Inspiration for all my truly, madly, wildly, passionate folks out there:

The way to get good is to get interested. The way to get great is to get downright fascinated and passionate.

Imagine being completely intrigued, and so passionate about something that you simply can’t get too much of it. When you can do that in some particular field of expertise or endeavor, you can accomplish anything you choose to accomplish in that area.

And how do you do that? How do you bring out that passion and intensity of interest in something?

You immerse yourself in it. You stimulate all your senses with it, focus all your thoughts on it, and open all your emotions to it.

At first, that’s an effort, to get yourself to get interested. Yet the more you persist, the more you will truly get into it, and the easier it becomes.

The world will lay reward after reward upon those who live with genuine, passionate interest. Be that person, get yourself interested, build the passion and achieve something truly outstanding.

– Ralph Marston

Read more: http://greatday.com/motivate/100618.html#ixzz0siJ1xxXH

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• Find Your Passion (lifescript.com)
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• An Awesome Article On Passion (jpboodhoo.com)

Happy One Year Birthday Wildly Passionate!

Side Note: This 16th was the one year anniversary for this blog. Thanks for reading and expect great things in the next year! My passion has been ignited and I’m unstoppable! For any new visitors, welcome to the new era of passion and life. Email me at joodieshy@gmail.com if you have any questions about this website or would like to contribute to the blog in some way. It’s great to be wild, and passion is all we have to love our lives. I hope to inspire and nurture your expansion in life/love/career/everything!

What does it mean to be qualified?

Qualified: adj.

1. Meeting the standards, requirements, and training for a position. (via Wiktionary)

Letting cats decide your success?

Hmm… My advice? Invent your own standards!

Really, who has the qualifications to decide what makes a person qualified?! There can’t be a certificate for that… who would give it out? Who would sign it? Cats?!

Inventing New Standards

This is a constant evolution today. It’s always happening, flowing. Change in who can do what, why, when, where, etc. Women can vote. Interracial marriage is legal (still working for the gays). Straight men can wear pink. Gays can work in political positions. Standards constantly being raised and expanded! Sometimes the transformations are big and history making, other times it’s small cultural changes we experience. You have every right to start making your own standards. Nobody else can really know what makes you feel validated, only you can feel that. These examples may not be specifically related to your life or career goals, but see them as inspiration. Maybe you’d simply like to be pioneer of your own life. The first step is to get rid of everyone else’s thoughts, views, opinions, feelings, and fully embrace your own. Your life. Your trail. Blaze on!

Landing The Gig

So you’ve decided to set your own standards. Maybe you meet them, maybe you fall short, or maybe you really are WILDLY QUALIFIED already! Isn’t it great, you get to decide! If you think you still have some growing or learning to do before making any promises that’s important. Nobody wants to feel like a fraud. Many well educated and talented people fear being exposed as frauds in their area (such as many popular artists and writers). Why?

They think someone else is setting the standards for them. It’s not true. If you are doing something, and you love it, enjoy it, or even if you’re terrible at it… you are NOT a fraud. You ARE doing it! It’s impossible to be fraudulent if you did the work and wrote the article, took the picture, painted the walls or whatever your goal is. You won’t get sued for acting with authority. In the court of law, I believe your case would be thrown out for lack of evidence. (Obviously, lying and making up degrees/certificates is the exception. Don’t do it.) If you’re doing ANYTHING you are valid. It just matters that you’re doing. The level of skill and expertise you have really doesn’t matter. It will change with time.

You Are Authentic

If you like something you did when you were 6 years old, but now you’ve thrown it out the door, maybe you should take another look. When you were 6 you loved doing. (Creating, dancing, jumping, screaming…) You were just as qualified to love your work as you are now! You didn’t beat yourself up for making purple trees when you were 6. So act as if you’ve got all you need. You have the authenticity and you still love to DO, just like you did when you were young. So, really, you’ve been deciding your level of success since you were a child. Try to get back in touch with that wild child, loving everything you created, showing-and-telling to whoever would listen, and ignoring the kid sleeping in the back row of the classroom.

