Thursday Guest Post
Having worked with Brenda, I can attest to her talent, her contagious passion and her transformative energy which have already touched and transformed so many lives. She is a stellar example of someone who leads by influence and example rather than by authority (although her personal training clients may beg to differ). The following post speaks not only passion but also to self-reverence which is one of the Leader’s Trinity of Excellences. I am thrilled to share my blog “home” with Brenda and hope you visit her blog at LiveFitness~Live to Inspire.
– Dominique
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Brenda McKinney, NSCA-CPT, NWS, RHN (in training)
We all want to live happy and fulfilling lives but sometimes we can get stuck in the past or worried about the future and, in the long run, that will prevent us from finding what it is that truly makes us happy—our passion. One of the main problems people have is that most of us have that little voice inside of us that plants those seeds of doubt, I call mine my “faker faker” voice. What if I fail? Reeeeeally, what’s the worst thing that can happen?
In most cases failure can produce some of the best learning opportunities.
But how do you pursue what you’re passionate about if you don’t even know what your passion is?
That probably seems like an odd question but for for 15+ years I thought my passion was my career as an Art Director/Graphics Designer. I even had my own design studio at one point. Then I found my true passion.
In July of 2007 I weighed about 314 lbs. I hadn’t always been heavy, ironically my “day job” was a large contributing factor on my weight. I worked weird hours. I missed meals. I was always stressed out. I was always eating on the run…and it took a toll on my health.
I decided it was time to let go of “funny fat girl” and hoped that somewhere inside was “skinny funny girl”. By this point I had left my own business – the stress and the crazy hours – to work with an internal marketing team at an insurance company. I was done with the “high profile” that I had worked so hard to achieve. I just wanted to design…because that’s what I loved, right?!
The company I joined had a gym so I hired a personal trainer and began to turn things around. Turns out after a few short months I discovered it wasn’t about “skinny” it was actually about “healthy”.
Then it happened – people started asking questions, sending me random emails, chasing me down in the hallway just to tell me I had inspired them. What?! How could I have the ability to inspire others to make life altering changes?
My real ah-ha moment came while watching the movie “Wall-e”. There were morbidly obese people living on a ship because they had destroyed the planet who were so fat they all had hover chairs and never walked on their own. Then the ship tips and the people all fall off the hover chairs.
THAT is when I realized we were ALL headed for hover chairs if we didn’t smarten up!
So, I went back to school got certified as a Personal Trainer, took nutrition courses and thought: “Well now at least if people ask I can tell “Faker Faker” voice to shut up!”
Turns out my passion is healthy living and I’m working on turning that into a career, and having a “day job” is allowing me to make a living while continuing my education as a Holistic Natural Nutritionist.
I love being able to help people make changes in their lives and I love educating people on how to spread the word to others.
Just pay attention to what your little voice is saying: is it a “want to” or “excited to” versus a “must” or “need to”?
And be sure you’re not not confusing passion with responsibility.Passion isn’t linear, it’s not about getting from point A to point B, it’s about the journey so enjoy the ride.
Whatever you do… Live to Inspire!
For more inspiration from Brenda, visit her at live-to-inspire.com, follow her on Twitter @Brenda_McKinney or chat on her LiveFitness Page on Facebook.
How did you find your passion? How do you keep that passion alive? How do you tell your “faker faker voice” to shut-up?
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