What is your passion(s)?

Interestingly, someone recently took me to task for my use of the word “passion” about something. They said if I wasn’t willing to make sacrifices over it, it couldn’t really be my passion. They were right. I was corrected. I had used the word too loosely, like some overuse the word “love”. “Love” is a word that, like “passion”, has become watered down in contemporary society. “Passion” is a strong enthusiasm about something – a ZEAL… not just a fondness or appreciation. So in examining my passions, I would say the things I’m most zealous about – and that pretty much drive the personal mission of my life – are growth and development. Let me explain what I mean by this.

As living, breathing beings, created with purpose and power, nothing saddens me more than to see people who never grow… never change. If you are doing and saying the same things, to the same people, in the same ways that you have been for the past 10 years, that’s a problem. I feelwe should constantly be evolving. Not because we aren’t “good enough” as we are, or because I want us to beat ourselves up for not being like someone else. On the contrary. My passion is to see people be the best version of THEMSELVES as possible. That’s why one of the things I value most is self-awareness. There is power in knowing who you are, knowing what sets you off, understanding why you do the things you do, etc… Only then can we develop. And we have too much in us to ever think we’ve made it. So, growth and development is my passion not only for myself, but also for everyone around me.

I’m also passionate about this concept of growth and development in my professional life as well. That’s why most of my working life has been in the nonprofit sector – a field dedicated to helping people improve their lives. Within the past 5 years however, my passion has evolved from just working for nonprofit organizations, to nonprofit management. Management, not in the sense of being the boss, but management in the sense of leading and directing the growth and development of organizations in order to ensure they are serving people and communities to the best of their ability. That’s why I recently completed my Masters in Nonprofit Leadership. I hope to make that career change soon as well.

It’s funny… one of my favorite songs is “Everything Must Change” by Randy Crawford. My passion is to facilitate that change. And my purpose is to be a change agent everywhere I go, to everyone in my life.

When did you realize that this was your passion?

I think I realized my passion for change management shortly after a major period of change in my own life. It was during my late adolescents – between the ages of 25 and 27.

Let me pause here for a minute and just emphasize that point about my passion not being realized until I was way into my 20’s. I want to pause here because I understand that adolescence is a stage in which many young adults feel pressured to “have it all together”, and know what they want to do in life. But in reality, there is no “set time” for this. Although one can absolutely be passionate about things at early ages, those passions sometimes change as values evolve, priorities shift, and new experiences are had. And that’s how it happened for me. So if you’re reading this interview, and you haven’t yet discovered your passions or began to walk in your purpose, that’s OKAY! Continue working on yourself, living life, having new experiences, and your passions and purpose will emerge. Now, back to my personal realization…

Around the age of 27, I went through a huge transitional period in my life. No longer satisfied with the party lifestyle I was living, I was seeking freedom from addiction to alcohol and overall purpose in my life. I hadn’t’ finished college like most of my friends. And there was absolutely no chance for upward mobility in my professional life. By the grace of God I fell in with a circle of friends and co-workers who were Christian. I had been Saved as a child when someone shared the story of Jesus Christ with me, but my family didn’t go to church. Because of that, I really didn’t know what it meant to be a Christian. In any event, after a few months of these friends exposing me to bible teachings, prayer, and general love and encouragement, I rededicated my life to Christ. I had the most miraculous experience with Him in which my life was turned around and I was set free from addiction. As I continued in my relationship with Christ, I came into greater understanding of who I was – my true identity. And only once free from the lifestyle that kept me stagnant, were my interests clarified, my passions revealed, and my purpose discovered.

Who motivated you (good or bad) to pursue it?

God was a main motivator for my pursuit of passion and purpose. I’ll share more about that later. But interestingly, it wasn’t a “who”, but a “what” that launched me into action concerning my passions. Adverse conditions – usually a closed or closing door – usually propelled me to pursue the things I was passionate about with real intention. For example, shortly after I rededicated my life to Christ, I felt very strongly led to start an organization/club, dedicated to helping young adults come into their identities in Christ. I tried to start this group in my old church, but was told “no”. I wasn’t yet qualified to start such a group. But I knew in my heart that this was something I needed to do. Not just because I was passionate about it, but because it was part of my purpose. Initially scared to start this group, hearing that “no” gave me courage! It’s what propelled me to start Timothy’s Tribe – an unincorporated nonprofit association dedicated to helping young people discover their identities in Christ. Being told that I couldn’t operate within the church was like a closed door that could have shut me down all together. But it only motivated me to organize and operate outside of the church – where I soon discovered it was most needed.

