What is your definition of success?

Are you really good at your job?  I’m talking top of the class, breaking through the glass ceiling good.  Are your reviews stellar?  Do you receive accolades in meetings from peers and supervisors?  Yes?  Excellent. 

Oh wait, one more question, does your job have anything to do with your passion?  No?  Keep reading….

There is a clear difference between success due to hard work and one’s natural ability.  While sometimes the two are one in the same, often times they are not.  Many people I know follow a daily routine.  Wake up, go to work, come home, dinner with family, relax, go to bed, wake up to do it all over again.  And while their time at work is productive and exceptional, there is something missing.  Love. 

Would you give up success quantified by dollars and ratings to follow a passion that didn’t guarantee the same type of success, but guaranteed that the void in your heart was filled?  What if I told you that taking the risk may eventually bring you back to that familiar place of security, just not right away?  Would you do it?

Heather Goldan, owner of Sleepy Owl Studios, is a wonderful example of turning natural talent into success.  While I’ve only known her a short while, I’ve been impressed by her professionalism, warmth and generosity.  Heather is a wife and mother of three boys, but it wasn’t until after having her third child that she turned her passion for photography into something more.  

Before becoming a mother and photographer, Heather was a teacher.  She enjoyed her job and felt fortunate to be around the spirit of kids everyday.  But photography was her passion, the natural talent with which she was blessed.  How could Heather use her artful eye and pair it with her love of kids?  She opened a studio specializing in maternity, newborn and family.  And although nervous at first, in less than one short year, Heather’s work is being featured at the local medical center, a major university and on mantels across the tri-state area.

Heather’s attitude has so much to do with her success.  She believes she is here, preset, and lives by the mantra “because I can”.  If you ever have the opportunity to work with or befriend her, do it!  Below is an example of her work. You can also find her at www.sleepyowlstudios.com. 

I make no apologies that I am a woman grounded in faith, making it paramount in my life.  So, let me be clear on one thing.  God gives us gifts and natural abilities, ones that He asks us to use.  And when we honor that, He rewards us in abundance.  Sometimes giving up security to follow a passion is terrifying, but when you honor God and the gifts He has blessed you with, He will not let you fail.  If He brings you to it, He will bring you through it.