DAY 6 - Geese a Layin' and Passions

Join hosts Terry Cullums and Amanda Keeper each week , as they bring you topics and guests to help you improve your relationships , your health and your emotional and spiritual well-being .

Well , I want to talk to you about passion today because I truly believe that having a passion in life , that pursuing our passions , provides us with a sense of fulfillment , it gives us energy and excitement and it really does motivate us and challenge us .

And when I was thinking about that earlier this morning , I was thinking about the podcast actually , and I was thinking about how I really had a passion for helping midlife women feel like they weren't going through this time alone .

If you've heard the story about my mom and how I felt like she suffered in silence and I didn't really realize that until I started going through the midlife journey myself . So I became very passionate about how can I help these women .

I took a course for life coaching through the John Maxwell group with my beautiful friend , amanda and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with that . I knew I wanted to help women . I didn't really know exactly how I was going to go about that and then from that the podcast was born .

But it wasn't just about I mean , the big picture was about the podcast and helping women and providing a community for women to feel like they could go to somebody and not have to go through it alone , the steps along the way to learning how to do a podcast , to overcoming all the challenges , to learning the software and learning how to edit and understanding

the platforms and all the many things that go into podcasting . It motivated me and challenged me and I think that's something that we need in midlife . I think , if I use my mom as an example of something that I really the path I really don't want to take myself .

It's kind of settling in in midlife and not fighting the comfort zone and just kind of like sitting in the chair and watching a lot of Lifetime TV and letting her uncomfortableness be the motivating factor to just stay in her apartment and not socialize and not pursue things . So I do believe passions are very important .

I will say that you will hear a lot of people say that passion leads to our purpose and I'm not going to say that doesn't ever happen . I just don't think it happens with every single passion . So if you're already passionate about something and you think well , how can I turn that into my purpose ? How does that become my purpose ?

I don't think they always do . I have several passions that I don't plan to do anything with . Actually , I'm going to be interviewing a woman for the podcast Look at her beautiful cookbook right here . I'm looking forward to my conversation with her .

Her name is Deborah Johnson , and I'm excited for y'all to meet her and learn about her passion and how it led to her writing that cookbook . But I think a lot of people might say , like , how do I find my passion ? Like I don't have any . I don't know how to find them . There are actually quizzes that you can do online .

You can go online and do a quiz . But I think there are some steps that we can do . I'll just give you a few today for you to think about . Put yourself in new situations and keep yourself open to possibilities .

I know for myself I'll speak for myself for a moment as we age and if we don't have knowledge on something , we can be pretty quick to reject it and be fearful of it , and so I'm going to encourage you to explore new interests . Keep your mind open to possibilities .

I'm reminded of a friend who said to me that she didn't know what her passions and purpose were in life . And we were talking about this , about like , what are you interested in ? Is there anything from your childhood that could be revived , that you might be interested in ? And the funny thing was , is it really kind of ?

What happened with her was really just born out of her being really open and getting herself out in her community and volunteering for some things , and it just it was like I saw it like a domino effect , like she got involved with a campaign , a political campaign , and it just kept leading to other new opportunities and it was exciting to watch that for her .

So , keep yourself open . Don't automatically do what I sometimes do . It's like no shut down , like if someone said to me Terry , do you want to go skydiving ? Nope , I wouldn't even have to think about it . I have no desire , and so sometimes I will use , I will take an opportunity and shut it down because of lack of knowledge and fear .

So look at your core values and ask yourself are there passions that can be attached to my values ? So I will use my husband , brian . I talked about him earlier this week in the podcast where I said that he has gotten very passionate about volunteering at this animal shelter .

He has a very strong core value to being generous , not just with money but with his time as well , and he channeled that into helping this pet rescue , this animal rescue .

In fact , he's even gone so far as to getting or at least I think he talked to them about I'm not sure if he was actually successful , I think he was for next year getting it so that where he works they can channel their giving , their yearly giving through the United Way . They can channel it to this animal rescue .

So look at your values and ask yourself if you can use that to develop a passion . And so you might be saying well , what if I put myself out there and I pursue a passion and then I decided I don't like it ? Great , now you know there's one less thing that you have to try , you know .

