There’s a fantasy floating out there.
Perhaps you’ve heard of it?
It’s that when you find your passion, or do what you love, you won’t have problems anymore.
When an obstacle lands on your path, you’ll fly over it on your shiny unicorn, and all will be well.
But reality is quite different.
Because you see, even when you’re doing what you love, you’re still living life, and life is a mixed bag.
The consequences
If you believe that everything should be perfect when you find your passion, you may never believe that you’ve found your passion.
Or found something you’re interested in.
You keep searching for that holy grail that will make your life okay.
This leads to a never-ending search. You never take action. You keep searching for a perfect passion that doesn’t exist.
The video
Below is a video that complements the article. It’s short, so have a look.
And remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos. Not all of them end up here on the blog.
This is messy business
Sometimes it isn’t fun.
Often you don’t know what you’re doing, or where you’re going.
You don’t know if you’re on the right path.
You’re afraid, worried, and want to give up.
All of the above is part of this path. It’s up to you and me to experiment and to discover our own path, and how our inner GPS communicates with us.
Doing what you love begins with a seed
Finding what you love is rarely about being smacked in the face by destiny.
It’s more about finding what interests you and watering it with your attention. It then grows into a passion, or it doesn’t.
In my life, all I’ve ever done is followed what I was interested in. Even though I’m making a living with Wake Up Cloud, my books, and my coaching, I still explore things on the side.
I’m constantly noticing what feels magnetic. I notice what life brings me, and I notice how my inner GPS responds.
This is how I discover who I am.
This means that you don’t need to search for your passion, because it’s already here.
It may only be a tiny seed, but there’s already something in your life that is interesting.
There always is.
The bottom line
Doing what you love isn’t always fun, and that’s a good thing.
It means that you don’t have to aim for perfection.
You can let things be messy.
You can start with what you have, where you are.
You can enjoy the process of uncovering what life has to offer you, and what your purpose is.
You don’t have to push. You don’t have to figure things out.
You simply have to follow your inner GPS, moment by moment, day by day.
Enjoy the adventure!
Henri
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Loved this post! I got so much from it.
First, you’re right, there’s a constant struggle to find balance when you’re chasing something. You’re so excited about the end goal, but so many wonderful things are happening in every little step taken to get there, that it’s really a life being built in the journey. Demystifying the end is a great way to live more fully in the moment.
Second, I love the analogy of the watering the little seed, and not waiting for something to smack you in the face. It’s so true to how it really is.
Thanks for sharing!
-Tara
Yes, yes indeed. Thanks for sharing, Tara 🙂
Phew! My impatience for achievement and success (and liveable income) has me questioning that everything I’m doing is right, or if I’ve really got what it takes…the whole kit and caboodle. You remind me to press on, work to plan, do the things that are not easy, and if I just get on and do them, sometimes they are not as hard or I find a better way to do them.
Many thanks for your consistent, practical, realistic messages.
Oh yes, the pressure can be immense. But that is also an opportunity to dive into our deepest fears, because it is in embracing them that they can be transmuted.
Hey Danielle, it seems I may be in the same spot you are in – soon enough. I have just committed to doing the unthinkable or the well researched statistics of becoming a new blogger (which they say only last for three months) and I appreciated reading that there may be times like you wrote about. And I am collecting a whole lot of ideas from other people who are not prepared to give up, but are questioning the struggle. Today I recognised that I am happy doing what I am doing, but in saying that I am not looking for any capital just yet – but when I go out and look for it with the offerings of a great service, I know I will once again feel like you. I am glad I read what you wrote, it is noted and memorised now for the times doubt is yelling the loudest at me.
Finally someone who tells it how it really is. Yes even when we find our passions – they are not trouble free. I am a keen dreamer and an advocate of making money from what you love and you will never work a day in your life. But come on people out there, be realistic, some of the walls I have hit have left a few bruises. They did not stop me, but they certainly slowed me down. And while I was recovering from these very bruises I did not want to read another blog with you can do it – never give up. I wanted to read a blog that said you can do it, but it is not trouble free. Thank you.
Fantastic. Thank you so much for leaving a comment, Rachel.
And even though this isn’t an easy path, it is our path. My path. Your path. And through the struggles we become more and more centered. We learn to trust our inner GPS, and we discover (hopefully) that the only authority is our inner authority.
Hi Henri,
You always make it simple yet useful and deep. You are right, that if we expect that the work we have chosen is fun and entirely fits our competence and personality from the very beginning, and only after that we regard it as passion, we might never find our passion.
At the start of any career, we are still in learning phase and thus probably feel at times that we don’t know what we are doing, or where we are going, and we may even want to give up. Whereas in fact, if we think the way you instruct in this article, we will already anticipate difficulty or not-so-fun times along the way toward better results – as there is no perfection. It is truly in harmony with a saying, “Everything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first.” Thank you for this liberating knowledge, and may you inspire more people who are pursuing their passions!
Hey Henri,
This awesome post resonated with me on several levels.
I became a father late in life (age 53), and my son has been a constant source of inspiration for me. He’s 12 now and I learn something new from him every day.
Your thought about this thing being messy reminds me of when he was a toddler just learning to feed himself.
He was always an independent little cuss, insisting on shoveling his food into his mouth in creative ways that frequently got messy.
Most of the time he was covered in food, but he always had a great time eating and creating the mess.
In the aftermath, I always cleaned up my son and the mess because as my wife put it, I allowed him to create the mess. The cleanup process wasn’t always fun, and often resulted in a bath, but it was always interesting.
My wife made videos of the whole meal-time experience and my son and I watch them occasionally, and laugh at his meal-time antics.
My point is that meal-time wasn’t in any way perfect, but it was effective in providing his nutritional needs.
The same holds true in my quest to quantify my passion.
It’s messy at times, but I’m getting the value I need in order to move forward, one step at a time.
I’m not pushing, I’m not looking for perfection.
I’m ambling along, taking readings on my inner GPS, and enjoying the process of uncovering what life has to offer me.
Again, thanks for an incredible post!
That’s a great analogy, Tom. I can definitely relate to those messy meal-time experiences.
Life is messy, but that doesn’t have to be a problem. We just amble on, and enjoy the ride.
Thanks for sharing, Tom 🙂