Live Your Passion

Welcome back. Sally is not the only one who is passionate about her philosophy! But, why equate passion with success in your SLP job at all? If you have been doing this kind of work for more than ten years, does passion still correlate with success in serving persons who come to you?

To ground you, blog reader, in what we're talking about, - passion can be described by paraphrasing  the President: without passion you have no energy; without energy you have nothing. Whatever your opinion of the current President, you may find it hard to dispute his perception that passion exists in us below a level of cognition; that even though the discipline of a skilled professional career puts passion to work, the fuel of desire and idealism helps the engine of professionalism run smoothly.

My peers and colleagues in many adult service settings have spoken about their work days as resembling an assembly line: "how many do you have left? Did you get your hours?". That is a business model and we can get pumped up about getting the check, but that is not the genuine passionate life as an SLP. We can make good money in this work, but we could do as well and better financially in many other work lives. The bread and butter of our work as SLP's is helping persons served find the skills they want and need. It is service. It is a duty and an honor to serve persons who may benefit from our professional skills. It is a joy, a thrill and a burning need to write this blog, for anyone who will read and consider my perspectives on the field of speech-language pathology, and how we do and can impact still the greater societies in which we live.

Passion is a force. Passion is a nagging tune in your head that gets your muscles moving, and your brain firing. Passion helps you get results during the workday, - be they at the therapy table or in a table you are formatting for a report....because you believe in their worth.  One constant challenge as you grow and change in your work days is to sustain the passion - the flame that brought you to this career choice and sustained you through preparation and formative years of a career. The extinguisher of passion is the poison to a successful long career as an SLP. It can not be said any more plainly: if you lose your passion for people, you had better find work outside the community of SLP.

What might spur on your life-long vitality as a passionate professional in SLP? Your ability to -

* Educate - for yourself, your stakeholders, your circles of support, and your society

* Advocate - for your practice, your profession, your persons served and their support circles

* Demonstrate - for the fair and equitable support of all affected by your passionate professional life.