Another example is the completion of my degrees. As I mentioned, it was around the age of 27 that I started to understand who I was and how that translated into my professional career. It was around then that I went back to school (for the 4th time) to complete my bachelor’s degree. Although I took classes in my field of interest, Nonprofit Management, I still didn’t finish. It took a wakeup call at the age of 33, when yet another door was about to close in my life, to motivate me to go back to school and finish! It was the summer of 2014, and my Executive Director at the time announced that she was resigning. As one of the senior leaders in the organization I should have been better poised to apply for her position as she made her exit. But without so much as a Bachelor’s degree, I knew I didn’t stand a chance. (They ended up hiring outside of the company anyway, but that wasn’t the point.) I was so disappointed in myself for not being ready when a possible door opened up. Two weeks after her announcement, I re-enrolled in school. And in the summer of 2015, I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Liberal Arts from the College of New Rochelle. However, I didn’t stop there. I went straight through to a one year Masters program in Nonprofit Leadership at Fordham University, which I just completed this August. (Woohoo!)

Basically, had those doors not been shut on me, I might still be wondering if I could really provide the mentorship to young adults I wanted to, or if I could really finish my education and advance in the nonprofit world. For me, it has been closed doors that have propelled me into pursuing my passions.

Describe one of your proudest moments.

One of my proudest moments in life was the day I launched my first self-published book, From Pain to Praise, the Prose and Poems of a Daughter in Process. It was August 22, 2015 – one of the hottest days of that summer. I hosted it at an outdoor arts space in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, which meant we had to deal with the sweltering sun. But, it was well worth it. After toiling for months with compiling the anthology of work, organizing it, formatting it, proofing it, designing the book cover, developing merchandise, marketing and promotion, etc… the big day came. It was the greatest feeling in the world to have my friends, family, church members, colleagues and even former students all gather with me, in one place, to help me celebrate a MAJOR personal accomplishment in my life, and mark the culmination of a very long process.

The day was even more precious because of all the mistakes I had made along the way. Self-publishing is NOT easy. I think I made a minimum of at least one mistake for each of the steps that mentioned before. But because of that, I learned a whole lot also! Who told me I could design a website, learn about graphic art to create a book cover, negotiate with vendors over prices for supplies and merchandise, reach out to the press for promotion and marketing? I was just supposed to be writing a book! But so many skills were learned along that way, that the mistakes were worth it. Had I tried to go the traditional route (through a publishing company), I wouldn’t have appreciated the process. But since I was involved in every stage of publishing, I couldn’t have been more proud of my accomplishment on launch day.

This brings me back to my purpose. Finally, another reason the day was so important to me was because it was the manifestation of a part of my purpose – helping young adults grow and develop. See, the book itself is a compilation of poems, journal entries, and short stories I wrote throughout my adolescence. Some of the pieces express the pain of when I was struggling with my identity. Some of them express the freedom I experience in knowing who I am. But the overall point of the book is to encourage young women to embrace the process. I wanted to show them that nothing is linear. That there will be ups and downs, and that we will make a number of mistakes. But that if they just stay with the process, all their days of pain can certainly turn to praise. From Pain to Praise is itself, a manifestation of my passion.

Describe a hardship and how it was overcome. (both in relation to your passion).

