The Path Not Taken

A few years ago, I decided my life needed more passion.

I've heard that if you truly love what you do, you'll never "work" another day in your life.  As I began to analyze where I was in my life, and specifically in my career, I discovered that while I was happy with my job, I didn't have a passion for it.  And while that discovery was an important one to make, I still have a mortgage to pay and a cat to feed.

Knowing that quitting my day job wasn't an option, I started to think about the things in my life I really truly enjoy and how I might find ways to turn a profit from those passions.  I love writing and I also love health and fitness. And that's where the idea for this blog came from.

Through writing my blog (and from my work experience and education in journalism), I applied for and was accepted in January to become a freelance writer for LIVESTRONG, the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  Here are links to a few of my articles:

The Best Weight Training for Women
How Fast Can I Lose Weight on a Treadmill?
The Best Exercisers

Working for LIVESTRONG has been a great experience so far.  I'm getting opportunities to write about things that I am interested in and excited about, but I'm also finally putting to use that journalism degree I earned so many years ago.  On a related note, I'm happy to report that my latest LIVESTRONG article that was rejected last Tuesday by a copy editor was overturned on appeal, and was recently published.  You can see it here: The Best Gym Shoes For Women.  I definitely appreciate their support, and it's kind of nice to get to gloat when I fought my case and won (hehehe).

When you look at the kinds of things that fill your days, from work, to school, to family, and even to your workouts, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and not really analyze whether or not you love these things that you are doing.  For years, I just worked, and I was happy, so I didn't give it too much thought.  But now that I am getting to do a lot of things that I am really passionate about (blogging, writing for LIVESTRONG, and teaching Zumba), I feel like my life is a lot richer. And I don't just mean $$.