8/28/2017 0 Comments Redefining PassionAs the year starts in ISM, one of the main focuses of this week is finding the ”why” in everything that we do. We have all heard the famous Einstein quote, “The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Although this truth may seem simple, many people spend years finding out what their purpose is.
Luckily, in ISM, one of the first assignments was to focus on our “true” dreams in life. Dreams that go beyond a career, grades, or material goods. Dreams that keep you motivated through tough situations. By considering our talents, activities, and life experience, many ISM students, including myself, found success in narrowing down what we truly wanted out of both our careers and life as a whole. Personally, I was lucky to find my calling early. When I finally started my formal work in investing in eighth grade, there were nights I could not sleep. I would analyze a company for six or more hours at a time, gaining more energy as I got closer to a solution. The reading and reports never felt like work. In those sleepless nights and endless hours, I found my personal definition of passion: an activity that you could not live without and never feels like work. To borrow Warren Buffett’s words, a true passion is found when you wake up every morning “tap dancing to work”. The guest lecture that we listened to on Wednesday given by Mrs. Julie Leslie (find her website here) really helped me narrow down my personal dreams and focus on my true goals and passions. Before the lecture, I always had a simple list of three things that I desired in the grand scheme of my life: independence, charity, and inspiration. This list, however, lacked detail. By doing the activity after the guest lecture, I found success in finding practical actions that I can take to fulfill those three simple goals. One of these practical actions was found by accident while cleaning out my investing library. In the back of a journal, I found the promise that I made to myself three years ago, when I first opened my own Scottrade account. I promised that my first $1,000 in profit would go to the Red Lily Foundation, a program that seeks to find treatments and cures for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS. One of my closest friends was diagnosed with POTS three years ago, and her chances of a “normal” life went drastically down. These memories helped me realize the true motivation behind my goal of charity; I want to give everyone the chance to dream big and achieve anything they set their mind to. I found that all of the topics I felt truly passionate about (special education, young women in business, POTS, affordable education) were privileges that not everyone had access to, which often inhibited them from achieving their dreams. My true desire was not to simply give to charity, it was to help break down barriers to people’s goals by making the most of the privileges that I have. As the year goes on, these goals will transform into something even more specific and meaningful through purposeful self-evaluation and questioning, but I believe that I have found success in narrowing down my goals in life and finding how my chosen career will tie into those goals. For now, these ideas will serve as motivators throughout my journey in ISM, and encourage me to work as hard and efficiently as I can to achieve my dreams.
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