Because you love it, you’re qualified to do it. Embrace what you love.

It’s great to be unqualified: make it up as you go along!

This is part of my Unmapped Path life project and writing series. To read more about the series click here. As more articles come together I will compile an easy-to-access page to find my writings on various related topics.

Problem: I’d like to live a life of freedom and passion, but I don’t know what I want to do, I’m not passionate about anything.

We often wonder, what am I supposed to do with my life? It’s something everyone has to think about. It’s something everyone has to make decisions about. But sometimes, we really have no clue what to focus on. What is my passion? What is my purpose? What should I do? In the online world your passion typically fits neatly into a small category of topics called a “niche”. Wouldn’t it be great if we all knew we loved testing laundry products and could follow our dream of being a consumer product reviewer? Or, if we all knew we really loved talked endlessly about fitness tips and nutrition? Or if urban gardening seemed like the most fascinating thing to film? Maybe you are fantastic at drawing frogs? It would be great! We all strive for this! It’s really a gift if you’ve already got it all figured out. But for the rest of us…

Our lives are not neat. We do not fit perfectly into any category. Our interests have range, fluctuate, or perhaps we don’t yet know what we really care about. Here’s what I know:

• Passion develops over time. You are not born with it.
• You must endure a lot of trial-and-error to find some clarity to know your true passions.
• Sometimes you’ll stand alone in your interests. (But if you are still standing after you realize this, you’ve hit gold.)
• Passion is an emotionally charged thing. Stay open to your heart and listen to it (even when it’s whispering).
• Sometimes we scare ourselves out of it (maybe we start getting too real, too alone, too… passionate even!) Have courage.
• Who are your idols? What were they passionate about? Why? Use these answers to develop clarity.
• Lastly, this is common, normal, and completely okay. You have company, you just don’t know it (we’re all wandering on our own paths too).

There are many ebbs and flows our lives go through and sometimes we have to hang out in the fog and wait for things to settle before we can see where you put our feet out next. It’s difficult to find your way with no horizon point. And this can cause a lot of frustration! (It can be very scary too!) But this is exactly what you’re here for. To pave the way in a new direction. To move forward, driven by your own motives, your own heart, your own truths. It’s hard when there’s no lighthouse to show you the shoreline and lead you home. The very essence of your life’s journey is all about leaving the light you know and finding the light you love. Developing a compass is really the best thing you can do to avoid walking around in circles. And in my next article I’ll explain a bit more on this “compass”. For now, make piece with the fogginess surrounding you.

You are in uncharted territory. It’s brave, it’s brilliant, and it’s all yours! You are the pioneer of your own frontier. The possibilities couldn’t be more unimaginable. Be patient with the land. The fog will clear.

The Unmapped Path

This June 17th is… the ONE year anniversary of my Wildly Passionate life project. I have left it largely undocumented, spare a few blog posts and personal writings. However, I’m planning on splitting this egg open and hatching a beautiful piece of inspiration for the world. I plan on releasing it in sections, over the next year. Which you can purchase individually or, (given a moderate deal of interest) get it all printed out into a book for your shelves and coffee tables.

(I don’t know about you, but for me I connect so much more with ink on paper. The medium resonates so much stronger for me.)

This website has focused mainly on articles I thought would help the aspiring business woman. Or, more specifically, a woman wanting to be in control of her life’s decisions and the passionate work she puts out there. This book will be for those people, but expanded to include any human being wanting to walk their own forged path.

I want to inspire, nurture, and create a place of strength for people. Somewhere to draw that courage, power, guts to realize we were never meant to fit into a mold, and trying to do so has only caused us continued suffering and a sense of missing out. Missing out on what? Well, that’s for you to discover. This project is held deep to my heart, the ideas I will present have largely been kept to myself due to the acute lack of kindred souls. The Unmapped Path is one walked in solitude. Completely dependent on you and only you. This presents benefits and struggles of all kinds.

If you need a best friend, have been too fearful to dream, or don’t know why you feel so alone, this is for you. I’m here to show you how to counteract current culture’s “self hating” trap (a common and toxic one we often spread without knowing it). The notion that “you are your own worst enemy”. It isn’t so, and all you have to do is decide. Nobody can stop you. No one.

What I need you to do: Get interested. Check for updates and send in your stories. What path are you on? What stones (or boulders) are blocking your way? Where do you find strength?

This is for anyone! I have read so many books that get close to this message, but have just missed it or jumped right over it. This is the focus, the study, the anatomy of strength. That little spark inside of you that, by nature canNOT go out. Think you’re doomed to a fate out of your hands? You’ll need this just as much as I need to share it with you. Get ready!

“The Boss Of You” Book Review from Joodie Shy on Vimeo.

A really good read for all my passionate women out there desperate to strike out on their own. It’s a dream, and this book will start putting the structure together for you to keep afloat. Write up a business plan, budget and mission statement with this book! I wish I’d taken my business more seriously when I started out. How much time I could have saved!

Crush It! Book Review from Joodie Shy on Vimeo.

I’d say the prospects of working for yourself, by yourself has some pretty heavy effects (good or bad) on your personal life. Often times, the fun parts are over emphasized and given more weight than they deserve. A monthly (or even weekly) review of your tolerance for self-employment side effects is a great investment… for yourself and your business. If it starts to feel less positive and more like a ball-and-chain following you around, you may need a quick break, or a refocus of your energy, towards efforts that feel more positive for you.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about the up sides to self-employment.

• I can pick which days I don’t want to work. I can spread my weekend ‘free days‘ throughout the week if each day is feeling too taxing. Or I can lump a few days together for me-time to do things I enjoy and reward myself for pursuing a very flexible lifestyle.
• Similar to the above, if you’re a night owl, you can work as late as you can bear. If you’re most productive in the mornings, you can get to bed early. One of the largest benefits I’ve had is in discovering my natural sleep-wake patterns and being able to stick to them.
• Entire creative control. No upper management to approve or disapprove your ideas and efforts. Fly as far out of the box as you can!
• Yes, I’m going to say it, you can work in your pajamas (or naked!)
• It provides for an ultra-portable life, in which all you need is your computer and an internet connection and you’re set. So if you love to travel or can’t stay in one place for long you can work wherever you want! Even at the beach if you really wanted to (I’m jealous if you can).
• No distractions from co-workers, bosses, memos or noisy office interference. I for one like a bit of white noise in order to focus, so I usually find some instrumental music, or open my window to the city. So you can work in dead silence or pumped as loud as your neighbors will bear.

In the next section I will discuss the downsides and hurdles to overcome while working for yourself, and how to perform a review of your personal interactions with self-employment. Stay tuned for part 2!

Related articles You May Find Interesting

• 12 Key Tips for Successfully Working Alone. (dancurtis.ca)
• Working Alone Sucks. Stop It! (c3sart.com)

I’ve been wanting to expand the scope of this blog to include all kinds of topics related to running your own, empowered, and awesomely sexy business. Or to put it another way, the topic of enjoying the business of YOU!

Whatever kind of show you want to put on in your life, the behind the scenes reality is always different from the “final performance.” You work and work and work to make things look seamless and almost effortless. To trick the audience into only seeing the beautiful and fabulous part isn’t ever an easy thing. But the outcome is usually something you should always be really proud of and able to “sell” like it’s the most wonderful thing you’ve ever created. And if you believe in that the whole process will be 100x easier.

Loving yourself is hard enough, but being able to proudly put your love on display to the world is tricky. You’ve got to believe in yourself before anybody else ever will.

You can be the brains, brawn and beauty in this work. There’s something truly special about that. Let’s all love our sex, our minds and our bodies. That’s the biggest investment you can make for your new show of life. When there’s no acting involved your show becomes an experience. Something unique each time it happens. Something to grow from and grow into. A truly fabulous feminine experience all your own.

Let’s start with the basics…

Main Entry: voy·eur
Pronunciation: \vwä-ˈyər, vȯi-ˈər\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally, one who sees, from Middle French, from voir to see, from Latin vidēre
Date: 1900
1 : one obtaining sexual gratification from observing unsuspecting individuals who are partly undressed, naked, or engaged in sexual acts; broadly : one who habitually seeks sexual stimulation by visual means
2 : a prying observer who is usually seeking the sordid or the scandalous

Well that sounds down right dirty… or um, actually not so much. I guess anyone who gets aroused by the sight of someone partially undressed, naked, or having some sort of sex would be called a voyeur. I’d say that’s pretty much everyone out there. Strange then for there to be an entire niche of webcam and porn sites classified as voyeur don’t you think? Obviously this definition is lacking in modern terms. Now it’s thought of more as being a “peeping tom”, spy, etc. Meaning there was no consent by the other to be seen.

There’s something definitly different about the internet’s voyeurs. The concept (usually fabricated to stay in accordance with the law) has a certain attraction to it. It’s very nature is that it’s forbidden and secret. It is the idea of simply observing and having no interaction with what goes on. A niche very different from some others where the idea of control is more in play. Either way it’s a huge niche and there are definitly some sketchy things that can be seen.

But most people by nature, from what I know, like to watch things, they don’t want to be bothered to make decisions or act on anything. Something completely spontaneous and ‘sordid’ unfolding in front of your very eyes. It’s an audience, and they will be there… you just may not know it.

Paris Hilton via last.fm

Uber-Celebrities such as Paris Hilton and P. Diddy have literally overhauled their personalities and created some unique form of highly sensational, super-persona. Something the media is absolutely engrossed with. In doing this they’ve turned their name, their quirks, their biggest faults, and their image into entire brand lines. However, it sometimes seems as if their image has overtaken their natural intuition in favor of a narrow view on marketing and making money.  They’ve sold books, fragrances, music, clothing lines, you name it and they’ve gone there.

There are similar parallels in the adult world with woman like Joanna Angel, Jenna Jameson, Belladonna, Sasha Grey, Tera Patrick, and Dana DeArmond defying the typical porn star blah with the special spice and flavor they add to the industry. Passionate vixens with intelligence and savvy.

To me, these people are wildly passionate about their craft– that is creating an enterprise centered around their identities and their ideas. Some have reached monumental levels of success. This desire to capitalize on their unique ability to see the world, taste the world, smell the world, and experience the world is what branding yourself is all about. Success depends on how well you understand the playing field.

There is however, a greedy way to do this, but also a more empowering (and fulfilling) way to do this. I stick to fulfillment and empowerment. (I sleep better at night.) Paris Hilton may not care whether the attention she receives is true or false, negative or positive, because in the end, it meets her needs for her brand… attention = money. I think if I was to create a network of Wildly Passionate People it would be filled with self empowered people who see the value in their skills and abilities. Because you truly have everything you need to be a successful person, CEO or activist… if you do decide to participate in life. (And that’s something I really do believe about everyone.)

Staying true to yourself is hard no matter what. Whether you live a small town life, in an office job, or a bright lights, flashy style kind of life. Identity is a weird thing. You carry it with you everywhere. Sometimes you don’t know what it is, where to find it, or how to understand it. But in the past few years of my life I’ve found how truly powerful it is. In business and in life. The abundance you can bring to yourself is remarkable if you just know how to enlist the aid of your identity.

It will take immense investment, interest, and intellect to pull it all together to form a cohesive vision however.

But never fear because Joodie is here to guide you along the way. Sign up for the newsletter. Leave me comments. Ask me your craziest questions! I’m here to help you find that Wildly Passionate spark within you.

Stories of passionate people:

• Belladonna Radio is Live and On the Air (laist.com)
• Sasha Grey, The Dirtiest Girl in the World: The Story Behind the Story (idiomag.com)
• Shabooty Interview Series: Andy San Dimas (shabooty.com)
• XRCO Awards, 4/16/09 (2/2) (laist.com)