One of my favourite ways to stay focused on my passions is to keep my head in the game. No matter where you work or what you love it can be hard to make that your full time work- but that doesn't mean that you can't live your passion. How do you do it? Work on your focus.
If you're a financial planner who spends all of her free time planning, thinking, and writing about scuba diving, you likely consider yourself more of a scuba diver than a financial planner. If that's how you identify yourself and live your days, it becomes your reality.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that you should daydream or check out of situations when you're in them. I think that whatever we're doing, we should give 100% of our focus and presence. But in the morning while you're getting ready for work, on your breaks, in the evenings and weekends we all have lots of time that can easily slip away and be spent worrying, mulling over negative things that happened or replaying scenes from the day in your mind.
Instead of trying to stop those thoughts, if you shift your focus to something positive that energizes you, you'll get the same results with none of the resistance. The beauty of deciding to focus on something you love is that like the financial planner who lives scuba diving example, you define your identity and if you get in the habit of shifting your focus over to the hobbies or work that you love, you can immerse yourself in your passions and change your whole day to day experience.
Starting Points
A simple and fun way to start this is to change the media that you're taking in and my favourite way to do this is to become a podcast connoisseur. If you have a smart phone or laptop this is really easy but you can even burn them to CD's if you don't have a fancy way of listening to portable audio. For a long time I carried my laptop with me in the morning and would set it on my dresser while I got ready in the morning, then bring it with me to the kitchen and back upstairs with my coffee. It was a clunky process – and I really appreciate my iPad now! – but it helped me keep my focus on the things that I loved so no matter what I was actually doing during the day I was living my passion.
These are some of my favourite ways to finding videos & podcasts, and my suggestions for starting points to make this part of your life…
Discovery Resources
Stitchr
If you have an apple or android device, this is a way to listen to Podcasts that you need to try. It lets you navigate by category, download episodes for offline listening (with an “only when I'm on wifi setting” that doesn't eat your data), and create channels for yourself by topic. It also updates automatically so you always have the most recent episodes on hand. I heard this being advertised for a long time without trying it, and I wish I'd jumped on board a year ago. Join me :)
Podcast.com, Podcast Alley & Podcast Award Winners
If you're not using iTunes (or even if you are) these are great resources that let you cast a wider net. You can browse by topic, all shows are listed because of user votes. For a more curated approach you can look at the Podcast Award winners from past years and check out the most loved shows from popular genres.
.
Podcast Recommendations for Creatives, Small Business Owners, Bloggers, Cooks & The Geeky
Business & Blogging
The Rise To The Top
Great tips for content creators of all kinds, it focuses on podcasters but is full of useful tips for bloggers & anyone with a passion project.
Small Business, Big Marketing
Interviews with business owners about how they got where they are, plus all the fun of Australian accents.
The Foolish Adventure
A positive & interesting series about navigating the world of online business
Content Warfare
A new podcast that focuses on creating content. It's great for bloggers & business owners
.
Cooking
America's Test Kitchen
Fabulous cooking show with a call in line for culinary questions & help requests that can teach you an incredible amount just by listening to. I've started play a game where I shout out “ADD A TABLESPOON OF WATER TO COMPENSATE FOR THE LACK OF HUMIDITY!” before the hosts gets to their suggestions- and it's made me a much more savvy cook.
Joy The Baker
Funny, conversational, and mostly not so much about cooking, this is a really fun podcast to listen to for Joy & her lovely co-host Tracy from Shutterbean‘s banter. In case you haven't discovered her yet, go visit Shutterbean stat! She has some of my favourite food photography online.
.
Pop Culture
NPR: Pop Culture Happy Hour
PCHH is incredibly funny, quick witted, and a great place to listen to NPR writers and editors talking about pop culture that's not quite so high brow. They bring all the smarts they normally have, but they focus it on TV and romance novels. A must listen every week. [Note: To listen, click the “Podcast” link for Monkey See to get the podcast. It's complicated, I know, but we'll get through this together]
Old Time Radio Thrillers & Old Time Radio Mysteries
Rebroadcasts of old thriller and mystery radio shows- complete with old commercials. The stories are often unintentionally funny, and the old style of the ads is fun to listen to. This may be my MST3K showing, but I can't get enough of them & if you go to the OTR network you can find old detective & western shows (and hundreds of others) too.
