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Wednesday, 30 Jul 08
SheJumps and Girls Day Out teamed up to find out whose colors shine brightest. Here is winner Karley Denoon's response to the question, "How do you stay true to your passion?"
This is a question we all ask ourselves on a regular basis and continue to re-evaluate when we fall off the wagon, and for many of us alleged "ski bums," as the bank account empties and the seasons change.
The journalist and author Thomas Friedman once proposed a formula that I feel helps explain the importance of passion and its driving force to action.
He proposed that CQ + PQ > IQ (Curiosity Quotient plus Passion Quotient "is greater than" Intelligence Quotient). According to Friedman, curiosity and passion are key components for education and movement in a world where information is readily available to everyone, and where global markets reward those who learn efficiently and who are furthermore self-motivated to learn and act. Regarding staying true to my passion, even though the consensus of society is that "ski bumming" is a phase only prosperous in one's youth, I have the passion and curiosity to pursue it with dedication. This surely exceeds any success that society's standardized IQ test-type expectations would suppose for me.
The dictionary tells us passion is the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death, the emotions as distinguished from reason and intense emotion compelling action. None of this seems easy to me, and nor do I find staying true to my passion easy either. What I do find is that there is nothing more rewarding than feeding your fire. In trying to fuel my passion's great fire, I'd like to be able to say I do so with great ease, clarity and focus to the point of tenacious determination, but that would be a lie that I couldn’t even convince myself of. Honestly, most of the time I feel like I am chasing my passions like they are the last bus of the night out of a sketchy neighborhood.
In attempting to decipher what my actual passions are I think between looking at my quiver of surf boards and pairs of skis and my transient ways from the interior to the island, it would be easy to say that I am passionate about skiing and surfing and have managed to dial a sweet life that allows me to be living the dream with a bit of cash in my pocket now and again. Perfect, right?
I don’t believe it’s as easy as loading up your wagon while the seasons change and driving the open road with Jack Kerouac justifying your journey. I think the passion for skiing and surfing is rooted deeper than the adrenaline addiction that I know I have. I think it finds its way into an existential human craving to feel alive. In such a world as we live in today with food, clothes, shelter and tampons all in the same aisle in the grocery store, sometimes we need to make a bit more of an effort to get that live feeling.
To stay true to your passion I have found that you need to involve a delicious mixed pot of compromise with yourself and situations, acceptance and consciousness. I believe that to ski over a hundred days in a winter, and also for winters to come, you sometimes have to re-evaluate your objectives for that day and accept that the Ron Jeremy’s will be there tomorrow and the day after, but aren’t there for you today. Or that perhaps even though it’s the 30th pow day in a row, you may need to hit up a yoga class rather than make first chair. When you wake up with the beats from the night before still pounding in your head, perhaps skiing faster than a car in a playground zone just isn’t for you, but man dancing the night before sure felt good on the soul!
In trying to stay true to my passion I believe it is important to help support people making smart, brave moves in the industry that you are passionate about and be brave yourself. It is involving yourself in your community and hollering for that guy who throws down a sick spread eagle under the chair. Taking the time to smile and say hello to your neighbor sitting next to you for the 10 minute ride up the Timber chair also goes a long way (they may be that person who sits at a desk all week staring at a computer so you don’t have to). We are all in the same place for a reason, cultivate that.
The short conclusion of all this babble is really that the only way that I have found so far to stay true to your passion is through balance. Adjusting a little bit to the right after you’ve gone way too far to the left and not giving yourself too hard of a time about it. Accepting yourself and accepting that passion explodes once and awhile (trust me I’m well experienced with this), and that is half of the excitement. By definition a passion is not sustainable, but attempting to combine it with balance seems like the only way I have figured out to make it last, even if it is only for tomorrow, because I’m thinking that there might be a lot of snowy tomorrows to come.
True Colours Contest Winner Karley Denoon
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SheJumps and Girls Day Out teamed up to find out whose colors shine brightest. Here is winner Karley Denoon's response to the question, "How do you stay true to your passion?"
This is a question we all ask ourselves on a regular basis and continue to re-evaluate when we fall off the wagon, and for many of us alleged "ski bums," as the bank account empties and the seasons change.
The journalist and author Thomas Friedman once proposed a formula that I feel helps explain the importance of passion and its driving force to action.
He proposed that CQ + PQ > IQ (Curiosity Quotient plus Passion Quotient "is greater than" Intelligence Quotient). According to Friedman, curiosity and passion are key components for education and movement in a world where information is readily available to everyone, and where global markets reward those who learn efficiently and who are furthermore self-motivated to learn and act. Regarding staying true to my passion, even though the consensus of society is that "ski bumming" is a phase only prosperous in one's youth, I have the passion and curiosity to pursue it with dedication. This surely exceeds any success that society's standardized IQ test-type expectations would suppose for me.
The dictionary tells us passion is the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death, the emotions as distinguished from reason and intense emotion compelling action. None of this seems easy to me, and nor do I find staying true to my passion easy either. What I do find is that there is nothing more rewarding than feeding your fire. In trying to fuel my passion's great fire, I'd like to be able to say I do so with great ease, clarity and focus to the point of tenacious determination, but that would be a lie that I couldn’t even convince myself of. Honestly, most of the time I feel like I am chasing my passions like they are the last bus of the night out of a sketchy neighborhood.
In attempting to decipher what my actual passions are I think between looking at my quiver of surf boards and pairs of skis and my transient ways from the interior to the island, it would be easy to say that I am passionate about skiing and surfing and have managed to dial a sweet life that allows me to be living the dream with a bit of cash in my pocket now and again. Perfect, right?
I don’t believe it’s as easy as loading up your wagon while the seasons change and driving the open road with Jack Kerouac justifying your journey. I think the passion for skiing and surfing is rooted deeper than the adrenaline addiction that I know I have. I think it finds its way into an existential human craving to feel alive. In such a world as we live in today with food, clothes, shelter and tampons all in the same aisle in the grocery store, sometimes we need to make a bit more of an effort to get that live feeling.
To stay true to your passion I have found that you need to involve a delicious mixed pot of compromise with yourself and situations, acceptance and consciousness. I believe that to ski over a hundred days in a winter, and also for winters to come, you sometimes have to re-evaluate your objectives for that day and accept that the Ron Jeremy’s will be there tomorrow and the day after, but aren’t there for you today. Or that perhaps even though it’s the 30th pow day in a row, you may need to hit up a yoga class rather than make first chair. When you wake up with the beats from the night before still pounding in your head, perhaps skiing faster than a car in a playground zone just isn’t for you, but man dancing the night before sure felt good on the soul!
In trying to stay true to my passion I believe it is important to help support people making smart, brave moves in the industry that you are passionate about and be brave yourself. It is involving yourself in your community and hollering for that guy who throws down a sick spread eagle under the chair. Taking the time to smile and say hello to your neighbor sitting next to you for the 10 minute ride up the Timber chair also goes a long way (they may be that person who sits at a desk all week staring at a computer so you don’t have to). We are all in the same place for a reason, cultivate that.
The short conclusion of all this babble is really that the only way that I have found so far to stay true to your passion is through balance. Adjusting a little bit to the right after you’ve gone way too far to the left and not giving yourself too hard of a time about it. Accepting yourself and accepting that passion explodes once and awhile (trust me I’m well experienced with this), and that is half of the excitement. By definition a passion is not sustainable, but attempting to combine it with balance seems like the only way I have figured out to make it last, even if it is only for tomorrow, because I’m thinking that there might be a lot of snowy tomorrows to come.
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