Whenever I try something new, I get this overwhelming feeling of excitement and nervousness not knowing what to expect. It’s in these moments that I feel that childlike wonder like I did as a kid every time I would experience something new from swimming lessons, to a family hike or learning how to ride a bike without training wheels.

This was how I felt last summer when I took up fly fishing. My in-laws were in town for 4th of July and wanted to teach my husband and I how to fly fish after we had just splurged on a bunch of equipment but were hardly equipped to head into the water. Putting on my waders, which felt like a wet suit , then placing my boots around my fully covered feet felt exciting. I had no idea what to expect as this was my first time getting ready to go in the water.

We were about 3 miles away from our apartment, but I felt like I had traveled far away to this hidden pocket of heaven. The air was heavy with summer heat, the sun beat down on us, and the airy seeds of some tree were whimsically swaying in the light breeze covering the gravel ground. I felt giddy but could not help to feel slightly agitated with how quickly I wanted to get into the water but needed patience in this moment to set up my rod and tie my first fly on the end. I actually surprised myself with how quickly I learned to tie a fly from my father-in-law, our fly fishing guru who had been a guide earlier in his day.

We stepped out into the water after leaving our SUV on the side of the road and serpentined through this bamboo looking jungle in the Rocky Mountains that was delightfully surprising for the terrain. I could not wait to step into the water as though I was taking my first big swim. Getting in there was the greatest sensation I had all summer. The coolness of the river, but not getting wet while the heat slipped away from me.

I put my rod in, using the 10-2 cast (like a clock) that my husband had taught me in our yard the night before to practice.  This felt good. I was calm and everyday stresses of life melted away as I stood there with the river flowing over my boots and on my waders. I felt grounded and in a meditative state as though nothing else mattered but being in that moment in the water.

This was my new passion. I had become obsessed with that feeling. The feeling leading up to the car ride with all of our equipment stocked away. When we found our spot, we would pull over our SUV and put on all our gear and cast away our problems in the river.

5 Steps in finding your passion:

1) Try new things. One of the easiest ways to find your passion is by trying new things. When life becomes stale, we become stagnant and lose our childlike wonder for new things. One resource out there helps identify those by Find your passion. By trying new things, we might just surprise ourselves about an activity that we have always wanted to do but thought that we weren’t talented enough, smart enough, have enough time, or are driven enough to do it. Just signing up for a new class whether it’s fitness, pottery making, cooking, or a new subject we’ve wanted to learn, bringing something new to our lives, will make us excited and energized about a new activity.

Photo credit:  Here

2) Get out of your routine. Waking up everyday and doing the same thing can become a monotonous and tedious chore. How many times do you go to work the same way everyday? Look at how finding a new route to work can increase your creativity: creativity. Something as simple as changing your route to work or the day you go grocery shopping, can help to bring about a newness or fresh perspective to your life. When we get stuck in our everyday routine, it makes it difficult to find our passions. By changing a couple, what seem minor things, can help to open our minds to different possibilities because we’re not looking at the same sheet of music everyday. Think about changing a few notes and you’ll have a whole new tune.

3) Write a list of what you liked doing as a kid. I know that this sounds kind of silly but it’s so effective. If you write down at least 3-5 activities or things you just couldn’t get enough of doing as a kid, you may find how this applies to what your passion is today. For example, if you like playing teacher as a kid, maybe a teaching profession is your passionate purpose. If you liked to write poems, maybe a passion is with words where you would be a really great writer, editor, or copywriter. Check out potential freelancing jobs to look into: write online. You could end up turning a passion and side business into something you could do full-time!

Other examples of how your childhood pastimes could lead you to your passion is if you grew up playing Barbies where Barbie and her friends built lots of relationships and life-like scenarios; doctor’s office, pool party, or horse pasture, might give you insight into how you like being around people or building relationships. Maybe a job in sales, being a psychologist or psychiatrist, social worker, or human resources professional could be your forte. I love this resource with multiple quizzes to try to find the career that is best for you: Career quiz. Try and think about what you loved doing as a kid and the hours you spent on your passions and apply those ideas to your life and interests today. You’ll be surprised just how much you can find out about the core of you and that nothing much has changed when it comes to passions.

4) Ask those closest to you about your interests. Sometimes we’re blind to our own likes and dislikes when it comes to finding our passion. Having an outsider’s perspective of what really makes our eyes light up can help us narrow down our passion. When we’re trying to find that thing we like, it could be right in front of our face but we’re looking in all the wrong places thinking that we want to be an astronaut when we really just like looking at the stars because we’re a dreamer that wants to help other’s reach their dreams too.  Ask a friend, significant other, relative, mentor or anyone else who knows the core of you, 3 passions (or activities) that you really like. This is a good starting point about what others see about you that you may be blind to see yourself.

Compare this list and your passions as a kid to see if any match up. This will help you narrow it down!

5) Lastly, think about what makes you smile. One of the ways that I started to figure out my passion was by making sure to take pictures wherever I went. Based on how big my grin was in a photo, was how I would determine whether or not I was really passionate about what I was doing. Seeing myself in every fly fishing photo, showed a massive grin. Nothing could buy that grin of happiness or contentment. The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words so if you want to gauge just how passionate you are about things, start taking pictures while you’re doing different activities. You’ll be surprised just how much you will learn about yourself and you might just pinpoint your passion!

Here’s how I found mine: