Your Passion, Your Problem, & Your Purpose, Part 1

I'm starting this new series of blogs that has been on my heart to write. It will one day be converted into a non-fiction book once the time is right, but I want to introduce the principles here. These are principles that I have found to be proven in my professional and spiritual life. I pray they will be beneficial to this audience and beyond. This blueprint for success connects your passion in life; your understanding, acceptance, and embrace of your problem; and ultimately the fulfillment of your purpose. Much has been written about these self-help categories, but I seek to blaze a trail behind me for others who have had shortcomings in life as I have. We are not far from achieving success in our lives when we have a plan in place to address and not duplicate our failures.

We start with passion. This can be a nebulous term. It does not have to always be sensual, but it is still rooted in that concept. Here are ways that I define what your passion is or should be in life:

1. A gift or talent that you feel is worth developing for a lifetime. Your passion starts with something that you quite literally were born to do. Inside all of us is a desire to be great at something. Often, however, we neglect the tugging of that passion within us and brush it off as a hobby or a whim. If we seek deep within, we will find that thing and harness it for a lifetime of fulfillment and continual success.
2. Something you do not have to be compensated for. After we have earnestly discovered this passion, we will find that we do not have to make money right away from doing it. Your passion is something that fulfills your soul, not just your pockets. That usually comes later. Truly, if you identify something as your passion, you will want to do it and nothing else. Your passion can honestly become your addiction (which is not so bad).
3. Something that will eventually "work" for you. Here is where the money comes in. After you have developed your passion well enough, people will eventually recognize you for it. They will want to compensate you for your gift or talent. This is how you can convert this passion from just a hobby into your life's work!
4. Something that does not feel like work. Your passion should never feel like a chore. Certainly, there will be difficult, challenging days while you discover what your passion is and how to achieve success from it. However, the stress should be minimal--if not non-existent. If this is something you truly want to do for the rest of your days, then you will feel fulfilled by the rough times as well as the smooth ones. Your passion should give you a reason to wake up in the morning and be excited! Your passion will drive you to stay up late at night to perfect it. It should never be something you have to do. When it does, then you know you have not found it yet.
5. Something you can teach to others. When you have developed your passion well enough, you become an expert at it. Others will want to sit at your feet and learn from you. This could also lead to compensation but more importantly to fulfillment. Consultants are some of the most sought-after people in today's society because they possess the intangible quality of wisdom. Your passion will put you in the class of the elite amongst your peers if you accept the light burden of developing it.
6. Something you can leave a legacy behind you for doing. Your passion will outlive your days here on earth. You will begin blazing your own trail once others grow to respect your work ethic and your "passion" for your passion. Generations remember people for wealth, fame, intelligence, or strength. These things, however, are merely the products of a well-developed passion. They start with the idea that you have a gift that you want it to be more than a hobby. It is your life's work and your immortal reward.

Once you get a grasp of what this passion is, you will usually receive a platform on which to perform your passion. For example, before I became a professor, my initial passion was writing. It was my ultimate goal to write poetry, short stories, and novels. However, teaching is my platform for ultimately displaying my passion for writing. A platform literally is a flat surface that something can stand on. In order to launch your passion into the world, you need a firm platform to stand on so that your passion can soar.

Search your heart and discover what you were created to do in life. No one can tell you what this is. You have to discover it for yourself. The journey may be long to find it, but once you do, it is like finding a long-lost treasure that will change your life and fulfill you for a lifetime.

Thorns & Nectar/Peace in the Raging Storm

Meet Frances Dubose Singleton. She is a retired educator from Sumter, SC, who taught English in South Carolina public schools for 40 years. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Morris College in Sumter, SC, and a master's degree in English from Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA. Mrs. Singleton has written two books of poetry and plans to publish a children's book. Her work centers around the themes of Southern living, Christianity, and purpose. She has given her life to writing, teaching, and having a strong relationship with God--the blueprint for my own passion and purpose.



