Jordan Mallah of Steadfast Freedom Yoga is a native New Yorker who has studied and taught yoga since 1996 both in the US and internationally. As a Certified Anusara Yoga Teacher, his uplifting and inspiring teaching style inspires students of all ages and levels of experience to live fully from their heart and celebrate life each day. Jordan specializes in helping people heal their minds and bodies by freeing themselves from the limitations of pain, drawing upon precise postural alignment and therapeutic biomechanics. Jordan’s myriad life experiences range from working as a corporate consultant with the global management consulting firm Accenture, to volunteering with the Peace Corps in Peru, where his primary focus was on helping indigenous Andean villagers curb their rate of malnutrition by creating sustainable, community.

Below is our recent interview with him on Blog Talk Radio, The Passions and Possibilities Project:

Thank you Jordan and Happy Passioneering!

Brian Peters is a respected and well-known travel blogger who keeps
travelers informed about the least expensive ways to travel around the
world.  He is the author of the e-book, No Debt World Travel: The Ultimate Guide to Traveling Around the World – Even in an Economic Downturn. Peters’ blog, NoDebtWorldTravel.com, was recently recognized by BootsNAll Travel as one of the “Best Round-the-World Travel Blogs”
for 2009.  We interviewed him earlier this month: check out what he has to say about expressing his Passions!

SO: What’s your definition of “passion”?  

Passion is what you THINK about day and night, an idea or concept that drives you forward, inspires you, gives you hope.

 Passion is when you would do ANYTHING to have a particular action or objective achieved.

 SO: What are your biggest passions for serving others, and how are you expressing them (also include hobbies and volunteering)?  

After losing my job, I decided to travel around the world. When I got back I had so many questions from friends and family about how to do it, I decided to put it into an e-book. Then I decided to add audio and video to help those who learn in different ways.

 Guest blogging, conducting interviews and other ways of getting the message out that travel does not have to be expensive and it is not just for ‘other people.’ People sometimes have such a inferior feeling of themselves compared to other people. We need to help each other break out of our mostly self imposed PRISONS by encouraging others and showing our successes to prove it can be done.

SO: Your biggest challenge(s) in leaping into your passions for serving others, and how you have addressed them?  

The biggest problem is passion may not immediately show a way to translate into putting food in your mouth and keeping a roof over your head. Pursuing your passion often means you need to leave a large organization to focus specifically on your passion.

 Let’s be clear. There is no security when you’re working for someone else, whether it is a large corporation or a private family run business.

 Everyone wonders, “How can I make money doing this?” Because as much as we love our passions, you’ve got to eat. The ideal life situation would be to make money from what we love.

SO: Your experience of “prosperity,” as you define it, in making the leap? 

The prosperity of time and opportunity. I lost my job and received a severance package. As opposed to picking up the want ads, I decided to pick up a plane ticket. I didn’t know when I would get another chance like this.

 At that moment that was prosperity. I felt like the richest man in the world. I had the time AND the opportunity to fulfill a life long dream.

 SO: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in making the leap?

That it is not as scary as it appears. You’ll plan but at some point you need to make a leap and have faith in yourself and your abilities to make your dreams come true. I always felt that if someone else did it, I can do it too.

 The other thing is that when you make a leap, other opportunities appear. Because you are stretching yourself, meeting new people, taking on new skills and projects, a whole new universe of OPTIONS becomes yours. Now you can be proactive, choosing what you want, as opposed to being reactive and letting the world exert its force on you.

SO: What’s your support system look like; how did you create it?

First my family is my most immediate support system. Without their love and encouragement I could have never done any of this.

 The other important support system are the other travel bloggers and entrepreneurs doing the same things I am doing. Having that in common with other people keeps me motivated and encourages me to move forward. Writing a book and being a blogger means I work by myself. But I can connect with people anytime and all over the world with the use of the Internet. Technology like Twitter, Facebook, email and Skype mean I don’t have to be alone unless I want to be alone.

 Communities of like-minded people are online everywhere, can encourage, support and keep you accountable. I searched out these groups and became a contributing member. What I contributed I have received in turn.

SO: What wisdom do you have for someone who’s scared/discouraged about their own leap?

Every day you are dying!

Every day you are dying!

It’s morbid, but it is the truth. Every day we are all approaching the end of our lives. What will you regret? What will you wished you had done? Most people never said, “I wish I had worked in the office more.”

Understand that for anything we want to do or learn, there is a website, magazine, book, e-book, blog, podcast, online class or school for whatever we want to learn. The only thing that holds us back is our own fears. Our personal prisons, as I like to call them.

