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Passion!
Kelly Gunther • July 13, 2020
What's your love?
This week on the blog, I want to talk about your passion! What's yours!?
I felt inspired to write on this topic for a few different reasons & here’s why!
A month ago I was invited to a speaking/coaching event that I was super excited about & couldn’t wait to give my presentation up in front of a group of people & get coached on where & how to get better. That has now moved to online & will look a little different, instead of being in front of an audience, I’ll be so, but behind a computer screen, as this feels is the “new normal.”
The reason why I felt inspired is because now I get another chance to start to tell my story & yet be able to start picking it all apart to know when & where to really dive in & make sure I know what I’m saying is making all sense! Cause I know me, and I know sometimes it can be well all over the place! Practice really does make perfect! When you practice right!
I felt inspired actually just by my own personal story just with everything that I have gone through. I say that more so because of giving a presentation on the topic of skating & finding your passion, but yet never letting it define you either, but having something you love that makes you so happy that you are just truly so passionate about it! Are a few examples!
My niece's skating coach Emily. Leah(my niece) always said I’d be good friends with Emily because we were the same person, I didn’t even know who Emily was before I moved & met her in Ohio! I had only just known of her as my niece’s coach! Well little did we know, the 12-year-old, was right & Emily & I became fast friends! My brother who also knows her would have said the same thing! It was a friendship where it just clicked! She also being a skater knew about skating & how it was always her love & passion for it, and still is! Now just in another light of coaching & giving back to others along the way! Emily sat down with me to help me go over my presentation as well as sort the ideas out! So with talking out loud made me realize more of how I always loved skating, and how no matter how hard it was, or the training was or even having my learning disability, I never let any of those get in the way, as it was my love for the sport that I enjoyed so much. Just always goes to show no matter how much you love something & you are drivin by it, you won’t let anything stop you!
I see that with my niece who pitches softball, as she loves the sport & is completely beyond passion in it. I see a mirror, imagine of myself looking back at me. She’s driven, determined, and always wants more of it. More of it meaning she now has a 50ft cage in her backyard to practice pitching! I, on the other hand, love it! As I see & know how much better she wants to be, and become!
When we find what we love so much we enjoy it & it doesn’t even seem like “work” because it’s easy for us to love it, and keep at it, and keep getting better & better!
Me being a little older & stepping back & seeing everyone’s passions for what they love, makes me so excited for them as they’ve found what it is!
We can have all different kinds of passions & enjoy them all in different ways as well! For me, I love jogging & just knowing when my body doesn’t hurt, I can enjoy it & be passionate about it, as it’s something that I can push myself as if I was on my skates. I think once we become such an athlete, it always lives within us with everything after! As also for me, with my writing & being driven to getting out there to be able to inspire you! That’s my dream & something I’m passionate about because I know I love what I want to do!
I think once we find something we love so much it just becomes a part of who we are! Even for athletes who then retire after their sport, it’s the famous question of “what’s next?” What’s your new love & passion going to be? Some might know, & some might not know, but I truly believe that is okay, because we aren’t all made to be perfect & have it figured out right away, but to keep moving & pushing ourselves to know what our next dream is! We don’t ever have to sell ourselves short & just pick one dream, pick as many as you want! Keep dreaming as much as you love what you want to do!
I also want to say, don’t let it become you or ever define you as much as you are so passionate about it, you have to know who you are within yourself. Don’t let yourself get lost within the sport, but always be true to yourself. I know it is easier said than done because we are doing something we love so much, yes that is completely absolutely fine, just don’t lose yourself within. Always be you for who you are also! Don’t forget that!