Therefore, imagine my surprise when I was seated next to this marvelous woman at the Excellence in Teaching Awards Banquet. She noticed on my profile in the banquet bulletin that I, too, am a teacher and a writer, and we enjoyed a wonderful conversation on writing. God has a magnificent way of bringing the perfect people into our lives with impeccable timing.

I asked Mrs. Singleton for samples of her work which I would have gladly paid for, but she gave me two signed copies of her poetry books as "a gift to you as you embark on your career as a writer," according to her. Within the cover of each book, she wrote heart-warming inscriptions. One of them ended with a quaint yet powerful message on becoming an author:

"Bon voyage, my son."

 

 

 

Although she is retired, Mrs. Singleton still found time to educate a young man aspiring to be anything and everything. That night she taught me that whether outside the classroom or beyond the campus walls, educating and mentoring never truly ends. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to meet this special lady and for her to enlighten me with her work and her wisdom. In my eyes, Frances Dubose Singleton is a pillar of Southern poetry and education in this country. I am blessed to know her and sincerely humbled to carry on her legacy.

 

 

For more information about Mrs. Singleton and her poetry, her contact information is below:

 

 

Frances Dubose Singleton

P.O. Box 341

Sumter, SC 29151

francesdsingleto@cs.com

Keys to Starting a Business

I am fresh off of attending a two-day entrepreneurial conference. If you design any type of product or service for a profit, then you are an entrepreneur; you are in business. Most importantly, you are your business. For me, I'm an author, a freelance writer, a writing/editing consultant, and a professor. I also sing on occasion, usually in religious settings. Therefore, building my brand and my business are keys to my success.

I'd like to offer these key points that resonated with me from the conference. I hope they will inspire you.

From Eric W. Davis, pastor, engineer, consultant:

• Have a clear view of your goals in business, your target market, and legitimate obstacles to your business.
• Set reachable goals (preferably perpetual annual goals).
• Balance your time and your talent. Time management increases business effectiveness and profitability.
• Define your concept (product or service) fully by:
• conducting research
• identifying distinctions between your concept and the competition
• asking professionals in your field or industry
• Do not move too quickly into living off of your business before stabilizing it or developing new strategies to remain competitive.
• Once you have gained success, repeat the process with the same concept or a new concept.

Follow-up questions for entrepreneurs include:

• What is the purpose of the business?
• Are you the right person to start the business?
• What risks are involved and can they be managed?
• What is the next step after the business becomes profitable?
• What can you do if the business becomes unsuccessful?

As a writer, this conference enhanced my understanding of my purpose and my ability to grow from simply a person to a brand or an entity. It has increased my awareness of how to serve my customers (my readers) and my clients more professionally.

I encourage all entrepreneurs and those wanted to become entrepreneurs to:

1. Define your vision for your business.
2. Create an effective and long-term business plan for the business.
3. Rally like-minded individuals and professionals to rally around the vision (i.e. attorneys, accountants, consultants, others in the industry).
4. Seek God in every phase of the business to ensure success.

For further information about the Entrepreneurial Conference, contact Word of God Church and Ministries at www.wordofgodcm.org.

Update on "This Is Why We Teach"

I'm writing an update to a note I wrote some time ago on Facebook about a former student. Here is the note:

A freshman girl came into my office today highly upset over her failing grade in my class from the previous spring semester. She vehemently criticized my teaching practices, my grading process, and my credentials. However, as she berated me while I just sat there and swallowed that harsh pill, her eyes began to fill with tears spilling down her heated face.

I explained my syllabus and class procedures to her, but she remained inconsolable. She finally listened to reason when I inquired about the classes she was taking for the summer. She replied that she was doing better in those courses than the spring courses. I posed the question to her that brought her to the gate of epiphany.

"What are you doing in these new classes that you had not done in my class last semester?"