 SO: What’s your next big milestone?

 My next big milestone is releasing my own e-book package on round the world travel. After that, creating income so that I can travel indefinitely or live anywhere I want in the world without being tied to a particular location

 Thanks and Happy Passioneering Brian!

Making a Difference: The Role of Realism, Perseverance and Requiring Less

By Donna W. Hill

http://www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/3885

Song written by Donna about Passions (Click here)

Making a difference means challenging assumptions and expectations. To endure while bucking the tide requires Realism, perseverance and the ability to thrive with less support than others require.

Realism is embracing the negative and the positive. If we wear rose-colored glasses, we miss the things that are calling out for change, the places where we can truly make a difference. If we only see those places of lack, we miss the foundations upon which change can and must be made.

My quest is to challenge assumptions about what it means to be blind. Decades of technological innovation have enabled some blind people to excel in careers never dreamed possible like engineering, chemistry and auto mechanics. Nonetheless, unemployment remains stuck at seventy percent, Braille literacy has fallen to ten percent and society seems comfortable supporting most blind adults through government programs.

My weapon in the struggle is my ability to write about the people in the trenches who are slugging it out against low expectations and apathy. I challenge myself to be a better writer and a better editor.

The odds are against making much progress. Nonetheless, I proceed, because I know that there are many talented blind Americans who want to contribute to society and are turned away before being given a fair chance or an equal education.

I also know that Braille has inestimable value. I was one of those legally blind kids who was supposed to act sighted, even though it meant I read so slowly, that, had I wanted to finish my homework, I would have had time for nothing else., I had constant headaches from having to get so close to the book. Audio learning, which I began in college, is not literacy. Listening was what humans did before the written word. It took decades to repair the holes in my education.

When I began this journey several years ago, I would have never dreamed that the New York Times would feature a blind Wall Street executive calling for Braille’s abolishment! Nonetheless, it happened. Who am I to argue with someone who has achieved so much using no Braille whatsoever? Her secret is that she has assistants to read to her and to take her dictations and put them into English. Most of us don’t have funding for such luxuries, and many who do bristle at the thought of being so dependent. Nonetheless, that article was a springboard for discussions among blind people as well as for me to use in my writing.

If I don’t stay grounded in reality, I could easily fall into the trap of believing that my efforts are pointless. In order to persevere, to continue to be an advocate at the highest level of my abilities, I must set aside my need for immediate gratification. Certainly, things happen that encourage me, and people express their appreciation. I admit that I need that. I know, however, that I am capable of proceeding with a lower than average amount of re enforcement

If you or someone you know would like weekly passioneering inspirations, based upon the wisdom of hundreds of Passioneers™ around the world, please let us know at passioneers@yahoo.com.  No cost. No spams. Below is our first Passioneering Tip for 2010, and we’ll be sharing these every week to subscribers on Tuesday mornings.  Happy Passioneering!

Weekly Passioneering Tips for Those in Vibrant Service

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Passioneering Tip #1

If you want to serve even more vibrantly and prosperously in the world, then dream a bigger dream. Passioneers dwell in the world of infinite possibilities!

 Quote

“The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than to cast off your own limitations and to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do.” (Brian Tracy)

Affirmation

Today I boldly unleash a bigger life in service to others, easily and gracefully, without worrying about the “how”. My courage and willingness are more than enough.

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Thank you for being in service and for sharing the message of infinite possibilities.  

Happy Passioneering,

Sue Oliver, The Passions and Possibilities Project

We interviewed Rocky Reichman, founder of LiteraryMagic.com, on our Blog Talk Radio show, on January 6, 2010.  He’s a brilliant young man, Renegade CEO (thanks to Shonika Proctor)  who’s received many accolades in the literary community, including from William Safire!

His interview follows below:

SO: What’s Your Definition of “Passion”?

Passion is something that’s more than just an interest. It’s something that fuels you and makes you willing to dedicate hours of effort, a day or even your entire life to.

SO: What Passions Are You Expressing?

My biggest passion is writing.  I first started to express that by writing novels. When I was 12, I wrote my first novel, when I read the Magician’s Apprentice.  That took about three years.  …My second book took three days.  One January vacation, for Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, I sat down from 8am to 11 at night and just wrote, wrote, and wrote, and got that book out.  I decided to publish my own online literary magazine, Literary Magic.  I also got into etymology, which is the study of the roots and history of words. 

