"I have friends who are truly unhappy now. They got married, had a couple of kids, and are locked down. It's not that they don't love their families, but they just got into things so fast before they figured out what they wanted to be as individuals."
-Ben Younger, filmmaker

Jehane Noujaim, a thirty-three-year-old filmmaker from New York City, went to Harvard and double majored in art and political science. Art was her passion, and political science was her way to make a living and have a successful career. When she graduated she had to make a decision-would she go to law school and buckle down? Or would she follow her passion? She chose the latter. "The first year out of college was probably the hardest year of my life. A lot of my friends went into consulting or banking because they didn't know what else to do. They all had assistants and were making $60,000 a year while I was traipsing around with a little video camera. I had no idea where I was going."

Jehane spent her twenties struggling financially, but now that she's in her thirties, she is a noted documentarian and has carved out her own niche around something she's passionate about. Meanwhile, her friends who trapped themselves in the banking world are burnt out and starting over in their thirties. "The people I know who went into consulting and banking had a really hard time. The analyst programs are hellish; they burn people out after two years. There's no way you can work that hard if your heart isn't in it."

Getting stuck on a road that doesn't resonate with what excites you closes you off to opportunities. If Jehane had gone on to law school and not pursued her passion for film, she would have never met Kaleil, the CEO of a start-up company that she would later film her first hit documentary about.

In Colorado, we met with Gary Neptune, a mountain climber who opened up a local outdoors shop in downtown Boulder called Neptune Mountaineering. Gary has been on numerous mountain climbing expeditions, including to Mt. Everest, and has lived one of the most untrapped lives we've seen. "Don't get yourself locked into something you can't get out of. I know people who have gone to med school, and they end up in unbelievable debt. Sure they have a way bigger house than I do and drive a fancy car-but they are so far in debt, they can't get out of their job and some of them hate it. They're being worked to death, and almost exploited. And they're barely making ends meet-they can't go on a climbing trip with us. For all that stuff they seem to have, they're actually nearly broke. They don't have any more than I do."

Once you're passionate about something and it's a path that's an honest reflection of what you stand for as an individual, go for it. Everyone echoed that message. At the same time, the people we met urged us to take a second look at the decisions we make and question whether those are our decisions or someone else's. Michael Jager, creative director of JDK Design, told us "The thing that saddens me most is when you see an individual go down a path and burn about ten years of their life on a channel they now realize was the wrong one." Don't be that person. Don't get trapped.

The Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Several concerts on the Dixie Chicks' "Accidents & Accusations" tour have been canceled after slow ticket sales, but the group says it has replaced them with other dates.

Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville are among 14 cities no longer on the original schedule released in May, according to a revised itinerary posted Thursday on the Dixie Chick's Web site.

Other shows, including Nashville, Los Angeles, Denver and Phoenix, have been pushed back to later dates.

The North American leg of the tour kicked off July 21 in Detroit. Billboard magazine and other trade publications have reported lackluster sales in some markets, particularly in the South and Midwest.

Group spokeswoman Kathy Allmand said Monday that the total number of North American dates remains the same, with several Canadian cities added in place of the U.S. shows.

The trio released a statement last week attributing the changes to attempts to "accommodate demand" and said more dates might be added next year.

The group also said the adjustments will allow them to promote the documentary "Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing," for the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

"We hope that our fans who were looking forward to a stop that is no longer on the tour will be able to join us at a nearby arena this fall, and we are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience these changes have caused," the Dixie Chicks said.

Many country fans criticized the band after lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 on the eve of war in Iraq that the trio was "ashamed" President Bush was from their home state of Texas.

County radio stations dropped them from their playlists and have been slow to welcome them back, despite strong sales of their latest album, "Taking the Long Way."