When my nephew Brendon was eight, he fell in love with fly fishing. So much so that he begged to enroll in an adult education class that taught fishermen to tie their own flies. Dutifully, his father drove him to class every Wednesday evening for two whole months, from 7 to 9:00 p.m. Brendon is twelve now. His loves haven't changed. He still wants to be a fisherman when he grows up. And he still has the incredible flies he made four years ago.

While we are hoping his love will switch from a vocation to an avocation, we have to admire the intensity of his focus. He exemplifies what mathematician Alfred North Whitehead had to say about learning a new subject. "Romance precedes precision." What new subject can you fall in love with? Quilting? Poetry? Leadership? Listening? Computers? Fundraising?

Once you hear that subject calling you (the literal meaning, by the way, of a "vocation": something that calls to you), once you know you're in love, the precision associated with the topic will come to you naturally and easily. Such precision is manifest in students who know every single sports statistic of their favorite player on their favorite team and yet can't seem to remember how a dangling participle differs from a gerund.

Remember the words of Leonardo da Vinci. "In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes. So it is with the present time." Prepare for a future time by developing a new interest so you'll be able to swim in a new river of possibility.

Dr. Marlene Caroselli, author of 53 business books (see Amazon.com) is an international keynote speaker and corporate trainer for Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and professional organizations. You can reach her at  mccpd@frontiernet.net .