Live Your Passion: Interview with Barrie Davenport

The compelling message to “Live Your Passion” forms Barrie Davenport‘s life work. Today, I am interviewing her in my post. This post forms part of my Love and Light Luminary Series, whereby I interview experts from around the world so that we can all be inspired and learn from them.

Let’s welcome Barrie to the series!

Q: Many people find it too risky to leave their stable jobs and go for their passion. Can you share your thoughts on this?

Barrie: There are many more ways to live your passion if you can’t live it through your work. You can explore your passion as a side job, a hobby, as a volunteer, or as part of your lifestyle outside of work. Just living your passion in a small part of your life will provide a huge boost in your overall happiness and quality of life.

Quite often, people begin a passion as a hobby because they don’t see an option for leaving their jobs, but then they are so passionate about the hobby that career opportunities seem to come their way. I would also invite people who think they can’t leave their jobs to really explore whether or not that is true. Often fear is the only real thing holding us back from making a change.

Q: What are the benefits to following our passion?

Barrie: There are so many benefits – it’s hard to name them all. Having a life passion transforms every aspect of your life. The easiest comparison would be the way it feels when you fall in love. You can’t wait to spend time with your beloved. You wake up thinking about them and rush through other things to meet with them. Even the difficult parts of your life seem easier when you are in love.

When you have a life passion, something that you are really engaged in, you have that same sense of being fully alive. When you are pursuing your passion, you are in that “flow” state when time disappears. And when you aren’t actively working on your passion, you still have a sense of contentment because you know you have something good going on in your life. A life passion opens doors to creativity, self-esteem, new relationships, career opportunities. And you become a much more interesting and attractive person to others.

Q: There are also some people who don’t seem to know what their passion is. What is the most important thing they can do to gain clarity?

Barrie: Finding your life passion is a process, and this process is what my book, The 52-Week Life Passion Project, is all about. Most people have no idea what they are passionate about. They assume that passion will land on their doorstep if they wait long enough. But you have to pursue your passion. This involves a series of steps that include learning more about who you are, what you want in life, what motivates you, what stands in your way, and how to go about removing those roadblocks. It also involves experimentation, some trial and error, research, and patience.

But the process of finding your passion is a passionate endeavor itself. You learn so much about yourself and gain such clarity about your life. It is one of the most important journeys you will ever undertake.

Q: How can we be so sure that the passion that we have found is “The One”? What if we lose interest in it along the way?

Barrie: Using the same analogy of falling in love, for some people finding their passion is like love at first site. There is an immediate awareness that “this is it” – they have found what they are seeking. For most of us, it is more like a friendship that evolves into love over time. And for something to evolve into a passion, you must spend time with it. You will need to gain some level of proficiency or experience so you have the full awareness of what this passion is offering you. You will need to practice your passion with focus for a period of time to really know.

If you lose interest quickly, it might be that you haven’t explored it fully enough. Or it might not be your passion after all. You can have many passions over a lifetime – or you can have just one. People are different in this way. But nothing is wasted time. Every endeavor provides information and important experience in your passion journey.

Q: In one of your chapters, you talked about having to confront our fears. Can you share more about getting past our fear and resistance?

Barrie: From my personal experience, the vast majority of fears are unwarranted. We project unpleasant, scary outcomes into the future that rarely materialize. With that awareness that most fears have little basis in reality, you must force yourself to push past the fears. Or to transform the fear energy to action energy. When you feel fear, rather than analyzing the heck out of it – do something. Take an action that will move you forward toward what you think your passion might be. Action is a great cure for fear. Not only does it distract you, but also it grounds you in reality. You see that the thing you feared isn’t really scary.

Q: In your opinion, is there any relationship between passion and purpose?

Barrie: Yes, there is a huge relationship. I view life purpose as the foundational piece of living a passionate life. You don’t necessarily have to have a life purpose to live your passion. But it makes a passionate life so much richer. Having a life purpose provides a huge context for everything you do in your life. It defines your legacy – the imprint you want to make on the world, your community, your family, or whatever circle of influence is most important to you.

Your purpose doesn’t have to be huge or dramatic. But it needs to define the “why” of your existence. This frustrates many people because they don’t feel they have a purpose or know why they were put on this Earth. That’s ok. Sometimes your purpose reveals itself later in life through your passion. It suddenly becomes clear as you find yourself compelled toward deeper and deeper meaning and engagement in your passion.

If you sense your life purpose is serving for example, then you will find passionate ways to serve. Or it might happen that you feel passionate about mentoring or teaching, and along the way you realize that your purpose in life is to serve through teaching.

Q: Why do you propose that we take 52 weeks to complete the project you have designed?

Barrie: Mainly because people have busy lives, and this important work takes focus and time. If someone tries to quickly cram it all in to one sitting, they will be frustrated and give up. But taking small, manageable actions each week, with time in-between to digest the information and sit in it, allows the process to percolate and take root. And there are many elements to this project which require time.

Thank you, Barrie, for doing this interview with me today! I certainly resonate with the idea of living with passion and rocking with purpose. Planning a more fulfilling life for ourselves is a must!

Love and Light Luminary Bio

Barrie Davenport is a life passion coach, writer, and founder of BarrieDavenport.com, a blog devoted to helping people uncover and live their life passions. She is the author of The 52-Week Life Passion Project, available in paperback and ebook formats.

Love and Abundance Always,

Author. Energy Healing Practitioner. Life Coach. More About Me.

May the Best Comment Wins

Comment below and stand a chance to win one of two copies of Barrie Davenport’s all new The 52-Week Life Passion Project. Dateline for submission Dec 18, 2012. I will be writing to inform the winners!!

Update to Contest Winners

Contest is now closed. Thanks to all who posted a comment. It was rather hard to pick the winners. In the end, I left it to the universe for guidance. Well, the two winners are Shannon and Brandi. Congratulations to the two lucky ladies 🙂

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