Find your WHY when You Revisit Childhood Pursuits

We all have passions in life. We all have dreams and aspirations we want to live up to. There is an inner child in all of us that we have pushed away as the years went on to fit in with the social norms.

Why is it that when we go back to doing the things we love like painting, drawing, playing in the muck or reading books that we are ‘finding ourselves’ when in reality we are just going back to what we loved doing as kids and being kids again? 

This is the reality for lots of people when it comes to finding yourself again. A lot of us became lost as the years went by.

We were striving to get the dream job.. Achieve the dream wage each week. Get the dream car. It all meant losing out on doing the things you loved to do, the things that help you relax at times of stress.

There is the culture of ‘sleep is for the weak’ or ‘you haven’t made it until you are making 100k each year’.  This puts a lot of stress on so many people who want to live the simple life. They only want to follow their passions yet are made to feel guilty because of the social norms that dictate what is considered a ‘hard worker’. 

Maybe you are someone that struggles to concentrate on one job at a time and you work less hours but more efficiently? Maybe you work 2 or 3 day weeks but you are still able to afford the life you want?

This whole thing of hearing all these entrepreneurs working ‘70-80 hour weeks’ or ‘16-20 hour days’ can be detrimental to many because it might make you feel like you’re not working hard enough when in reality you are working to the amount that suits you right now. 

We need to stop feeling guilty for taking breaks during the day, or taking naps during the day when we are exhausted and realise that we each are on our own journey of happiness and fulfilment. Which is where I ask the question, what is your ‘why’ in life? 

Find your WHY when You Revisit Childhood Pursuits

Why do you do the things you love? Why did you decide to quit your comfortable 9-5 and start a career incorporating your passions into your full time work? Why did you decide to ignore all the haters and go and chase your dreams once and for all? 

I’ll tell you why, because you are looking to be happy and fulfilled in this life that you were given.

What is success without happiness? What is happiness without fulfilment?

Would you prefer to have all the riches in the world yet be  miserable? Or would you prefer to wake up each day knowing that you are living your best life. 

Being a creator, a podcaster, a designer or maybe you adore working in the 9-5 and now your dream is to climb the ladder?

Whatever it is, make sure you always remember ‘why’ you are doing it. If you find yourself slipping back into discontent, sadness, dissatisfaction and annoyance each day that you have to think about your work or completing your work each day, then you must sit back and reflect on how you can change this situation.

Would it mean contacting your boss/manager and letting them know how you feel and how you all can make the work environment more enjoyable or your tasks more doable? Or does it mean that you may potentially need to think of heading down a new career path so that you can feel happiness once again. 

I need to get this into your heads….IT’S OKAY TO QUIT! It’s okay to move on! It’s okay to change career paths! Don’t be sucked into the life of unhappiness just because the paycheck is juicy each week. 

When dis-ease happens in your life, disease happens in your body. Don’t make the mistake of sticking to something you hate, simply because of what others may think or because you think ‘this is all I can do’.

Some things you can start doing to reignite your passion:

• Sign up for free courses online in different hobbies
• Start joining in on audio/video platforms like Wedo Alleys to talk to other people about their passions and find inspiration there
• Join communities and experiment in different fields of work.

If you don’t try, you will never know.

Ask yourself these 5 questions:  use pen and paper to write them down. Stick the answers up somewhere so you can reflect back on it when you are in times of discontent. 

• What are 3 things you like to do? ( examples:Art, music, content creation, playing chess etc.)
• When do you make time for these activities?
• Do you want to learn a new hobby? What is it?
• How can you possibly make this into a career?
• Is there a possible gap in the market?
• Have you joined communities or pages that you can get inspiration from and where you can build relationships with other like-minded people?

Do answer these questions because it will make you think about what it is you really love to do.

There is enough business for everyone in the world. There is enough money in the world to go around. Don’t think that just because someone has already done it means you can’t do it. Anyone is capable of anything.

By Leah Cheung