Can't decide which life or career path is right for you? Maybe you don't have to! In The Renaissance Soul, Margaret Lobenstine offers inspiration, advice, and practical tips for people with more than one burning passion.

Lack of self-confidence is, more often than not, simple laziness. We feel confused and uncertain because we do not know. But instead of making the effort to investigate, we procrastinate and worry. We tell ourselves we can't instead of learning how we can. If we used the mental energy we expend in worry and fear to get out and find out about what we do not know, we would see our self-confidence grow. Lack of self-confidence is not overcome by faith, but by action. It is a lack, not of certainty, but of effort. Too often we are certain that we can't before we give ourselves a fair chance.

be present, be concentrated, and be strong.

Concentrate on what you need to do... Do step one. Begin! That's the important thing- Did you do step one? Did you actually do it?. . . It's not a matter of 'Can you do it?' If you do it, you're doing it.

Work at what you love the most, even if you're only a two. Trust that your love for what your are doing will see you through. That's not easy, but better to grow into what you love than to pretend you're satisfied with a developmental dead end.

As Colin Wilson has written, "modern civilisation, with its mechanised rigidity is producing more outsiders than ever before-people who are too intelligent to do some repetitive job, but not intelligent enough to make their own terms with society." Those "intelligent enough" to make their own terms with society are what we will later refer to as artists of life. The outsider views himself as a product of a culture he rejects-the artist views himself as a culture-builder.

The life spent in doing what you love is a different life indeed from putting yourself out for hire to the highest bidder. The only way you can say it makes no difference is to say life makes no difference.