Being true to yourself requires courage and conviction in the face of family and friends challenging your actions or ideas.

At times there are unexpected challenges to your choosing to focus your time and energy on achieving your life passions. The challenges often come from trusted family members and friends who can’t see any value in something you believe and know is really important to you.

What I observed from my own experience taught me the importance of not getting caught at the level of the challenge.

Having recently completed the certification training to become a Passion Test Facilitator, I came home quite intent on moving forward to help people create more joy and fulfillment in their lives. I looked around my home environment and realized I needed to find or create a space where I could sit and read or write content for my websites.

This was a major challenge. So, I determined that I would eliminate extra boxes of paper and storage items in one room of my home. The room was quite busy with piles of paper, magazines and lots of items needing further action.

In a nine-day period of time, I managed to empty and recycle the contents of about 20 boxes of mostly paper. The new space created in that room provided the area that I needed to be able to sit and just allow myself to be creative. I was quite elated with what I had achieved and how wonderful the room felt energetically.

When I told a trusted friend about my enormous step forward, I was immediately hit with, “You should be making money. You should be making money.” The statement was repeated about 5 times in a row with no notice of how I felt about what I had accomplished. No attention was paid to my reaction to what my friend was saying to me.

Needless to say, my powerful feelings of having accomplished something that supported my need to make money got zapped in a major way. I became defocused for a short time. My focus on achieving my passion to help others create more fulfillment and joy was diverted by the disappointment I felt when my friend did not share in my powerful feelings created by my accomplishment.

Stepping back from the level of the challenge, I was able to learn some valuable insights. In order to get these insights, I first had to consciously reclaim my power from both my friend and from the situation.

Major Insights Gained

o My energy was zapped when I gave my power away to my friend.

o I was expecting approval and celebration when I’d completed my task. In living life, there is no guarantee that anyone will approve of what I do.

o My friend was not trying to zap my enthusiasm. He was expressing his concern for my financial well-being.

o I was only impacted by my friend’s reaction because I allowed that to happen. Giving my power away just meant that I was working on feeling more confident about having taken those action steps forward.

Choosing to look at this experience to discover what lessons can be learned enables me to take a broader perspective. I know my friend cares about my well being. Nothing has changed my intention to follow my own path forward. I am very clear about what I choose to accomplish.

And, I am truly grateful to my friend for providing me the opportunity to reinforce the clarity of my intentions!

My finding the lessons above plus choosing to stay focused on my top passions enabled me to rise above the level of the challenge. This approach also made it much easier to reclaim my power from my friend and from the situation.

Essentially I had made two steps forward and one step back. The one step back gave me more awareness of my own inner strength and my focus to continue on my path toward achieving my life passions.

Stay clear, focused and alert to what lessons can be learned as you follow your passions. As you do this, your life passions lead you forward to fulfilling your life destiny. Fulfilling your life destiny brings you more happiness, joy and a true sense of fulfillment.

For more tips and tools on discovering and living your life passions, you are invited to visit http://www.ThePassionTestCoachOnline.com

From Virginia Fischer, The Passion Test Coach