seeking your passion — the new recipe for depression
November 11, 2009
It’s not like women don’t already have enough of a fight against feeling inadequate. Trying to be a 50’s mom with a new millennium career and manage a household flawlessly, often with no outside help — well, believing that this is possible is simply a delusion! At least for most of us. Okay — certainly for me.
And now all of that is no longer enough. The bar has been raised. “Adequate” people are supposed to be able to point to something and say, “This is my passion” — and then build a life or a career around it.
Which is great in theory. But it leaves women hammering away at themselves trying to pound out whatever their “passion” is supposed to be. And you usually can’t find it that way.
But what really is possible is to have passionate moments by following sparks of curiosity and energy. I think out of those sparks a pattern emerges, over time, making it possible to have and share more and more of those passionate moments.
I think that’s good enough. Imagine what the world would be like if more of us did that –
[Read the No Lost Voices kick-off post here.]
How incredibly true! Thank you for speaking out about this new trend. Just more expectations laid on not just women, but men, too. Thanks for being a voice of reason.
Thanks so much for your comment, Deborah. I find that it’s so easy to get sucked into trying to achieve an image of “success” created on the set by actors in commercials and television shows. It takes a certain amount of courage to say, “Hang on! This makes no sense!” — and to write one’s own definition of success.
I’d love to hear yours if you’d like to share it.