SO: So Has This Been in Your Heart and Your Skill Set?

Through Literary Magic, I’ve really come into contact with amazing people.  Writers and editors around the world.  I’ve not only learned about these people, but also how to interact:  customer service, marketing.   I’ve written some short stories, some columns on literary sites.  Once I discovered Twitter and everything, I met Shonika Prcotr, who has been very helpful to me.  William Safire contacted me, and he called me a “word maven”.  A few months after that, McCraw Hill contacted me for an internship.  That gave me even more opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship and the world of business.

SO: What Are the Challenges that You Have Face and How Have You Move Through Them?

With Literary Magic, it’s been the business model, and building readership.  As a writer, writers love their works, and put all of this effort into their creation.  So if an editor wants to make a change, sometimes that writer is not always open to that change.  So definitely phrasing, giving, learning to give criticism in as positive a manner as possible, that’s always been a challenge.  In my personal life, when I had some family losses, that was definitely a challenge; however they’ve led me to build up resilence and create new projects from that.  When my father passed…he used to tell us these stories.   …So one day we decided to type them up, and we now have it in the published version.

SO: What Else Would You Say to Somebody Who Is Making the Leap?

No matter what, you have to get it out.  Don’t let anyone tell you that what you have to say isn’t worth anything.  It’s always worth anything.  First of all, to you it’s worth something.  And also to your friends and family.  And likely the information or advice or even just the message that you have to share can radiate and help people anywhere.

SO: What Would You Say to Someone Who Doesn’t Know What Their Passion Is?

I think you have to try different thing out.  Read a lot of fiction, even if you don’t want to be a writer, because fiction isn’t just entertaining.  It teaches us about life.  A lot of people think “I’m a non-fiction person, I only read to get information.”  Fiction can open us up to different worlds and possibilities.  Another idea is to go to a college website and look at all of the different subjects, and you really get a feel for what you can do.  Whether it’s writing or biology or if you want to be a doctor or a scientist or law enforcement.  There are so many possibilities.  I was lucky enough to once I read that book Magician’s Apprentice, I knew I wanted to write and kept doing it.  Never wall yourself in.  Of course you want to focus, but never say “I have my passion, and this is all I want to do.”  Always be open to new experiences.  Try something that you normally wouldn’t be exposed to. And then see what happens.

SO: How Have You Stayed Focused?

I like to write a lot of stuff down, write plans, and goals.  I always make sure that on one day, if there’s only time to do one thing, then I get that thing done.  And then I have a task list…if I end up having surplus space then I can do this or that, but I always have one thing that I know must get done that day.   Another thing, which isn’t totally going off focus, but if something comes in, like a quick email…something under 4 minutes, I will try to do it right then.  Otherwise those things just pile up.  Then it can ruin your schedule later in the week. 

I didn’t read Getting Things Done, but I did read an article by the same article that shared the same topic.  I learned a lot about productivity and time management from there.

SO:   When I Say “Do What You Love and the Rest Follows,” Would You Agree?

For everyone I have interviewed, this has been one of the underlying tips that they have all advised:  “That you have to find a way to do what you love and get paid for it.”  If you first don’t succeed, you can always try again.  You can even have a job and make sure that you do your passion on the side.  Like if you’re a lawyer or doctor, then you still have time to write novels on the side.  I know some people at McGraw Hill that works crazy hours and are writing fantasy novels on the side.

SO:  What About Prosperity, the Money Aspect of Doing What You Love?

I think doing what you love, you don’t need to make money at it.  You’re doing it because you like it.  You’re not doing it because you want to make money.  Of course, one of your end goals might be to make money from it.  If you can, then that will ultimately give you more time to focus on your passion, and not to worry about other ways to make money or retirement or college savings. 

Don’t think that in order to be an author to have a chance you have to quit your job and dedicate your entire to writing.  Even if you do get your work published, there are lots of writers out there.  For all the ones that are best-sellers that can take off the day, there are many more writers that have to have other jobs, who might not want to sit writing all day.  You can get a job, pay the bills and work on the side. Plan it out.  Write an hour a day.  Write five pages a day.  If you do the calculations, it won’t take too long to get your book out, maybe a few months.

Write or brainstorm some of it now.  Right after this interview ends.  If you want to write a book and haven’t had the time to do it.  Stop what you’re doing and take five minutes to brainstorm what it is. Maybe even write a sample paragraph or a log line – a line about what your book will cover. Just jump right into it.

Thanks Rocky and Happy Passioneering!