Prioritize Your Passion


Prioritize Your Passion

Do you prioritize your passion? Or do you let other things get in the way of the creative endeavor that fuels your excitement? Today we will be looking at how to prioritize your passion and make time for your dreams. I’ll be sharing the artist/curator who inspired this post with his timely advice as well as how to

Recently, I took a class from the Emerging Curator’s Institute, with my daughter, Summer. The class was called “Curating as Artistic Practice.” This was an ideal experience for my daughter who is going to school to study Art History and Museum Studies. For me, It was an opportunity to learn a bit more about something she loves. What surprised me was the way I was personally inspired by one of the workshop presenters.

Wing Young Huie
Wing Young Huie’s recent book, “Chinese-ness”. Photo by Steven Zhang

Wing Young Huie

Photographer Wing Young Huie was born in Duluth, Minnesota. His art education consisted of one basic intro to art class. He did fall in love with photography, though. While he went to the University of Minnesota and received his degree in journalism in 1979, 10 years later, he was fired from his job, He says that getting fired forced him to make a change. That was when he began to prioritize his passion. That was when he became a full-time photographer.

Eventually, he went on to create public art installations all over the Twin Cities as well as cities like Chicago. He would ask strangers if he could photograph them and then take hundreds of pictures as they went about their everyday lives, waiting for a bus, talking to neighbors, sitting on front stoops with their families. These photographs show the complexities of life in the day to day interactions within a community, He tried to remove all assumptions. He doesn’t use didactics, but instead encourages interpretation, allowing the viewer to seek the story behind the photographs.

Third Place Gallery

In 2011, Wing opened Third Place Gallery. It’s a place where guest artists give informal talks on how they do their art. Art takes a variety of forms including music, film, performance art and more, all topped off by ping pong and karaoke.

Wing has won countless awards, including most recently, being named as the McKnight Foundation’s Distinguished Artist in 2018. He says that he never would have done any of it if he hadn’t gotten fired from his job.

To learn more about Wing Young Huie and The Third Place Gallery, Check out: https://www.wingyounghuie.com/.

Wing’s Parting Advice

Wing also gives lectures and workshops like the one my daughter and I took at the Wiesman Art Gallery. That day ended with the 3 presenters participating in a panel discussion to answer questions posed by artists, gallery owners, and curators. Someone asked what their best piece of advice was. Wing said that you must prioritize your passion. Make a plan. Schedule it in. Then, do it! It has to become part of your routine.

It’s so easy to allow the practical to get in the way of your passionate pursuits. This has been a huge problem for me lately. At first, it began with some “grief-brain writer’s block.” But then, when I really did want to write, All of the stuff I need to take care of started getting in the way. What Wing said really hit me!

How do your Prioritize Your Passion?

Wing really laid it all out in his impromptu answer.

Prioritize Your Passion

Make a Plan

What is getting in the way of your writing time? Is it work, play, kids? Figure out how to set aside productive writing time. This may mean cutting back on TV or social media. Sometimes it can be helpful to keep track of what you do for a couple of days. Just write down what you do and how much time you spend doing it. This isn’t about passing judgment on your schedule. But you can see how you are spending your time and then decide what changes you would like to make to prioritize your passion. That’s important. Some things you may be able to reschedule. Somethings can be cut back. Other things you might decide to eliminate altogether.

Part of making a plan might include making accommodations. Would it be helpful to close yourself in a room that’s dedicated to writing? Maybe you need someone to commit to watching your young kids for a couple of hours. If you have teenagers, you might have to get them on board. Figure out possible pitfalls and decide on the best way to overcome them.

Schedule it

Whether you use a paper planner or a digital planner, you have to get a handle on your schedule. I was always a fan of the old school paper planners. Unfortunately, that means you have to carry your planner with you all the time. So I bit the bullet and transferred everything into my Google planner. There are other digital planners, but they all have one amazing thing in common, If you have a smartphone, you will always have your schedule at your fingertips,

This turned out to be a great change for me. Another bonus is that with digital planners if you have an appointment that repeats daily, weekly, monthly, etc, you can save yourself a lot of time by letting the planner replicate the appointment. And yes, your writing is an appointment you have with your laptop (or whatever tool you use to write with).

What time of day would be best to write? It may be different from day to day, depending on your schedule. For example, most days I write in the morning. But on Wednesdays, I have a grief group in the morning, so I schedule writing in the afternoon on those days.

Do it. Prioritize Your Passion!

So, I’ve been following my plan for about a week. How is it going? Pretty well. Not perfect, but things are definitely going in the right direction. And really, that’s good enough for me right now. I don’t expect perfection at this point. Some days end up getting taken up by appeals to medicare or dealing with appointments. Other days I don’t get out of bed because I had a nightmare about my husband’s death and I can’t face the world. But most days, I get up and go from one scheduled item to the next. Thankfully, Writing is one of them. When you prioritize your passion, you are giving yourself permission to do what you want and need to do most.

How are you going to prioritize YOUR passion?

What Are YOUR Thoughts?

I’d love to hear in the comment section, below. I appreciate my readers as well as the writing community. To show that appreciation, I use Comment Luv. Just leave a comment below and your latest post will get a link next to it. Thank you!

About Heather EricksonThe Ericksons

I am an author, writer, and speaker and homeschooling mom of 3. Since doctors diagnosed my husband, Dan with stage IV lung cancer in 2012, I’ve focused my writing and speaking on helping cancer patients and their families advocate for themselves and live life to the fullest, in spite of their illness. My goal is to help people face cancer with grace. My books are available at Amazon.com:

The Memory Maker’s Journal 

Facing Cancer as a Friend: How to Support Someone Who Has Cancer

Facing Cancer as a Parent: Helping Your Children Cope with Your Cancer

I also blog about living with cancer at Facing Cancer with Grace.

Have any questions or comments? I would love to hear from you! By commenting, you agree to the terms of my privacy policy.

2 comments on “Prioritize Your Passion

Yep, sometimes you have to make a plan to pursue creative pursuits. It’s so easy to let other things get in the way.

Hi Liz. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to letting things get in the way of my creative pursuits.

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