It took me almost 40 long years to get here, but for the first time in my life, I am actively pursuing my passion of becoming a full-time artist. As I have grown older, I have come to realize my mama was right about a few things, including ‘with age comes wisdom’. It’s strange, but as the years have passed, my priorities have shifted. Once, like many others, I cared only about status – having a reputable job, nice car, nice house, and so on – all because I gave a crap about what others thought of me. Although I still fight daily with caring about what others think about me, I am not as bad about it as I used to be. I am fine living in a small apartment (I have a roof over my head), driving an old truck (hey! It gets me there), wearing the same old clothes – as long as I know I am following my passion to the fullest extent and doing daily what I love – being a full-time artist. No, I am not quite there yet, as many of you know, but I am working my booty off every long, tiresome day to get there. It’s tough, I am tired, I get grouchy, stressed, overworked, overwhelmed, fight ole’ ‘Negative Nancys’ and ‘Debbie Downers’ all the time, but I will keep pushing through, actively pursuing my passion.
I am a big quote nerd, and I am constantly referring to quotes to help me get through the long days. I narrowed my extensive quote ‘go-to’ list down, and I would like to share with you guys, as a part of my ‘Favorite Things Series’, just five of my fave ‘pursuing your passion’ quotes. Hopefully, maybe one of these will encourage you to do the same.
1. “One of the things that may get in the way of people…is that they’re not in touch with their passion. If you’re passionate about what it is you do, then you’re going to be looking for everything you can to get better at it.” Jack Canfield
2. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
3. “The people who make it to the top — whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos — are addicted to their calling … [they] are the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid.” — Quincy Jones
4. “Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.” — Johnny Carson
And last but not least, such a simple, profound truth that I have learned to be true…..
5. Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. —
Confucius
And with that last quote, I will continue laboring and working until the glorious day I am able to fully do art everyday, all day.
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