Reach Out To Others Often

Don't hide your passions. Sharing your passions with others is a surefire way to find other people who are interesting and who may also share your enthusiasm.

This past Tuesday, I attended TEDxBoston 2013, and was blown away by the amount of passion and drive just floating around in the air. I will post some of my favorite talks once they are available, but needless to say, there are quite a few amazing things going on in Boston area.

The tagline of TED conferences is "Ideas worth spreading" and that is key. It's not enough to have an idea and keep it to yourself, it's also about sharing that idea with others. From sharing it, the idea takes on a mind of its own and morphs into something beyond your control, something that you couldn't even dream of before. From there you can harness it and run with it to create something wonderful.

Just for fun, I shared a crazy idea I had with a woman at the conference, and before I knew it we had come up with a potential product and market. I had been thinking about it for weeks and had given up on the idea, but by sharing it with others, it turned into something that I couldn't have thought of on my own.

Talking to others can also help to reignite passions. It can serve as a source of motivation. There have been plenty of times when I've felt that my interest and drive in a particular topic was waning, but just talking about it with someone else was enough to jumpstart my imagination and allow me to dream of all the possibilities that could be achieved if I put my full effort back into the activity.

Take my passion for invention for example. I started working on a project a few years back and it was fun for a while, but for the most part I worked on it in isolation. I didn't tell too many people (I felt silly believing I could become an inventor) and I didn't gather input from other sources. So it wasn't long before I gave up with a half thought out concept and a small sense of defeat. I learned something from the process of course, but it wasn't until a few years later when I started again that I realized it was something I actually wanted to do. This realization was primarily from talking about it with others, and seeing what ideas were sparked from just a few minutes of conversation.

It doesn't take much, just mentioning something you're passionate about it is often enough to spark a connection. However, the effect that can have on both of your lives is immeasurable. 

How often do you reach out to others? 

- Ryan