Then you just crossed off the list and you move on to the next one . I will tell you this passions are often a strong emotional or intellectual connection to a particular pursuit , and with that comes roadblocks , so you may run into roadblocks . As women , we have so many priorities on our plate . We're pulled in different directions . We have obligations .

These will always exist . But if you are , if you feel strongly about putting pursuing passions on your list for 2024 , you're just going to have to schedule it like you would a doctor appointment .

You know , a couple of weeks ago I was going to go on a walk with a friend and there was so many things conflicting with my schedule that I Well , originally we were going to go on Thursday and she also was taking care of some things with her mom , who is elderly and I offered that , you know , hey , let's just push it to tomorrow .

It sounds like tomorrow will work for both of us better . Well , when I woke up that morning I don't know if you ever have this happen , but you're like thinking about your day and you're like , oh my gosh , how am I going to get , how am I going to get all this stuff done today ? And I was really tempted to take myself off the list .

I was really tempted to text her and say you know , gosh , I'm really sorry but I'm going to have to postpone again on you . And I said , no , you know what ? I'm not going to take myself off the list . This is very important to me in developing this new friendship . It's also very important to me to get out and move my body .

So I am going to keep myself on the list and I'm probably just going to ask for help later , when Brian gets home . I'm just going to ask him for help . So you know , schedule it just as you would a doctor appointment . Um , what else do I want to tell you about passions that I believe strongly . I think they wane over time . I don't .

I think we need to give ourselves a little bit of permission to let go of something that's no longer working for us . So what would an example be ? Say that you know you enjoyed playing piano for years and you know you did it . You stopped enjoying it as much and then you did it to please your parents for the longest time .

And now you've just you've invested in this . You know beautiful baby , grand piano and all these lessons and so much of your time , but you just don't have the excitement for it that you used to give yourself permission to let it go . Make room for a new passion . Um , I have had many passions over the years .

If any of my daughters are listening , they would probably laugh , because they can probably , you know , start thinking of things that I've gotten myself involved in and then decided that it just wasn't working for me , it wasn't right for me , it wasn't , it just didn't fit me very well .

In fact , I remember a brief moment in time where I decided that I was going to crochet . I was going to learn to crochet , or was it knit ? It was knitting . Sorry , I know there's a different , I know there's a big difference . So I was going to learn to knit . So I invested in the yarn and the needles and I took some lessons .

And you know , not just money but time as well is a big deal for us , right ? We got to get picky about what we spend our time on and I thought you know what I really want to learn to do this ? Because it was a trend there for a while . Everybody was knitting or crocheting and , um , after , you know , trying to do it for a little , I just wasn't .

I wasn't good at it and I wasn't enjoying the frustration that was coming along with it . So I let it go . I mean , I still have all the stuff . I'm still leaving it as a possibility for the future , when I'm able to sit still for longer periods of time , but for now I've taken that off the list .

So don't be afraid to let go of something that no longer feels like a passion for you . Make room for the new passions in your life . All right , that's all I have for you today on passions . I do have a 12 week course on pursuing your purpose and you know if you're interested in that program , we can go a lot more in depth on the purpose part of it .

But I do want to leave you today with the definition of the six geese lane . So six geese lane can symbolize fertility . Well , I think if you're listening to the podcast in your midlife woman , that's probably off the table for us . But it can also represent new beginnings , which I love , because 2024 is an opportunity for a new beginning .

So just think about the concept of renewal and starting fresh and embracing new opportunities . That is your reflection for today . I'm so glad and thankful that you've joined me . If you found value in today's episode and you're watching this on YouTube , be sure to give it a like button .

Remember to subscribe so that you are notified when future episodes become available . All right , folks , for today , I just wish you a very happy new year . Stay safe out there and I'll talk to you again tomorrow .

Amanda , I don't know if this ever happens to you , but I sometimes will learn something really cool on a podcast , on a YouTube , video , audiobook , whatever . I think I'm going to remember it and then I forget . Does that ever happen to you ?