Started your passion project yet?

Have you ever met someone whose eyes just SHONE with delight at their life?

Maybe their work was physically strenuous and demanding, like farming…

Or took long hours and attention to detail, like woodworking…

Or had less than ideal working hours and conditions, like being a chef...

Or took a special kind of personality, like being a death doula or a hospice nurse…

But you could tell that—despite any hardship the work brings—this person LOVES what they do.

They seem positively lit UP by their work.

There’s passion there.

Oftentimes, when clients come to me to find out what their purpose is, I’ll tune into what I hear and say, “You’re a writer!” or “You’re a coach!” or “You’re healer!” they will often cry with some combination of relief and deep knowing and say… “Yeah... I am…”

It’s beautiful to witness that acknowledgement of what they’ve known all along.

The next step after that acknowledgement is to start pursuing the passion there.

I prefer to call this a passion project because you get to START there.

It doesn’t mean you have to quit your job (yet - or maybe at all).

It just means that there’s some ember of fire wanting to be expressed.

YOUR job is it stoke that fire.

Some passion projects will become more of a source of joy than a source of income.

Some passion projects will have a beginning and an end.

They’ll last a few weeks, months, or years, and then that expression will be complete.

But some passion projects will turn out to be part of your soul’s journey.

Either way, a passion project will meet some deep need or a deep longing that you have about being on this Earth at this exact time in the timespace continuum.

There may be an umbrella theme to your passion and then a number of different ways you express that theme come forth from there.

One of my themes is inspiring others.

I do this with my art, with dance, with writing, with conversation, with mediumship, with coaching.

Your theme may be healing.

You could do this with Reiki, nursing, deep listening, herbs, art, food… you name it.

If you’re stuck, you don’t need to go right to the thing that you feel like you SHOULD be doing.

If you find yourself saying:

I always wanted to be a travel writer and I know I should be writing…

Honey.

If it feels heavy—you can skip that for now. Just let it be for a bit.

Anything that has a should around it has a lot of resistance around it too.

Instead maybe switch to baking or calligraphy or Argentine tango or furniture flipping or cookie decorating or being hilarious or informative or ridiculous on TikTok!

Keep the bar low.

Get the ball rolling with something that seems kinda interesting but doesn’t have any pressure.

Letting yourself learn something with super low stakes will crack the code on that desire for expression.

AND—your eyes will start to shine as you start expressing yourself, as you start spending time doing something you enjoy.

And then maybe, just maybe, you’ll find yourself writing that first blog post about your trip to Mallorca.

So tell me—what’s one passion project you could try that you’ve been DESPERATE to get started on?

Or if you’re stuck, what’s a low stakes project that seems kinda interesting…

Write and tell me about it!

I read every email.

Sending you so much heart until next week’s digital letter,

Rebecca*