Well… That didn’t work.

So if you haven’t seen it I have an about.me page here. While creating it I decided that I would just make a list of a lot of the things that make me who I am. Well the other day an idea hit me. What if I used that list to help me write. I could effectively use my perception of who I am to inspire my writing and allow me to better share my experiences on a regular basis. Hopefully by having a rotation of topics I will be more likely to write thus making me a better writer.

It just so happens that today I picked writer. When creating this list I chose some words that were more “goals” than actual descriptions. Writer was one of those goal words that I chose. I suppose I am a writer in the sense that I do write fairly regularly, however, that’s not exactly what I meant. I want to write something that changes someone’s life in a positive way. I don’t know what that looks like but I know I can’t do that without constant practice and constant feedback. I do enjoy writing but I find that it often falls to the bottom of the list. I want to be committed to mastering this craft and becoming a great writer. Hopefully this is a step in the “write” direction. (I am also committed to regularly exploring the fine art of cheesy-ness so deal with it.)

So what do you do to make sure your passions don’t fall to the bottom of the list? How do you stay committed to mastering your craft?

A few days ago I posted about my daughter’s tricycle. It was the highpoint of her birthday. It arrived via UPS a few minutes after her birthday party ended and I quickly put it together. I got her attention for a millisecond before she saw the bright red beacon of joy and excitement from across the room. I said, “Look what mommy and daddy got you!” to which she responded, “That’s my bike!” It was a joyful occasion for everyone.

The next day we took her out to ride it and things got a little interesting. The bike she had before this one was made for smaller children and thus had no pedals. It was designed to be “walked” instead of pedaled. She had that idea down to a science.

Here is the complicated part. The new bike has pedals, but she doesn’t know how to use them. So instead of pedaling the new bike, she walks it as if it were the old one. Here’s what I learned:

My daughter has gotten comfortable doing something a certain way, and while there is a more fun and, for all intents and purposes, a “better” way to ride the new bike, comfort often trumps effectiveness.

It caused me to take a look at my life and ask, is there a better way to approach some of my day to day tasks that I am unwilling to explore for the sake of comfort. Am I walking when I could be pedaling, settling for the speed at which my own strength is limited when I could be benefitting from the mechanical advantage of a proven more effective method? Ultimately, just asking these questions of ourselves regularly will help us to constantly improve so ask it… Are you walking or pedaling?

Yesterday was my daughters birthday party. My wife and I got her a really sweet Radio Flyer classic tricycle. It’s bright red all metal, the way a tricycle should be.

We really wanted her to love it and selfishly we were hoping it would be her favorite present of the day. Well she did and it was. These things are awesome. However, we live in an apartment with no yard so she really can’t ride it unless we go out for a walk. This fact has already (12 hours later) resulted in lots of tears even after taking her on an hour long walk this morning. So we got our wish but forgot about the aftermath.

Lesson in fatherhood #851:
Being awesome is exhausting.

A few days ago I wrote about rediscovering my passion for soccer by watching my daughter play. I learned a lot about how passion ebbs and flows by processing that experience. Well, I had another similar experience yesterday that I hope to be able to learn from by processing it here. I was invited to lead worship for a friday night Celebrate Recovery service at my church. It was an acoustic set me and a friend both singing and playing.

It’s been a while since I have played music at all and months since I have lead such a time. But when we started playing the passion for music and worship came rushing back quickly. Getting an opportunity to play again reminded me that I do love music and I love using it as a tool to help people experience God.

The lesson to me is that it is really easy to lose, forget, or bury our passions through lack of exposure to them. If you love doing something, do it. Do it often and master the craft. Just like the dying shot of espresso I discussed yesterday, we will die quickly if we aren’t proactive and committed to doing what we love and doing it with excellence.

I feel like I am beating the same drum over and over with these last few posts but I have been suffering from a lack of that passion in my life. I am slowly beginning to peel back the layers and rediscover what makes my heart beat. The journey has already been amazing and I hope I can inspire others to take the time to rediscover what makes them uniquely amazing and what makes them feel alive. Ultimately that life comes from our creator but doing the things he created you to do with passion is a choice we have to make. So take some time and discover who you are, even if you think you already know.