Kelly Gunther Blog
Let that sink in for a bit as you read it. You might be wondering what that even means. Spiritual friendship isn’t something you just come across or even recognize right off the bat (at least for me, it wasn’t). It’s a friend, or group of friends, who lead and point you to God. I never knew what it truly was until I joined my church and was introduced to small groups. My small group was a group of women who met every Thursday. We’d do a Bible study together then discuss what we’d learned on the topic of what we were following and diving into. I really started to feel not only what “spiritual friendship” was but more of even the meaning of “true friends.” Before I made these spiritual friendships, I’d never been around a group of women that would pray together and talk vulnerably to help one another with the best advice they could. As it was then handed to God we knew & trusted that He would always point us in the direction of where it was going to lead us. Friendships are very important and always have an important meaning behind them, as every friend you have is - different from one another. That is what is so special about friendships and having so many different ones. Each one is unique and special to you. I just want you to know, I’m not here to tell you how to be a good friend or even be a Spiritual Friend, just want to give my meaning of friendships of my own. As they are very important to me, as it's where good friends become your family as well as lifting one another up. Friends are how you get to pick who you want to be in your circle to do life with. They understand everything that you are going through and will always be there for you, no matter what. The little catch is… You yourself have to be a good friend also. This starts just within you! If you aren’t a good friend to yourself, you can’t be a good friend to anyone else. you have to love yourself to be able to give yourself to others. What you put into you is just as important as what you give out to your friendships. If you aren’t happy with yourself, you won’t be happy with others. To know who you truly are, you have to fully dig within yourself. There are a few pieces. Confidence within you, believe in yourself, love yourself for who you are, and most importantly, stand up for who you are! If you are confident with who you are, you’ll be able to attract confidence in friendships. You want the ones who lift one another up. I love seeing my friends grow in who they are and chase the dream they want. You want to see them succeed, be happy for them, and cheer them along the way. Cause hey! Not everyone is always “perfect” or on their best game for that day. When you need a little belief or whatever it may be, your friends are able to help lift you up and remind you who you are! It's a hard world out there and even a cruel one. Why be so cruel to one another, when you can lift and help one another out? As you succeed, so do your friends. It’s a huge momentum circle where one feeds off another, to then lead into another. The more momentum you have, the more you grow stronger as a bond and always help each other out. Friendships are always for seasons of life. they are put into certain parts of your life, for when you might need that exact friend to be able to help you. Each one has its own story to be able to grow with you. “Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly, to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, ‘Sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.’” C.S. Lewis Love that quote! I hope you can understand how important friendships are, what they stand for, and who they are. Without friendships, you won’t have much. As friendships really are the greatest of worldly goods! Says C.S. Lewis. Also along with C.S. Lewis, I couldn’t agree more, “to me it is the chief of happiness of life’ As it is! Love your friends, as you love yourself At the same time, the more you love your friends, the more you love yourself and are able to love them even more! Be who you are and give what you have! Love one another as God has loved you! Be the friend who you want to have.New Paragraph
Why hello again! I feel it's been a little bit since I’ve posted a blog or even gotten to write. So here we are. I write or post my blogs on what I feel inspires me that week or if something fun & exciting happens. So they might be all over the place & I apologize for that, but that is also just who I am. All over the place! With that being said, let's just dive into it. Have you ever felt you couldn’t make the choice to just say “yes” and go after what you want? There might be a few of us. It’s never easy, just to make the choice to say “yes” it comes with a lot of feelings behind it. Fear, anxiety, not thinking positive, just being scared, scared of the outcome, I mean there’s a lot that could be stopping you. The catch is.. WHAT IF YOU CHOSE TO SAY “YES” I’m not saying there isn’t going to be a lot of work behind it and scary, don’t get me wrong. It is scary, but there’s always the other hand. The hand of choice that you, yourself get to pick. You get to say “yes” even if it's scary in the middle of the storm. If you are going to be brave enough(which I know you are) to say “yes to the choice” you must also have the courage to stick to your vision because it will be tested. That I can promise you myself. Now that I’ve entered the new chapter of a season of life it hasn’t been easy. I won't lie to you. It hasn’t been butterflies & rainbows. Probably because if it was, it wouldn’t be worth it. With every challenge comes a storm. You just have to know you will be tested. That you are stronger than what you think, because of you. Yourself knows the outcome you want. You don’t stop until you get there. The work has been & be will cut out for you, but how are you going to keep working towards what you want? I’m here to say that because you have a choice to say “yes” you have the steps to move you forward, you have a choice to use what you’ve been gifted. It’s a gift you’ve been given. Especially when it's something you want to go after. When others might be questioning you, or you yourself even might be. Know you are strong enough within yourself because you said “yes!” Nobody else did or did it for you, but YOU! You said it for yourself to set your goals & dreams out to whatever they are. Don’t care what others think. This is what you get to pick for yourself. When you might be having those hard days, or questioning yourself because you will have those. It's something that just comes along with it. Know that it is completely normal to have those bad days because that is what makes your YES even stronger. You’ve committed to yourself. You owe yourself everything! Always be proud of what you are going after! I’m proud of you for saying “YES” even when it's so scary & you aren’t sure of the outcome. Write YES on a mirror you see every day or even something you see that can remind you, of what you are going after. Some of the littlest words are yet so strongly. I'm so excited for you to move forward & keep one foot in front of the other. YES! YES! YES! Go say “YES!”