Be Passionate and Be Good At It

In an interview with Ken Coleman for Ken's book "One Question" John Maxwell says that in order for people to find their niche (aka calling or purpose) in this world they must find out what they are passionate about AND what they are good at doing. To be one or the other is not enough.

If you are passionate about singing but can't carry a tune then you end up on one of those early episodes of American Idol. We all have seen those individuals who sang their little hearts out, hurt our eardrums, and yet were still shocked when they didn't make it to the next round. I too LOVE to sing but I only do so in the shower or with my 8 year old daughter in the car. I don't even make people in church suffer. I simply hum softly. I have a real passion for singing but I know I am not any good at it so you won't see me trying out for the next big singing reality television show.

If you are good at something but not passionate about it you end up being the CEO of a company who makes a great living and has a lot of success but secretly wishes he/she was somewhere else every single day of his/her life. I was pretty good at my job in Human Resources when I worked at the hospital but I spent the vast majority of the day alone in my office staring at spreadsheets and doing computations on the calculator. While I loved my coworkers; I truly disliked the lonely job. To this day I don't like spreadsheets and have a real mental block when it comes to numbers of almost all kinds.

When I graduated from high school and even college I swore up and down I would never work for the family business. I wanted a "real job" where I wore heels and suits and didn't work weekends. What I found out was I didn't love the "real" job, my feet hurt, I missed my jeans, and I still worked some weekends to help my mom and dad out when I could.

In 2004 when my mom wanted to "retire" and my parents asked me to run the retail store I happily agreed. While I still need to improve in many areas of the family business, I think I am fairly good at it and I know I have a passion for it! In fact, when I first started I had so much passion for it I often would tear up when I talked about the history of the store and how far we had come. I still do sometimes but I hide it much better these days.

I have other passions in life...volunteering, writing, reading, gardening, and others...but I use those passions to keep me from being a workaholic. My true passion will always be the family store.

I was reluctant to follow my passion because I thought it should be "bigger" than working in the family business. What I didn't realize at first was my passion was only as big as I wanted it to be. I have big plans for the Pecan Shed in the next decade or so...I just hope I am good enough to see them come to fruition!!!

What are you good at and passionate about? Have you found your niche yet?