She explained that she studied more and had a better attitude about school. She neglected her friends' requests to pledge or go out to clubs. Finally, she realized that I was not her enemy and that I was trying to prepare her for a cruel world who seeks only the best and brightest for its endeavors. Sometimes the best teacher is harsh reality.

She said to me that she learned a lesson from the failing grade and (I like this part) that she was "woman enough" to confront me about the situation and to work on herself in the process. I told her that students who spend four years or more in college (including myself) don't learn that lesson until it is too late.


This student is a junior now. Yes, she did pledge and was accepted into a sorority. However, she is also on the Dean's List. Days after I saw her name on Dean's List board on campus, guess who walked into my office to give an update?

She did not come to rub her success in my face, but she said, "I came to check up on you, Mr. Lawson, and to say thank you for kickin' my butt in English two years ago. I needed it."

If you are a teacher, then don't give up on your high expectations for your students. You should not have to lower the bar for them. That would be easy. No! They should rise up to the bar you set.

I am blessed and fulfilled by this student's story and more like her. I'm not waiting for my destiny to be fulfilled, but I am walking it out each day that I submit myself to serve God and people.

Statement of Purpose

I recently wrote a Statement of Purpose for a graduate school application. Instantly, I reflected on the past five to six years of my life and my path to my overall purpose in life. It extends far beyond graduate school. I realize that people are unfamiliar with my career path, so I have included excerpts from the statement.

I am originally from Bamberg, SC, which is an hour away from Columbia and closest to Orangeburg, where I attended Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School. It was there in my AP English course that we read the works of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Shakespeare, and other iconic literary writers. Mrs. Lisa Deibel, my English teacher, always told me that my writing was superior and that I should pursue it as a career. I also enrolled in her Teacher Cadets course where I first learned about pedagogy, psychological theorists such as Piaget and Maslow, and valuable classroom instructional strategies. Mrs. Deibel later told me that I should also pursue a career in education. However, I neglected her counsel and pursued an undergraduate degree in business administration and management at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. After graduating there and after five years in the business field, I realized that it was not my passion; I discovered that Mrs. Deibel was right. In college, I should have pursued my true passion which is writing and teaching...

Upon leaving the business world, I received a master’s degree in English from National University near San Diego, CA. My coursework included literary criticism, the Romantic and Victorian periods, and major authors such as Walt Whitman and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I wrote my graduate thesis entitled The Blackness of Darkness: Africanism and the Africanist Presence in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which is based on Toni Morrison’s derivative of African American literary criticism. After graduating, I received my first teaching position at Hampton School District 2 in middle level English/Language Arts. Three years later I accepted a position as a full-time instructor teaching developmental English, freshman composition, and literature courses at Morris College in Sumter, SC, where I am in the third year of my tenure. In 2012, I was awarded the Advisor of the Year Award at Morris...

During my years in education, I have also developed as a writer. In 2013, Claflin University in Orangeburg will publish a pedagogical essay I wrote entitled Back to the Future: Approaches to Best Practices in Reflective Teaching. I also have compiled a collection of poetry that I will publish this year entitled The Very Least of Me, and I am completing a fiction novel entitled City of David that I would like to publish this year as well. Moreover, I am a member of the South Carolina Writers Workshop and have attended its annual conference in Myrtle Beach. The group meets semi-monthly to read and critique each members’ writing samples of various genres, including poetry and fiction...

I ended the statement with this...Preparation remains the key to success in any journey toward purpose, and I will pursue [it] diligently because it is the beginning of my life’s work.

Our Friendship That Never Was

Dean Rockwell worked in the graphics/printing department at Morris College where I also teach. When I first met Dean, I thought he was a curmudgeon who was bitter about his job and his home life. He scoffed at the first print job I gave him. However, over time I realized that he was far from cantankerous. He liked motorcycles and had pictures of them that he drew on the walls of his office He also displayed scupltures of spaceships from the Star Wars movies.

