How to Pursue Passions Not Paychecks

Today I’m going to spend some time talking about the WHY. In the last post, I talked about valuism and how our lives should be organized around those things most valuable to us (tangible, financial, spiritual, etc).If those things that bring value are the WHAT then my WHY for doing all of this is to be able to spend more of my life pursuing my purpose (passions) instead of a paycheck. Simultaneously we want to build our family’s legacy and change the path for our children so that they can spend even more of their lives pursuing their purpose instead of a paycheck.So let’s break that down because unless you’re a friend from the F.I. community, you likely are feeling that this is a bit too “pie in the sky”. What does it mean “pursuing your purpose instead of a paycheck” anyways?At first glance, it sounds like I’m talking about being a free spirit who doesn’t care about making money or paying the bills, let’s just go out and have fun. Well, you’d be half right. I do want to make money, but I want the fun (passion) to determine what drives me, not how much the paycheck is. I don’t want to pick what I spend the next chapter of my life doing based on salary, rather how fulfilled I am by doing something. See, when you realize that life is short and you only get one blank canvas to paint the picture you want, you won’t want to chase a paycheck forever. You’ll want to chase your passions instead. If you take the time now to be disciplined in your decisions and build a solid financial platform, you’ll be able to pursue those passions a whole lot sooner instead of waiting for that 60-something year old benchmark society accepts as the norm.While the above sounds pretty great, a lot of you are likely saying that’s just not realistic for me. I’m not planning on winning the lottery anytime soon, you don’t know my situation-this would be impossible and not realistic. I completely disagree and here’s why. Limiting beliefs do just that, they LIMIT you. Get away from that mindset. Most of us aren’t financial experts or all too savvy when it comes to money. I certainly wasn’t in the beginning. It sounded beyond boring if I’m being completely honest.That was because I didn’t have a full picture of WHY I was doing it. I just knew that it sounded good to retire a millionaire (yes a millionaire, keep reading-this is NOT a get rich quick plan) and getting out of debt/saving was starting to show up in a big way in our lives. That’s honestly one of the reasons I established Design Your Destiny and also a big reason why I’m starting with posts that are motivators. When you can get a clear picture of your WHAT and WHY it really clicks and it’s easier to jump onboard and stay onboard.Let me share another piece of my story-my 1st dream job came immediately after graduating from college. I majored in interior design and with the completion of my Bachelor’s degree, I started working at a large corporation doing hospitality design. I had never heard about F.I. or even Ramsey, but if you asked me, I was living the dream-I had both paycheck and passion! As the years wore on though, it became more of a grind-the passion was lost along the way. After more than a decade, I was starting to feel a tug to look into what my next chapter would look like-I began to feel strongly that there had to be more to life.Right around that time, a friend shared Dave Ramsey with my then-boyfriend-now-husband and I. It completely changed our world. Before even getting married we were determined to get out of debt and we were on the path-we had lit the F.I.R.E.! We knew we wanted a different lifestyle. We didn’t want debt and consumerism hanging over our heads any longer. While it didn’t happen overnight, today nearly 8 years later, we’re starting the shift to living comfortably on a single income and are on the path towards Financial Independence. (future posts on this) But having the choice of pursuing your passions instead of a paycheck doesn’t come overnight for most. It takes time and dedication. As Dave Ramsey puts it “be willing to live like no one else now, so that later you can live & give like no one else“.  (more on this in upcoming posts as well)

I share all of this with you so that you can see I’m no different than anyone else, I don’t come from a privileged background. In fact, I grew up a country girl in rural Iowa and the first in my family to complete a college degree. My husband is a Salvadorian. He grew up a pastor’s son and his best toys were his imagination. We’ve both worked hard to get where we’re at today and want to pave the way for our children to get even more out of their lives and their destinies. I want part of our legacy to be helping YOU pursue your passions as well, so I hope you’ll come back for more as we continue to design our destinies together. Next time we’ll start to talk about HOW to make that happen!