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I'm
Suzanne Kelsey, a former college writing and literature teacher,
and now a freelance teacher and writer. I offer seminars on passions
and on how to join in on the Voluntary Simplicity movement. The
following is a short discussion on how connecting with our passion
can lead to a simpler, more balanced, and fulfilling life.
My efforts to balance the work, family, and personal facets of my
life have been influenced by the Voluntary Simplicity movement,
which has gathered momentum in the last twenty years. The call of
the movement is clear: many of us want a simpler, more graceful
approach to balancing our lives.
I have been equally influenced by a growing inner sense that reuniting
with my own passions is also key to a better balance. Finding time
for my passions has provided motivation and energy to simplify my
work and family life.
Because of my firm belief that reconnecting with passions is so
important, I now periodically teach seminars to interested adults
on determining their passions, abilities, and personality styles.
Participants use the information to better align their work and
personal lives with their authentic selves.
I find that, with the help of co-workers, friends, and family, they
readily identify their abilities. Examples of such abilities are
administration, teaching, creative communication, supporting, and
leadership. Participants also easily determine their personality
styles, such as whether they are more introverted or extroverted
and whether they prefer predictable structure or spontaneity.
What continually surprises me, though, is the participants' inability
to articulate their passions. They often struggle to sift through
their daily work, family, and personal responsibilities in order
to uncover their underlying passions. Many have so long operated
in the realm of duty that they have virtually disconnected from
their most fulfilling pursuits.
Once they clear away the debris of duty, people begin to identify
such passions as educating others, researching, "tinkering," being
a part of a team, creating, helping people become financially solvent,
generating ideas, working with the elderly, and many others.
A woman who teaches a similar study told me she had seen businessmen
weep when they realized they were operating completely from outside
the realm of their natural passions and abilities. I too have watched
peoples' lives transform.
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A banker finally admitted he was not the administrator his job needed
him to be and returned to his passion of teaching. A 50-year-old
judge surprised himself by uncovering his desire to write. A student,
after realizing she was gifted in administrative skills, added a
business administration minor to her academic pursuits.
Suzanne
Kelsey |
A
grandmother finally acknowledged that her day job plus her continual
care for beloved grandchildren was overwhelming her because she
had no time for her passion of painting. An insurance salesman more
fully recognized his deep satisfaction in working with foreign college
students through a volunteer outreach program.
Once
adults reconnect with their passions, they are more likely to be
motivated to simplify their work and personal lives, making room
for these pursuits. Connecting with their passions energizes and
rejuvenates them. People also become more aware of the tasks that
sap their energy, and they naturally begin to eliminate or at least
diminish them. They become more time-efficient in all areas of their
lives.
Occasionally, people decide to resign jobs if there are no outlets
for the identified passions and abilities. More often, people restructure
their jobs by reprioritizing to make more room for their passions
on the job.
If their passions are not work-related, people previously unhappy
in their jobs sometimes begin to perceive their jobs differently.
They may begin to see their jobs as important income sources for
the pursuit of their avocations. Their work-for-pay becomes only
one of several important roles they play. This identity shift--from
a live-to-work to a work-to-live orientation--can carry tremendous
freedom.
Working through our passions and abilities helps strip the illusion
that we're supposed to be everything to everyone, and instead, helps
us simply stay true to ourselves. Our passions and abilities can
serve as the compass for taking on what fits and discarding what
doesn't. We can begin to live authentically, without facades, peeling
away layers of pretending and layers of tasks, which drain us of
time and energy.
This compass helps us naturally simplify our lives, both at work
and at home; helps us make important time for family and community;
and delivers us back to who we are.
For a fuller discussion of the Voluntary Simplicity Movement, see
Suzanne's article, "Voluntary Simplicity: An Alternative to Prozac,"
which can be found online at www.troikamagazine.com
by clicking on Troika Archives, Issue #23.
Comments?
To contact Kelsey
about leading a one- or two-day seminar for your business or group,
e-mail her at SMPK@aol.com
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