As we grew to know one another, I found out that he had a passion for rescuing stray pets and keeping them in his own home. By his last count, he had some 30-40 pets living with he and his wife. Almost everytime I visited Graphics, he had another story about the latest pet to join his menagerie.

One day our conversations turned to golf. We were both just getting back into the game and discussed clubs, local greens, and exaggerated golf scores we'd shot. We all but made plans to play together. For some reason, we never did.

One evening my fiancee and I saw Dean and his wife at a restaurant where one of my colleagues played music and sang. He was supportive of that colleague and of me. He made accomodations for my print jobs when I brought them to him at the last minute. I know he probably didn't want to do it, but he did just the same.

The last time I saw Dean he looked very sick and was suffering from an illness that I didn't even know he had. His wife held his hand that day as I helped him into his pick-up truck. I told him I'd pray for he and his family. The following week someone in our building told me Dean had passed away.

I yelled, "No!" out loud and held my head in my hands. I was upset because I didn't get to golf with him. We didn't get to enjoy any conversations together outside of work. I found out from Dean's co-worker in Graphics that he enjoyed hearing about the Bible and that her cousin would pray with him at work from time to time. Regretfully, our conversations never turned to God.

Now Dean is at rest, but my soul is vexed. In all my encounters with Dean, I had forgotten that God sends people into our lives as "salt" and "light" to them. More importantly, God sends us has "salt" and "light" to other people! We are in the lives of others to show them a more excellent way that leads to Christ, or that is why people who annoy us with their Bible-thumping and Scripture-quoting are sent into our lives. If the words are not placed in our mouths to offer people, the least we can do is to exhibit a life that is pleasing to God before them.

I'm thankful that I knew Dean. Ours could have been a blessed friendship had I truly gotten to know him more. It was a missed opportunity for both of us: a friendship that never was.

A Holiday Tale

On the Sunday night before Christmas and all through the long highway from my hometown Bamberg, SC, to my home in Columbia, SC, not a creature was stirring, not even my black SUV that had suffered many repairs in 2012 already. As I drove down the lonely highway, the headlights suddenly grew dim along with the interior lights. I attempted to adjust the lights while the car began to slow down involuntarily. Entering Orangeburg, SC, I pulled into a nearby parking lot and turned off the engine, but it would not restart. Thinking it was the battery, I called my stepfather to help me give the battery a boost.

After a few moments and against his judgment that it may be the alternator, I got back on the road to make the near one hour trip I had left to make it home. I felt confident that the battery would hold. When I had reached I-77, the car began to stall again--in the middle of nowhere! However, as it turned two hours to midnight, I made up my mind that I would not be stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Sheer determination powered the vehicle back into the Columbia town limits. As I extended my gratitude toward the heavens, the hapless car began stalling again, but this time no prayer could save her. The lights dimmed, and the engine slowed down. The car stopped on the shoulder of a bridge headed north on the interstate.  The temperature was 35 degrees. It was one hour until midnight, and this time there was no one to call because my cell had died.

If anyone is looking for a happy ending here, then they won't find it here. Over two bridges and with a herd of oncoming traffic behind me, I walked two miles to the nearest exit. I didn't expect anyone to stop and offer me assistance at that hour. My emergency lights could not come on, and days after the Newtown tragedy, everyone's conscience was surely on high alert, especially during the holiday season. After I charged my phone at a nearby convenience store, I called my wife to give me a ride home.

Thinking back to the long walk on the interstate, I was not angry. Incredibly, I have suffered worse things in my life. Many thoughts carried me along during the endless trek. I'm grateful to still be alive and not have suffered a worse fate. At any point during that ordeal, I could have been taken out of this world, yet I remain here today for an awesome, unbelievable purpose. The "fun" in the situation is understanding why did it happen--not just logistically but spiritually. I do not believe in fate; I believe in destiny and purpose through God.

Somewhere and someday that experience will be used to help both myself and someone else. Stay tuned for that update (it may even be in years to come...)