What is My Pursuit of Passion?

What makes someone passionate? 

Why are some people passionate about something and others have no interest? 

I have always wanted to take a trip around the United States and find people that are passionate about something and ask them a simple, yet complex question.

Why?

Why are you passionate about Skydiving?  (insert the passion here).

Well, I am finally about to take that journey.  On 2/25/2017 I am jumping in my car and hitting the road.

Where exactly am I headed?  ——   NO CLUE

Where am I sleeping?  —— THAT IS AN AMAZING QUESTION

Money? —– I DON’T HAVE A LOT OF IT

This trip has been several years in the making and I am finally to set aside my fears and my anxiety and take on the Pursuit.  I had some help to push me along the way.  What a lot of people don’t know about me, even some of my best friends, is that I suffer from depression.  in 1999 I went through a cancer battle that forever changed my life.  I have had so many blessings in my life that were a result of the cancer, so sometimes I have been blessed to go through that difficult experience.  I wont national courage awards, I was featured in national media outlets, on tv, and spoken at many events about overecoming challenges and continuing to pursue your dreams.

There was one issue!  The entire time I was winning awards for my courage, I was depressed.  I had felt like the cancer had taken a big piece of who I was and left it in ruined.  I felt my basketball career, which was my passion, was forever changed and as a young 19 year old I struggled.  My passion has been my greatest gift as well as my greatest challenge.  While my passion drove me to play collegiate and professional basketball (Internationally) It also drove my emotions, expectations, and my fear of failure.  My depression has increased in the past couple of years and it has left a Tsunami sized wreckage in its path.  My constant depression and anxiety drove away the women I loved most in this world, which just continued to put me down a dark path.  After my breakup, I was falling into a darker hole and to add insult to Injury on 12/26 I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer.  After having surgery to remove the tumor, I continued to get bad news when my fatigue, my depression, and my cancer caused my job status to change.  I felt like i had hit rock bottom and I had to do something.  Sleeping for 18 hours a day and not leaving my condo was putting thoughts in my head that I could not fight.

See this trip, while a pursuit of peoples passions, it is also a chance for me to cleanse my soul, to find myself once again, and combat the dark cloud that has followed me around for the past 15 years.

An idea that was created several years ago, along with circumstances that I would not wish on my enemy, have created the perfect storm that finally pushed me to follow something I have always wanted to do.  I hope to find my light again, spark a light with someone else, inspire myself, inspire others, and gain a perspective that this is an amazing world we live in with amazing people doing amazing things.  I 100 percent believe that everyone has a story, big or small, and that story can impact people in ways that we can often not comprehend.  I am hoping to find those stories and those people on this trip.  Document it, share it, and create something special.

The Pursuit:

Along with asking this question of “Why,” I hope to participate in whatever the passionate person loves and compare my experience and feelings to there experience and feelings.  I am sure some of the things I will try I will love.  I am sure some of them I will hate.  I even think some of the things I want to try will be scary, but I want to experience the thrill they get from their passion and uncover what it is that drives each and everyone of us to love something with so much passion that we are willing to sacrifice so much in its pursuit.

My Soul Cleanse:

During this trip I have a list of several things I feel can open up my energy and shift my journey’s direction.

1. Mediate everyday – I am hoping to find amazing and unique places to start my morning off mediating
2. Workout everyday – Thank you Dr. Jason for the amazing LA Fitness Gift.  I will start my days after meditation working out and hoping to take control of my physical body and get it operating at its maximum potential.  Also hoping to lose 20 pounds or so on this trip.
3. Read and Improving my self awareness: I have a list of books that I will be reading while on my adventure.  Along with reading my books, I have weekly schedule check in calls with the best counselor in the world – D.J. Diebold – This guy is a complete stud.
4. Learn from other people’s stories and experiences along my journey.
5. One of the things on my Impossible List is to make someone’s life better every single day.  I plan on daily doing something for someone else to improve their life, improve their outlook on life, or just give them a boost in happiness through kindness. (If you have not seen the Kindness Diaries on Netflix, finish my blog post, subscribe to my social media channels, and then go and watch it!  It will touch your heart.

Specifics of my Pursuit:

Like I stated earlier, I don’t have a concrete plan on where I am going and who I am meeting.  I am trusting in the universe to point me in the right direction and through experiences and interactions, allow myself to follow the path that is set before me.  As of now, I am planning on sleeping in my car 4-5 times a week, AirBnB when I can (only in shared spaces where I can get to know the people that are opening up their homes), and via couch surfing apps.  This is where LA fitness will serve a simple purpose, wake up, mediate, go workout, and utilize their shower to clean up for the day.  Thanks again Dr. J! For food, I have a very tight budget.  With the lost of a job, my funds are at an all time low.  I have been lucky to be surround by amazing friends and family and through some donations I have some cash on hand for gas and for passion experiences.  I have a massive cooler and several healthy food options (to help me loose weight) stocked and ready to feed me along my journey.

Documenting my Experience:

I have created several social media profiles that I hope to document and update regularly throughout my journey.  You can find all of these on my homepage – subscribe and tell your friends.  I plan on using Snapchat for quick videos and pictures on the fly.  Daily Instagram posts of my experiences.  When longer videos are needed to share my experiences, I have created a Youtube Channel to upload.  Twitter – I planned on having a twitter to document amazing things I have heard from amazing people. My blog – please subscribe to my blog as I plan on putting everyting into this blog.  Things I am thinking, videos I have created, pictures that are amazing, and highlight amazing people from across this amazing country.

You can subscribe to all my channels via the Home Page:

People I would like to meet!

You name a passion and I am looking for that person.  I plan on finding these people through word of mouth, google searches, social media, and through self exploration and experience.  It can be someone who is passionate about sports, bull riding, race car driving, tattoo artist, musicians, comedians, scientist, chefs, Yoga, business, Skydiving, etc.  I really don’t care what the passion is, I want to meet that person, interview that person, enjoy their passion with them, and share their story.

If you know of someone who would be interested in sharing their story or passion with me, please don’t hesitate to reach out – call or text at 480-421-8427 or email me at chasemypassion@gmail.com