A Passionate Life
One of the things that I have always felt passionate about is to see people living their passions.
Living one’s passion, that sounds so good and easy. It may actually be the most challenging thing for individuals in this day and age.
A lot of people who found their way to my hypnotherapy practice have shared with me their passions, or the lack of it, or the rediscovery of it.
Some ask directly for the discovery of their “life purpose” using hypnosis process.
Some present their issues differently but it is still the same thing.
There are bright young men and women in their early twenties who felt lost and confused. One of them presented her issue as “indecision that impedes my ability to really move forward in my life, or actively commit to my passions/natural gifts, being stuck in unfulfilling situations”.
There are people in their late forties and fifties who suddenly have a wake-up call, “This is the ‘future’ that I’ve always been putting things off to. I feel a little scared because right now IS the future I always meant.”
There are those middle-aged people who have manifested certain diseases and accidents for them to have to change life’s course.
And of course there are those who are anywhere in between.
No matter how they present themselves as “being lost” or “confused”, when they arrive at my office, it is quite obvious, to me, and to themselves, what they love to do.
Yet getting on to do what they know they love to do is another story. Case by case there are different reasons and excuses, but I have found one of the main misaligned beliefs is “Doing what I love to do will not financially support me”.
A lot of people live this belief as their absolute truth.
But the truth is, all beliefs are true. We tend to think, “When life uses its results and situations to prove a belief, then that belief is a proven truth. ”
It is a commonly accepted attitude, but the flaw is that beliefs have to come FIRST, for us even to be able to play it out and prove its validity.
Beliefs always come first. Your life situation is what you have believed. Proof comes second. You know it when I say this: Whatever you have “proven to be true”, there are always proofs to show the opposite is also true. Reinforcement of a belief comes third.
The belief “doing what I love to do will not financially support me” implies this truth: “Doing what I do not like to do will financially support me”. Just by typing those words out gives me a sickness in the stomach. What a terrible world this is! In this world, to be financially supported, I can only do what I don’t like to do!
It doesn’t even make logical sense, does it? Doing what I don’t like to do, naturally I only have negative energy to put in it, which means I may have my hands and mind in it, but I don’t have my heart in it. While doing what I love to do, I have my heart, mind and whole body in it. How can this, with more of my energy in, end up supporting me less, financially or else?
I know you are ready to jump and argue with me… but, but, but I have proof!
I know you do. Proofs are everywhere, but my proofs are everywhere too. Remember proof comes second. Whatever you decide to believe is true, you’ll find proofs for it.
You may feel the need to justify your situation, but please don’t. Justification always weakens a person. It is your life that you are living. It’s nobody else’s business. Make a choice, and live it to the best that you can.
If you are open to entertaining the idea that you can absolutely do what you love to do and make a good living out of it, you can read on. After all, I will not be the one who will nudge you. Your dear heart will be the one that nudges you.
Many of us get stuck on the idea that success has to come a certain way. We launch something, write a book, create an art piece… It doesn’t sell well. We call it a failure and stop it.
What is success? When you get to do what you love to do, that in itself is a success. Any financial or monetary success is a side effect of that.
So, here are the steps to get on living your “life purpose”, so to speak:
- Follow your heart. You will always know what kind of things that makes your heart sing when you do so. Keep your day job.
- Do more of what makes your heart sing. After all, this is what you have defined as “what you love to do”. You don’t need any reasons, justified or unjustified, to spend time in it. This is what you love to do. That is good enough reason. Do it for the love of doing it, not for anything else. The definition for success lies in the doing of it.
- Put it out. Do whatever it takes to put it out. Sell it online. Blog it. Social media it. Tell everyone about it. Don’t hesitate to put yourself out, in whatever shape or form. Even though you still have a full-time day job, identify yourself in your own mind and heart as that writer, that painter, that actor, that dancer… even though you have not made a dime from it. When I just started the hypnotherapy training, I started to introduce myself to people as a hypnotherapist (Boy! I certainly enjoyed the looks on people’s faces, way more palpable than an “administrative assistant”). It doesn’t matter. You are who you say you are. To say who you are you don’t need anyone else’s permission. Other people will tell you that you can’t. Don’t argue with them. You don’t need their permission to do what you choose to do, and be what you choose to be.
A client of mine started her YouTube channel because I told her that her job was to “put it out”. How many viewers and the outcomes were not her job. It would be a success even though she had one viewer. Now she has over 800 organic subscribers. - Love that you get to do what you love to do. Love what you love to do unconditionally. They say labour of love is not labour at all. Stop calculating monetary gain or how many hours you put into it – That’s how you start to confuse yourself. You can save the money that others will use to see a therapist in the future. Again it’s already a success that you get to do it. This simply means: Put zero expectation on what the outcome has to come into fruition.
- Outcome will come. Might be sooner or later than what you can expect. Might be much greater than what you can expect. That’s why it’s crucial not to put any expectation as of how and when the outcome should manifest. You simply don’t know. And it’s simply not your job.
This way, you align the universal intelligence in working things out for you, rather than you having to do it all alone.
After all, if nothing else, the entire life, you have followed your excitement and passion. That has to be an exciting and passionate life already. Don’t they say “Life is not about destination, but the journey” anyway?
In the steps I outlined, there is nowhere I said, “Have faith. Take a giant leap. Quit your job. And take out two million dollar bank loan.”
Simply follow your passion to the best of your ability in every given moment, without any expectation of how and when the outcome should be. Your passion can support you, and WILL support you, one way or another. Life knows how to work things out for you. You don’t have to work all the details out with your limited mind. Stop calling yourself a “failure” too early too soon. It’s never over until YOU say it’s over, so why taking the score when it’s not even over?
To get a jumpSTART in a new year, and receive a much needed boost, sign up with a new course in the New Year. Let the New Year create a new you, one that aligns closer to your passion.