.
Beauty & Makeup
AshleyTIA on Youtube
Beautifully shot video and great product reviews, Ashley is fun to watch and knows her stuff! Great for learning more about application techniques, brushes and discovering new products.
.
History
Stuff You Missed in History Class
Constantly updated and very entertaining, a good place to learn more about history with a healthy dose of mysteries, exhumations and rivalries.
The History Chicks
More conversational and less frequently updated than SYMHC, The History Chicks cover much of the same material and have a lot of fun doing it.
.
Science, Economics & News
WNYC's Radiolab
Science with a story- this is one of my favourite podcasts for learning about things I wouldn't encounter otherwise and it's a beautifully put together show.
NPR: Planet Money
Economics with a “This American Life” storytelling approach. Helpful for understanding big issues or anything financial in the news, and it's actually fun to listen to!
Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me
The NPR News Quiz! Classic & great for news addicts.
.
We all have the same number of hours in the day, but I love that we can all decide what we focus on. Keeping my mind on my passions has super charged my inspiration and made it easier to dream up creative ideas because my mind is always coming back to that place of possibility and focus.
What are your favourite ways to stay focused on your passions?
{image: Valentina Calosci}
LAST UPDATED ON: October 15th, 2012
CATEGORY: All Business & Blogging Posts Content Marketing Strategy Productivity for Entrepreneurs
This is a fantastic post. Lately I’ve been feeling bogged down by the mundane aspects of life, but you’re right. I just need to shift my focus to something I’m genuinely interested in during my free time and my mood will be on the up. As a hobby writer, that means focusing on my story and letting others storytell to me. My favorite NPR segment is This American Life, but I haven’t listened to it in far too long. Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for sharing! I will definitely be trying out the stitcher app :) Two things I like to do to stay focused are daily journaling, and putting things up on the walls in my house that remind me of my goals and of the things that I love. I’m a really visual person, so keeping these things in sight helps me stay connected to the positive things I want to accomplish. The daily journaling helps me filter out any of the “bad” stuff, and it helps me re-focus either for the rest of the day, or for the next day, depending on when I journal.
Thanks for the awesome, awesome shares, Kyla! I can’t wait to listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour and check out the business and blogging resources. Yay! Okay, my new interest, which is super random and weird, is learning about addiction recovery. So weird, ’cause I’m not in recovery myself. But I’m totally fascinated by it! I’ve been watching Rehab with Dr. Drew during my breaks from work, and I just got a book on addiction recovery from the library.
Ahem, okay, now that I’ve shared my oddities…I’ll retreat into anonymity. (Thanks again for the super-great list!)
ah! so many great suggestions. my favorite podcast is definitely the nerdist by chris hardwick. so funny and full of tons of pop culture talk. i recommend starting with the tina fey episode :)
Thanks for reading & for your suggestion Ameena, I’m going to add them to the post tomorrow morning. And there’s a Tina Fey episode? I’m already excited.
I’m relatively new to podcasts and listening to things on my phone (i’m a late adopter for sure) I see you listed a culture podcast. I love the Slate Culture Gabfest!
Thanks for commenting and making a suggestion, Kate. I’ll add the culture Gabfest to the post & check it out! :)
Oh man, you are totally missing out on my favourite podcast! Stuff You Should Know. It covers basically every topic you could imagine and has kept me company on so many long days!
Alli xx
That’s such a good call, Alli! I love SYSK and actually listen to a whole bunch of that series. I think I’ve mentioned them a few times on the blog & was trying not to gush ;)
I love The Paperclipping Roundtable! It’s all about scrapbooking; at first I assumed a visual craft was not a particularly good subject for a podcast, but in fact it actually gives scrapbookers a chance to focus on discussing their creative process. It’s really inspiring, especially since I’m using scrapbooking right now as a journaling method (I’m not very good at personal writing when it’s just pen and paper).
Great post, Thanks for all the links!
