Passion & careers

Did you follow your passion when you chose your career—or take a route you saw as practical?

My book club just discussed Stephanie Cowell's Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet on Monday night. It's a great love story but it's so much more than that: It's a story of friends sticking together and helping one another through thick and thin, and it's one about a man for whom painting was as essential as breathing. It was about following your passion. In Monet's case, this had some downsides to it; his family lived in poverty and on the edge many times. However, his art brought him intense joy and fulfillment, too. Both/and, just like so much of life. I am a Monet fan and am grateful he followed his heart and painted rather than following his father's wishes that he work in the family business.

Are you following your heart? Has there been a cost to doing so? If you're not, is there a cost to not pursuing your passion and your dreams?

If not following your heart will mean deep regret when you get to life's end, explore now how you can pursue your passion. Reflect on it. Talk about it. Journal about it. Take some steps toward your dream. See how it feels.