically make choices that influence your life components: relationships, work, personal development rather than let all the resources God gave you fall wayside.
For the sake of consistency, we will call your jam/your passion a Life Dream.
A Life Dream is a Culmination of
Desire
At its very core, a Life Dream is the sum of all the desires in your heart. Now, sometimes we think we know what we want but we are actually amiss. It’s important to learn the distinction because desires point you in a direction. Desire is what you long to have in your life. We all have them! They are the starting place for motivation which becomes action and then becomes consequence. In essence, a desire orients you toward an object as it prepares you for the journey to receive it (or not).
Example: If you want a new job, you are headed in the direction of job applications, interviews, networking.
Reason
Your reason is your why. This is the motivation piece moving on the foundation of your desires. What motivates you? Hunger motivates you to eat and goosebumps motivate you to put on a jacket. While you may not have an awesome idea of what your future holds and why, you are able to reflect on the choices you make now to discover the motives behind them. Consider what drives you to live the life that you live everyday? Maybe you are comfortable where you are or maybe you constantly seek new experience. These reasons highlight the values you hold in life.
Start paying attention to the little reasons and work your way up.
Expansive Ideas
We know we are passionate about our passions because we give our effort, time, and attention to this area in our life. Imagine a gardener passionate about roses, she grows roses so much that she’s knowledgeable about various varieties and the living conditions they prefer. When you pay attention to these inner desires and motives, you expand your mind by learning more about the things you care about.
What do you spend a lot of time expanding your knowledge on? It could be makeup and the more you explore, your interest is piqued by makeup for people with skin conditions. Because you are actively thinking and motivated about a particular subject, you will experience multiple spontaneous lightbulb moments about it over an extended period of time. When both your conscious and subconscious mind are working out a new idea, chances are you care deeply about this thing.
Action
Once your desires have strong reasons and have been percolating in your thoughts for awhile, you can start to see a vision for your Life Dream. This vision requires many different parts in order to appear clear and once your passion has taken on a clear view, a path is available. I am not saying a direct path in your life will open up as circumstances suddenly change. I am saying that you are walking a path and whether you know it or not, the movements you make are connected to what you want in your heart! The movements you make everyday reveal patterns, themes and deep motivations that connect you to life.
The choices you make and the movements you take ultimately reveal what lays deep inside your desires and passions.
Map (or a vision)
These two definitions of vision are different in key areas and that’s what is so interesting about this aspect of the Dream definition.
1. a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality
2. the ability to see
Vision means you have an ability to see a mental concept even if there is no concrete form of it in reality. A map is a visual of the bigger picture! It consists of the big goals and the small details as they come together to form an image (or representation) of your desires, motives and big ideas. You might have a mental image of the life you want to live that doesn’t match up with the reality of your life right now. And that’s okay because if you have the ability to see the big picture, you can scan it like a map for opportunities that connect to your life right now. Don’t toss your Life Dream away as a far away fantasy. Look at it thoroughly for possibility.
For example: you may dream of founding a gym for adaptive athletes but don’t have the means to start one. You clearly see that your vision requires other people to be apart of the organization so you may think of the people in your life now that you could either coach or exercise with.
If you have the ability to see the big picture, you can scan it like a map for opportunities that connect to your life right now.
What A Life Dream is NOT
Life Dreams are not unrealistic fantasies.
They are not the could’ve-should’ve-would’ves.
Life Dreams are not wasted potential.
They are not what you need so life magically becomes perfect.
They are not fancy material solutions to your problems.
They are not pointless daydreams and hopes.
Discovering our deepest desires and realizing that we are typically moving toward what we want can be a confusing process, especially when you are shocked to see the difference between your heart and your patterns. However, once you know what you’re passionate about, you can make plans to fulfill your Life Dream.
Desire – Direction Set
Reason – Why
Expansion – New Ideas
Vision – Big Picture + Opportunity
Movement – Action Revealed
With love,
Mama X
the Hopemade Woman 
❤
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Thanks for sharing, I hope this finds somebody well 😊
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