If I had to choose a hardship to talk about, it would be a hardship I’m still working on – my ability to say “no”. I love to be helpful. And I love to feel needed. But saying “yes” too often has gotten me in over my head in commitments –to the point that I neglect to take care of my own responsibilities, or neglect to get enough rest. I know I can’t effectively serve anyone else if I’m not handling my own business. So I’ve been practicing some of that self-awareness I spoke about, and trying to be more intentional about checking my motives when I want to say “yes”, and only agreeing to commitments that are motivated by something more than the need to feel helpful. It’s a process. I’m learning. I smiled so hard to myself recently after telling someone “no” and sticking to my guns about it when they circled back around and asked me twice more. I had to pat myself on the back after that one. But yea, I’ve been working on the desire to give everyone an automatic “yes” all the time. It doesn’t serve me nor them well at all.

What advice do you have for people who are too afraid to follow their dreams?

Don’t be afraid. Be excited.

I know that letting go of fear is easier said than done. But from my own personal experience, once you start to pursue your dreams, and you begin to make progress, that fear begins to turn into excitement. As you see your vision coming into fruition, and you take even the tiniest baby steps, you begin to have faith in not only yourself, but in the process itself. You begin to trust yourself a little bit more with every milestone you hit. And before you know it, you’ll be far enough along that the thing you’re working on starts to become real. It takes shape. It begins to look like something… feel like something. You begin to believe, REALLY believe, that it’s going to happen. And then you have a choice… will you be consumed with fear for possible failure? Or will you get excited about the thought of SUCCESS! Please choose the latter. Choose excitement. Yes, I said CHOOSE. Fear is a dream killer. Excitement is a dream cultivator. My advice is to decide what you want to do. Get excited about it. Then do it.

Oh, and don’t just get excited about the end result. As I mentioned, those milestones along the way are opportunities to celebrate and get reinvigorated for the next steps. So get excited about the whole journey. I promise you, it will be worth it.

How do you see your passion being manifested in the future?

Professionally, in the near future, I hope to make that shift into nonprofit management real soon. As for the long term, I plan to one day become an independent nonprofit consultant. This will allow me to work with multiple nonprofits, helping them evaluate and strengthen their programs, so they can best serve their clients. Concerning my ministry life, this year I was named as an Elder Designate in my church. This means I’m going through the training process to become an Elder (Pastor). This extra realm of responsibility will allow me to help more people grow and develop in to the purpose driven beings God created them to be. Past these two ways, the sky’s the limit! I have no idea of what the future holds for the manifestation of my purpose. But I will keep an open mind, and do my best to be ready when doors open up!

How does your relationship with God motivate you to pursue your passion?

Before I developed my relationship with God, I was just going through life, trying to survive day to day, looking for something to fill the void in my life. But once I started seeking a relationship with God, I began to learn who I am in relation to this Wonderful Creator. He’s filled me with so many gifts and talents. How could I NOT pursue my passions and make the most of them all? God calls us His friends, and His Sons and Daughters. Knowing who I am in His eyes, and knowing that His desire is for me to have an abundant life, gives me full permission to do all I set in my mind to do, as long as it honors Him.

Another motivating factor is the understanding that God placed us here on this earth for each other. Our relationships with one another are important to Him. In the Bible, we are referred to as the “body of Christ”. This means that each of us is like a part of one big body, with every part having its own purpose. I have a specific purpose, and you have a specific purpose. But if I don’t live out my purpose, it might hinder you from living out yours, and vice versa. Think about it. There are people in this world that are literally waiting on you to become who you’re supposed to be, so that they can become who they’re supposed to be. Your pursuing your passions could be the key to someone else’s success. It could be your boldness to try something new that motivates someone else to do the same. Or by pursuing a career in teaching, you could hold the key to someone’s success as a student. I’m sure the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t decide at a young age that he was going to be the main leader of the Civil Rights Movement one day. But he pursued his passions. He learned about nonviolent resistance, he learned about God, he learned about law and policy, and it culminated in him leading a movement and changing a world. Everybody wants to know how to be great. All we have to do is pursue our passions and it will lead to our purpose - and in living out purpose, you become great in your own way.

Stay in Process!

Inacent

Lada: I've known Inacent since I was in middle school. She has always been warm, knowledgeable and supportive. During my journey through College, Inacent gifted me a Bible and it has traveled with me everywhere since. What I appreciate is how open she is and how she leads by faith. It's truly inspiring. Click on the links in her interview to support her book and other projects! Thanks for sharing Inacent =)