In the first part of How To Follow Your Passion, I was talking about past passions I have had. How I have tried turning them into careers. I was explaining how I had not followed them from my heart and therefore put out the fire I once had for them.
Here in Part 2 of How To Follow Your Passion, I want to tell more of my story and help you gain clarity about your own passions. I want to give you inspiration to follow your passion from your heart, and truly give value to the world just by being you.
“You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out.”
Steve Jobs.
How To Follow Your Passion When It’s Gone
What was I supposed to do now? All I had known for the past 25 years was playing guitar and singing!
For me, going back to working for someone else in a job that I did not love was just not an option. I am an artist. Creation is a huge part of my everyday life. If I am not creating, I am not living.
The Beginning of My Photography Career
At this stage of my life, I had already discovered photography. I’d had my DSLR for a little while and been experimenting with photography as much as I could. I had been getting positive feedback from family and friends about my photos, so it seemed that photography was a natural transition from my music career.
I started Barry Callister Photography with a promise to myself that I would not repeat my failure in music. Whatever I did, I would not kill the passion I have for it.
To this point I feel that I have achieved that. Taking photos still excites me, and time stands still when I am doing it. I have sold many different products with my photography on them, sold (and continue to sell), stock photography online, and I can proudly say that photography is my job.
Nurturing the passion has not been a problem. Being true to the passion however……….now that is where I have failed.
“If you don’t love what you do, you won’t do it with much conviction or passion.”
Mia Hamm.
Where I Have Failed To Follow My Passion
I have had people tell me how much they admire me for always following the passions in my life. While this is a compliment I truly appreciate, it is one I don’t feel that I truly deserve.
I started my YouTube channel back in August of 2017. The idea behind having it in the first place was so that I could promote and sell my photographs and my products. Somehow, it became all about teaching others to use their cameras and how to edit in Photoshop and Lightroom?!
Looking back, I’m still not entirely sure why that happened?! However, I have a strong hunch that it was all about money. I saw an opportunity to earn money from teaching others and promoting products, in the same way many others were on YouTube. But this was not in line with my passion.
My passion for photography comes from my deep love of the environment and the natural world. I have always wanted to show the beauty of this planet to others through my photographs. My hope was to give them a greater love for the natural world so they may be inspired to take better care of it.
When I am out in nature with my camera or my phone, taking photos or videos – I am in a state of pure bliss. THAT is what my YouTube channel should have been about from the beginning! My true passion is out there in the fresh air with a camera in my hands, not in my office in front of my computer talking about camera settings!
The Benefit of Following Your Passion
We all know what it is like to witness someone at the top of their game don’t we? If you have been to a concert to see your favourite singer or band, you understand the power of witnessing someone doing something from a place of pure passion. It’s inspiring. It is mesmerizing and infectiously energizing.
If you do this – if you live your passion. Truly live and breathe it – you will attract success beyond your wildest dreams. Others will look at you and wonder how you do it. They will wonder what you have that they don’t.
For some this is easy. Some people get up every morning and just do what they want to do without a care in the world. They don’t think about what others will say, or what they will think of them. They just live a life of pure passion. For others (like me), this is not so easy. For us, it takes an incredible amount of courage to follow our passions.
A Promise and An Invitation
I am going to make you a promise. From this point forward I vow to live from a place of passion, and bring this into everything I do with Photographer’s Freedom. This will mean there will be changes to the content that appears both here on Photographer’s Freedom, and my YouTube channel.
I am doing this for me, so that I may live an inspired life. But know that this will benefit you, because you will be getting a much better version of me than you have been. You will be witness to someone at the top of their game, and it will be infectiously energizing.
I invite you to remember how your passion makes you feel. Remember that it lights you up, it excites you and drives you to get out of bed every morning. It fills you with such happiness that you overflow. This is what you need to share with others.
Stop every now and then to take a look around you. Notice how you are feeling. Are you truly inspired and fired-up for what you are doing? If not………change it!
The world needs you as you were meant to be. Think of a planet where everyone is living their best life. Where we all act from a place of pure fire and spirit for what we do. That is a world with no limits. And that is a world I want to live in.
