Life Passion Tips from Certified Personal Coach, Barrie Davenport

I had the distinct pleasure to interview Certified Personal Coach, Barrie Davenport. She shared several keys to success and many tips on how to live your life passion.

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your background and how you got started with helping people live their life passion.

Barrie’s Response: I am a certified personal coach, author, and blogger in the personal development field. Most of my professional life was spent as a public relations consultant and executive, promoting people in their own passions. Also, I spent several years supporting my oldest daughter in her passion to become a professional ballet dancer. In fact, I put my PR consultancy on hold for a few years so that I could drive my daughter 60 miles round trip twice a day to her ballet studio for training. I spent hours a day in the car both with her and my other two children. When she left home, I suddenly had lots of time on my hands, but no desire to go back to my PR career. I felt empty and passionless, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with my life. I’d spent years supporting others in their passions, but I felt I was standing on the sidelines. I started a journey of seeking my passion by taking assessments, reading and researching, going to workshops, experimenting with various interests – and I finally uncovered my passion of helping people in their own journeys of self-discovery. I went back to school to get certified as a coach and started a coaching business. Then I started blogging to promote my coaching worked and discovered a passion for blogging, writing, and connecting online. I started my first blog, Live Bold and Bloom, on a variety of personal development topics. Now, I’m launching BarrieDavenport.com to focus specifically on helping people uncover and live their life passions.

2. What are your top must read books of all time?

Barrie’s Response: I’m always reading both fiction and personal development books. Some of my favorite personal development books include Fearless: Creating the Courage to Change the Things You Can, by Steve Chandler; The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle; The Element, by Ken Robinson, PhD; Loving What Is, by Byron Katie; The How of Happiness, by Sonja Lyubomirsky; and The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge, MD.

3. What are you currently reading?

Barrie’s Response: I just started the book The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin and I’m re-reading Supercoach: Ten Secrets to Transform Anyone’s Life, by Michael Neill.

4. What habits have you developed that have helped you become a better version of yourself?

Barrie’s Response: The most powerful habit that I work on every day is staying focused on the present moment. When I can detach from the past or the future, I am much happier and more content in general. I try hard to find my happiness in the thing I am doing in each moment. Also, I am working on the habit of maintaining a learner’s mindset and becoming less entrenched in my own beliefs and thoughts. This is particularly helping for those who are seeking their passions, because often a life passion reveals itself in something that isn’t part of one’s existing life paradigm. You must stay open to all possibilities.

5. What would be your personal 5 keys to success?

Barrie’s Response: 1. Take action. 2. Take action. 3. Take action. 4. Take action 5. Take action. I guess you can see that for me success involves doing more than thinking. As a personal development teacher and learner, I get stuck in my thoughts easily. Thinking and planning has its place certainly. But once you have done your mental due diligence, you must act, even if you have self-doubt and fear. Very few things in life come with a guarantee. If we wait for certainty, we will remain paralyzed. Learning to embrace uncertainty and take a leap of faith is the key to success. And yes, success involves having some failures.

6. What are some tips for living your life passion?

Barrie’s Response: The first tip would be to give yourself the time and space to find your passion (if you don’t know what it is). It takes time, self-reflection, research, and experimentation to uncover the strong interests which might become your passion. I believe that passion emerges when you do this self-discovery work and balance what you learn about yourself against your values and the vision you have for your life. When there is a higher purpose to your passion, you will be even more engaged in what you are doing. However, just finding your passion isn’t enough. You must take the actions (yes, action again!) to make it real in your life. This may involve simplifying your life, rearranging your priorities, making some difficult choices. But in the end, living your passion is so satisfying and fulfilling that the changes and sacrifices you may have to make will quickly diminish in your mind. Living your passion infuses every area of your life with joy. Also, view the process of recreating your life around your passion to be passionate work itself. Don’t wait for the final result to feel a sense of fulfillment. If your passion is to be a writer, don’t wait until you publish a book to be passionate. Have passion in the process of writing. The practice to become proficient at your passion puts you in that “flow” state of mind which is deeply absorbing and satisfying.

7. Tell me about any upcoming events, products, books, or services that you’re offering.

Barrie’s Response: Anyone visiting my site can download a free copy of my 42-page guide called The Passion Myths: 6 Lies Keeping You From Uncovering Your Life Passion. I have written a book called The 52-Week Life Passion Project that will be released in November. It includes weekly lessons and actions to help people begin the process of uncovering their passion and making it real in their lives. If they read one chapter a week and follow the actions, they will be living a different life in a year’s time. Just the self-discovery work alone in this book can be life-changing. I also offer personal life passion coaching to individuals who want to streamline the process and make it happen more quickly. And in Spring of 2013 I’ll be conducting an online interactive course called The Path to Passion.

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