your heart's passion...

passion is the life blood flowing forth from you to connect to the world...

what is your burning desire...

what keeps you up late into the night without regard to time or space...

what fuels your soul?

You must be able to passionately describe your vision. You must have a fire burning inside you. You must be driven by your dream. I received this question from a former coaching student. The following is the question and my answer...it describes my feeling about passion...

I am a fan ... read you in the The Faux Finisher all the time ... you have the life I should have had ... and hope to have something similar soon ... thank you for your inspiration and your advice ... M

M:

Thank you for your kind words. I pray that your dreams come true soon. You can always start part-time while doing another job. I did!! It takes patience, but is worth it in the end. If you have a passion for painting and believe in your skills, you can do what you love every day...I promise.

To help you do this, I will share a Secret Plan to reorienting your life around your passion. This is actually a session from my Mini Business Workshop. The plan begins with passion and leads to success.

The first step in the plan—starting from the heart and discovering your passion—by identifying your dreams. Start from any other source and you set yourself up for frustration and regret. Fulfillment comes only when the results you seek and the activities you embrace are in accordance with the person you are. You cannot look to reason or judgment for insights into your soul. Who you are is what’s in your heart.

Make A Decision, Make A Commitment

You have probably thought and dreamed about having your own business for years. All too often people convince themselves that you could not succeed. You fail to make the DECISION TO GO FOR IT.

This is the simplest step to take for your future, but many people fail to take it and live their lives with regrets. Just decide that you are going to go for it and make a commitment to make this goal a reality. It’s that simple! Do you know how many great artists are working jobs that they hate, dreaming of something else, but refusing to take this one step? It costs nothing to decide. Commitment is free. You are limiting yourself. Why?

You must be able to passionately describe your vision. You must have a fire burning inside you. You must be driven by your dream.

My second little secret to achieving your goals is writing them down. Take a sheet of paper and write the following - "I must be a decorative painter and I am committed to making this a reality." That is all you need to do now. You have taken the first step toward your dream, you have put it on paper. Now your brain can start working on how to achieve it. I am proud of you.

After you come to terms with your Dream, it is time for reasoning and rationalizing. You must clarify your purpose and define your actions—you need to think. Because the world can often dissuade you from pursuing your passion by presenting roadblocks. You must pursue it with forethought and care. Careful and thoughtful planning can help you define a purpose and set a strategy for following your Dream. This is our Business Plan

Once you have felt you passion and thought it through, it is time to act. Equipped with both your passion and your plan, you will begin to make changes in your life. This is Taking Care of Business.

If you remain true to your passion and follow these steps, you will find the results you seek. And you will also reap rewards you never anticipated because passion can take you to another level of living. It can open worlds and expand horizons. It can bring new awareness and heightened perceptions. It can empower and improve. Your idea of Success may change as you begin to fulfill your potential, but your passion will propel you onward to even greater achievement and happiness.

so what point am i trying to make with this? last night i spoke with one of my mentors. He asked me about my new business model and asked me to describe it. I faltered at first and then went on to describe 2 or 3 business models i am trying to marry... He listened and then said, "Rebecca, you have a track record and an established brand with the Doing What You Love. You have credibility and name recognition, why do you want to change that?"

this was written about me a few years ago:

A master decorative painter, widely-read columnist, popular motivational speaker and instructor, Rebecca E. Parsons has spent over 30 years honing her craft. For the past fifteen years she has been advising, mentoring, and consulting creative entrepreneurs worldwide. Her knowledge of the business and her passion for successful entrepreneurship have made her the industry’s most recognized advocates for business success. Her book “Do What You Love–Love What You Do, The Step–by–Step Guide to Creative Business,” is hailed as the best business guide on the market.

so i am wondering why i have lack of clarity and focus at this time...i need to follow my own advice and teaching...i opened my book this morning searching for the passages about passion and realized i need to sit down and read my own book!!! and do what i have always told students to do -- ACT!!!