Crashing my “Bike”: Navigating Questions of Passion & Purpose

Last week, I was unfortunately cut loose from my company after three good years. While certainly disappointing, I could, in some ways, see the writing on the wall.

The past few weeks reminded me of steaming down a large hill on a bicycle and feeling the speed wobbles begin to kick in; I knew darn well a crash was coming, but try as I may to course correct, the overwhelming expectation was to brace for the impact. As if to make things less painful…

Those crashes always sucked. They always will. They’re both physically painful and emotionally deflating. If the embarrassment isn’t enough, the blistering strawberries not-so-subtly remind you of your misfortune for an additional two weeks.

Swap “physically” with “financially”, and the same feelings abound at the site of a speed-wobbling crash into unemployment.?

Forgive my diving so far down this cycling analogy, but I’ll allude to a timeless cliche, told in a million different ways: it’s not how many times you fall down, but rather how many times you get back up. In other words, how many times you get back on the bike - or the horse, or the saddle, or the driver’s seat, or however you want to say it.?

If the same bike on which we crash is the same bike which gets us to and from the places we want to go, it’s important our relationship with this vehicle is one of resilience and understanding.?

In which case, that begs the question: what is my bike? Or any of our bikes for that matter?

Frankly, I couldn’t say. If I were to guess, I’d posit our bikes are a composition of our unique skills, interests, and passions we bring into our personal and professional lives.?

Correction: I think our bikes are the composition of the skills, interests, and passions we’re actively deploying in our personal and professional lives. Sometimes we leave our best parts behind, unused.?

Though on occasion we ride those skills, interests, and passions toward dead ends, onto dangerous roads, or smack into the pavement at the bottom of a hill, they’re the aspects of our lives which take us where we want to go.?

Finding Our Passion

As I think about my life and my career that lie ahead, I recall an amazing piece of advice about passion which has stuck with me for almost a decade now.?

At my high school graduation ceremony in 2014, Mike Frost, father of my classmate Nick (as well as renowned musician Max Frost) came on stage to deliver a capstone speech to our graduating class.?

Mike had coached me and my brother respectively in baseball and basketball at different points growing up, and my folks thought highly of him, but I’d never thought him inspirational, or profound in any sense. He was a cool dad whom we liked.?

That night he spoke to us, however, my perspective shifted. I came to understand this was a wise man, both accomplished and learned throughout the course of his life and career. His words came to shine a light on both of these qualities - well, they did in my opinion at least.?

Okay, I’ll quit belaboring the point.?

At the culmination of his mostly light-hearted speech, here’s what he shared with us:

“In all seriousness, if I could leave each one of you with one bit of advice for the rest of your life, it’s this: Do everything in your power to find what you’re truly passionate about in life. Spend as much time doing this as anything else. Once you’ve discovered what that passion is, find a way to use it to make the world a better place.”?

I think about that all the time. I tell people about that all the time. Do I do that all the time? Mm, not really…

Look, we can all agree the strains of life make “following your passion” an easier day-dream than a realistic pursuit. The realities of bills and mortgages, student loans, relationships, children, and everything else that stands in the way of pursuing our proverbial callings aren’t lost on me. I imagine they aren’t lost on most of us.?

It’s hard, though, to deny what Mike said.?

Passion breeds purpose, and purpose breeds impact.?

Transparently, I’ve personally struggled with feeling validated in my impact ever since I left my post as a content writer at FloSports. There I had a genuine and unwavering passion for my subject material, with what I felt was a true purpose: “to give underserved sports the love they deserve”. In my opinion, that did make the world a better place.

Since then, I’m not entirely certain what my purpose has been, nor how I’ve made the world a better place.?

Riding a Bike that Fits

This brings me to another question: have I been riding the wrong bike or, in other words, the wrong passion through the past few years of life??

The answer is probably “no”. In fact, the answer is almost certainly “no”.?

The past three years have played a significant role in my growth as a professional and more importantly as a person. The past three years have also served to bring dozens of incredible people into my walk through life; the lasting impact of the relationships I have now brings more good than my termination brings bad.?

While I haven’t exactly impacted the world in any definable way of late, I do believe I’m better prepared to do so now than I was three short years ago.?

As I see it, I tried out a new bike and got some good mileage from it, but perhaps it’s time to hop on a new one. One that fits better.?

After all, you’re all the more likely to lose control on a bike that doesn’t fit.?

Though an ill-fitting bike offers little in the way of problems on a flat road, it’s on the hills we may find struggles; shoot, going down big hills is the best thing about cycling - what a shame it is to crash on this part!?

And going uphill…well those climbs are challenging and no fun whatsoever, but if we stay atop our bicycle all the way through, we come out the other side stronger and eager to enjoy the downhill ride. That too is tough to accomplish on the wrong bike.?

Assembling the Parts

So maybe it’s finding that right bike, or the right passion, that can unlock the ride of a lifetime.?

On the right bike, even a crash won’t deter us from grabbing the handle bars and getting back in the saddle.?

So, again, I wonder: what does my bike look like? What should my bike look like?

I know I’m passionate about writing, and sports, and music, and people, and good stories well told. These various skills, interests, and passions of mine lie around today like unused bike parts.?

As I get myself up off the ground after this recent crash, my goal is to find a capacity where I can put together some or all of my different parts into a bike that takes me where I know I want to be in my life and career. Where I know I can use my parts to make the world a better place.?

It all sounds so simple, but as we know, life is the most complicated simple thing in the universe.