Following our passion is how we live a full life. Passions don’t change, but they are defined differently as we change and grow. When I was a young girl, I wanted to be an actress. I loved being on-stage. I loved the people and the way acting told a story. I worked as a stand-up comedienne in college and discovered that I also needed time off-stage. I started to be well-known and was approached by strangers. This was uncomfortable. I wanted my personal time. I floundered, but I was young. I had time to figure out what I loved to do.
I got jobs in retail and food service, both of which I enjoyed. I loved the people and I loved telling them jokes and stories as I worked with them. These were fun jobs but they did not feel like something I could do forever, just something for the short term as I found a place to put my passions to work.
My father was an architect and a developer. I went to work for him. I loved working with the governmental agencies to obtain building permits and I loved the construction part of the business. It was the people again. It was the stories. After a period of time in my dad’s office, I moved on to other offices, and eventually into a partnership of my own.
Construction was exciting but I wanted more. One of my clients built a house to sell and there was a real estate agent involved in the process. My family was full of real estate agents, starting with my grandfather, my uncles on both sides, my step-mother, cousins, second-cousins, and a multitude of family friends so I knew something of the business, but had never been involved in an actual transaction. This agent was having fun. He wasn’t just having fun, he was making good money doing it. I looked back into my family history and remembered my grandfather’s stories. He loved real estate, too. They all did.
Real estate was my next venture and I dove in, adding it to my construction business, as a dual career. Within a few years I ended my construction partnership (my partner, it turned out, was less than honest, but that’s another story) and real estate became my life. It was good.
I was on-stage. Real estate agents are like celebrities and everyone wants to talk shop. I loved knowing what your neighbor’s house sold for and whether or not your other neighbor was planning to sell. I loved helping people find the perfect house and handing them the keys. I loved setting up a house to sell, marketing it, and getting it sold. I loved, loved, loved my clients. They became friends. I loved telling the stories that helped my clients make a decision. When I came home, I was off-stage and I rested for the next day.
When I first started in real estate there was no email, no cell phones, no expectation of a 24/7 availability. That changed. I was no longer able to be off-stage, I was always on. There are agents who thrive on this, there are others who are able to set boundaries, but I am not one of them. I cared about my clients and wanted to be there for them, not realizing that 24/7 is impossible over the long run. Over time, without even noticing it, I became unhappy in real estate.
From the outside, it all looked good. I was financially successful, spoke at events, trained other agents, and cared about my clients. From the inside, it was slowly eroding me away. I was not aware of the change within, I was not aware that I was unhappy. All the positive platitudes covered up how I really felt as I spoke my affirmations and continued to move forward.
The economic down-turn swallowed up everything I had built financially, and then some. The recovery came and I started the long process of rebuilding. My heart was heavy. I was exhausted. I continued to read motivational books and go to motivational talks, I listened to motivational CDs in my car. They all made me feel like a failure. Why wasn’t it working? So I tried harder. I still loved the people, but I was empty. My career ended. There was no back-up and no reserves yet I discovered something I had lost. Hope. Following my passion once again, gave me that hope.
I am a storyteller. Connecting people with stories was how I worked my real estate career. It was why I had the opportunity to speak, it was why I was asked to write two books on real estate. Storytelling is still my passion. I write. I have this blog, and two books going. One book is non-fiction and one book is fiction. I am looking for work that utilizes my passion. Writing is a part of it, but I also need the people, they are part of my passion. Training, teaching, speaking, telling stories, and helping others will add people to solitary process of writing.
Passions, the really deep down passions, remain the same. People and storytelling are manifesting in a different path, but it is still the path of my passion. I have learned, once again, that I need time off-stage. As I follow my passion this time, off-stage will be a part of the plan.