Thanks for reading & leaving your thoughts Angel :)
This is great, recently someone recomended a scary podcast, the no sleep, and it’s really scary, i love to write, and this tiny stories are great :)
Oh a scary story podcast? I love that idea. Thanks for the recommendation, and I love your August tattoo!
it’s on itunes, thanks for stopping by my blog :)
Thanks for the great suggestions…I am definitely going to give podcasts a try.
You’ll never go back, Monique! If you’re crafty, you should try out CraftyPod. There’s a paid version now, but there are also free episodes available too :)
I love podcasts! I use downcast -which sounds identical to Stitchr and my favourites are Joy the Baker, Savage Love, This American Life, Stuff Mom Never Told You & Jillian Michaels. Oh, and the Moth. Ok, I love a lot of podcasts. I just wish I could keep up now that I no longer have a 2x 45min commute each day.
I’ve never heard of Downcast until now, it looks great! I’m a huge Stuff Mom Never Told You, TAL & Savage Love fan. I actually just found Savage Love in the past couple of weeks- he’s so funny & on point.
Joy the Baker is my FAVOURITE podcast that I absolutely love listening to every week. I get excited when iTunes notifies me of a new download. Love those two.
My passion is making my community a better place and to keep on the motivation/passion train, I just read the tweets on my Twitter to see what great things are happening within my community.
I didn’t know you were such a fan of hers, Michelle! I actually just added her to my favourites so I don’t miss an episode.
Joy and Tracy are hilarious! Listen to their most recent podcast – “Jepper Depper Do” LOVED IT! And then “Red Flags Part Deux” as they talk about Dawson’s Creek and teenage love. Oh man.
I just listened to that last night!! Gerard Depardieu vs Jepper Depper Do? Cooper & Tracy win every time! :)
I can’t wait to listen to one where they take on Dawson’s Creek, that has me written all over it. Thanks again for the recommendation, it’s making my week.
Thanks for this post! Just wondering if anyone would have advice on how to stay focused on your passion while at your 9 to 5 day job where you are surrounded by coworkers and cant listen to podcasts. This is my challenge at the moment.
Thanks for the great question, Richelle! I think it’s really important to honour our commitments and stay present in what we’re doing so I would actually advise against listening to something engrossing like a podcast while you’re working, unless you’re doing something with your hands or simple data entry. The reason is that our brains are terrible multitaskers- it just doesn’t let you listen well or do your work well.
What I would recommend is being present and giving your all when you’re working at your job, and use the time that you have to yourself to dig into your passion projects. When I was really struggling with being excited to go to my job in theatre marketing, and I adored blogging I would…
– Wake up at 6 am every other day so I could have a full hour & a half of blogging, commenting & writing before leaving for work.
– Bring my notebook or laptop to work and leave for a nearby coffee shop to plan out my content schedule or rough outline posts on my lunch break.
– Listen to podcasts about content creation on my bus ride home from work.
While I was still working at a 9 to 5 (and then some) my day wasn’t about that job because I made my day to day experience more about something I was in love with- and it felt so much better because of it. I hope that helps!
I love this kyla. I am a huge fan of a bunch of these radio shows, yet I always find myself being drawn to the tv while I work. LAME. I need to get back in the habit of playing rad radio shows while i work so I am both focusing my ADD energy to what I am working on with my hands and what is filling my brain with rad information!
xo Moorea
Yes, TV is such a bad habit that I’m in too! I think it’s also a comforting thing, when you’re working long hours on your own it’s natural to want to make it a little more fun :)
I’m working on listening to pop & dance music when I’m working so I keep go go go-ing, and then taking the evenings off (even if that’s just from 8pm on lol) so I have the down time that I need to recoup.
At the same time, on Mondays I’m always catching up on Dexter & The Walking Dead ;)
Thanks for the Podcast ideas and resources, Kyla! I’ll definitely check out a couple of the Business & Blogging ones. I drive 45 min each way to work, so having a steady supply of Podcasts keeps me sane (and educated!) while driving.
Have you ever listened to Grace of Design*Sponge’s Podcast called “After the Jump”? She interviews indie biz owners and creatives. It’s fantastic: http://www.designsponge.com/category/radio
I haven’t, Lesley! I’m always on the look our for design/creative podcasts but haven’t found many that are updated regularly. I’ll check this out today :)