How to Find Your Passion and Go For It
I hope you don’t find this post hypocritical, because, in essence.. I’m going to be talking about why the worst thing you can do for your career is be spread too thin, doing too many things, but… here I go!
In the Bible, there’s a phrase, a story, a series of verses that talk about how it is virtually impossible to serve to masters. (It references God and Mammon; for ease of reference let’s say that means “money”). If you try to serve one wholeheartedly, you cannot give 100% of yourself if you are still serving the other. This has always stuck with me. Being the jack of all trades (and mastr of none) can get really dicey. When you don’t give your full focus, love, and attention to one thing, you end up spreading yourself too thin and it all ends up mediocre, right?
This year I have never felt like this was more “on point.”
In some ways, I feel like I spent the last 4 years “getting things out of my system.” Really, a whole lot of growing up. I will be a completely different girlfriend now. A different roommate. A different photographer. A different friend. A different daughter. A different sister. Since moving out on my own, I’ve really covered a lot of ground… and this is what I’ve learned.
When you are doing everything you are doing nothing.
When you are even doing 2 things, you are doing nothing.
Pick your passion and go for it. That is what I’ve learned.
Nay, Nay! You say. I am successful doing more than one thing!
Well, yes, everyone can have hobbies. Hobbies are great. Hobbies give us life and let us explore and help us use the other side of our brain. But, here is my story!
In May of 2017, I started this blog. I talked about fitness; losing 60 lbs, the diet plan, the fitness, the work outs, the habits. I talked about restaurants. I talked about 10 ways to wear white pants (cringe). I talked about going out. I talked about business. I talked about galas and rose gardens and blazer games and heck, I had a whole blog on making a mediocre margarita. I was all over the place. Then, I started to add in “YouTube” and vlogging and making parodies and talking about skincare and doing makeup routines. Man, just referencing the things I did in 2017 is getting low key—exhausting. The point of it all is, guess where I got? You guessed it. Nowhere.
I got some followers?Many of which are not engaged and actually make my account look worse than it is.
I got some gigs?Yes, I got some free products, some great experiences, some paid sponsorships, you know, some things.
The main thing I did, amidst working round-the-clock taking thousands of photos and planning the Instagram feed was… you guessed it; WASTED. TIME.
I hate to say it, but I honestly feel kinda bad for Trevor. He really had to stick by some pretty ridiculous ventures. #Applause. #MajorApplause. I would NEVER start to vlog today. I would NEVER do a 5 step skin routine on camera today. I would NEVER spend time blabbing on about things I don’t care about, today.
It wasn’t “blogging” that was the issue. I truly do value the women and men who spend their lives testing things out so that we don’t have to. (Why would I ever pursue something you couldn’t pay me to do? IDK. Like, let’s be honest, I don’t even like trying skin care products out for free in the comfort of my own home, let alone be paid for it!). I think that there are some people that are truly gifted with sharing their experiences that they have with brands and making a splash. However, I’ve realized that this is not me.
Will I go to events and help brands out? Absolutely. Do I want to seek them out? Not really. I love working with “experiential” things though, you know, shows, hotels, and activities… but I only respond if they reach out to me.
I realized that this needs to be purely a hobby and THE SECOND that it intrudes with the bigger picture, my end goal, my DREAM JOB, my one and only dying wish… it needs to get CUT.
So, if you follow me, you probably know that my Instagram has turned into:
Insta stories, captions, and photos that make you smile.
What I’m doing, where I’m going, and what I’m wearing to these events as a young entrepreneur.
That. Is. It.
I don’t want to be a landing page for learning about products, causes, clothes, nothing. I just want to be me and if you want to follow along with my ACTUAL, REAL life, I LOVE IT. I LOVE YOU.
I would rather be the Chrissy Tiegen, not the Gal Meets Glam.
I find it absolutely fascinating to follow people who are awesome people regardless of what they do on social media. That's who I want to be. I want people to want to follow me because I'm badass, not because I'm a great "influencer" with great "outfits." Barf.
So, back to God and mammon.
Having this for lack of a better phrase time-sucking hobby the last 3 years, I sit here, writing on my bed, feeling like I wasted some really big opportunities. On August 16th, I decided… enough was enough.
I know what I want to do, and that is photography.
I want to be a wedding photographer full time.
If someone decided they wanted to pay me $200,000 a year to sit on my Instagram and talk about their detox tea, I literally would decline. It’s not how I’m going to make a difference in this world and it’s not why I was put on this planet, and now I know that.
If I blog, it’s going to be for fun, for me and my own processing, and of course, to help others understand the pros and cons of living the creative self-employed life I live.
So anywho. The second I stopped spending time spreading myself thin with soooo many things is the second I realized things were (and are) falling into place.
I will never let another 3 years go by where I’m trying to be all things to all people. I want to be one thing to a few special people, and that is a great wedding photographer.
Now that I’m “kind of” on the other side, I see tons of people falling into the same trap. They are trying SO HARD to do it all. I wish that life experience wasn’t a BZ, but if I could tell myself anything, it would be to sit down and pick 1-3 things I really wanted to do 3-5 years ago and just say “I know you’d love to dabble in these other things, but just go all in with that one”…. I would DO IT.
I hope that this blog can slowly morph into a way to help young women by sharing my story of branding, photography, a bit of marketing, and some lifestyle for fun. Nothing more. Nothing less.
In the past, I’ve felt this pressing obligation to post post post post post. Today, as I post, for the first time in months, I can honestly say that NOT posting on this blog was the best thing I’ve done this year. I was trying to focus on what I really want to do and I’m so proud of that.
Anyways, I want all of you to know that just because you start something, doesn’t mean you have to finish it. Just because you explore something, doesn’t mean you have to make it your life… and most of all, you know that gut feeling when you’re doing what you are meant to be doing; and you should… do that.
I’ll be back in 6 months for more, stay tuned! ;) Just kidding. Maybe sooner now that my life is coming together.
Chelsea
PS Since I’m no longer really doing pointless blog photoshoots, these were taken by Brandon @lifeSTYLest during a shoot of him (by him) in 10 seconds. There you go!
