Today I just wanted to remind everyone (including me) how important it is to spend your days doing what you love. They say nothing is guaranteed in life–and tomorrow is not a “given” — not for any of us. That’s why it is so important to do what you love to do in life, and do it TODAY.
If you find yourself toiling away at a job or a lifestyle or in a relationship or (fill in the blank) that you don’t like on a daily basis, it’s time to make a change. But what is it that keeps us from moving forward in life, from letting go of those things we don’t want? One word: fear.
Fear keeps us in a perpetual state of indecision, and prevents us from recognizing and claiming our true calling in life. And don’t misunderstand me–I don’t mean YOUR fear is holding YOU back. Not at all. Fear is universal, and we ALL deal with it sometimes. I have to face fears all the time–sometimes I do so admirably, but other times I cave in or whimp out. That is simply part of the human condition, and I have personally never met anyone who has COMPLETELY conquered fear from their life.
But the good news is, you don’t have to conquer fear completely to become a more-evolved, more highly functioning (i.e a prosperous and successful) person. But you DO have to make an effort, and try to face up to your insecurities and fears, and then move forward even though you are scared.
“Just a Dream”
A client of mine in New Zealand once told me his greatest dream was to buy a boat and sail around the world. When I asked him what action he had taken toward acheiving that dream he replied, “nothing, I mean it’s just a dream — not something I could actually do.”
And of course he had a long laundry list of reasons why he could never sail around the world; too dangerous, required too much money, his family wouldn’t accept it, and so on… But when we went through his reasons one by one, he discovered that ALL of these excuses were based on one simple mindset: fear.
And you know what? Whether he eventually sails around the world or not is not terribly important. But whether he tries to make it happen or not is VERY important! Trying — expending effort on behalf of our dreams — is everything in life. Because lets face it: we all have only so many days and so much energy to spend on this planet. What we do with it is entirely our call. If we don’t use our time and energy in the pursuit of our dreams, then by default, we will use our time an energy on things we don’t like or care about. Imagine looking back on your life from your last day and realizing that you wasted it on things you didn’t care about at all. Scarey thought, isn’t it?
Do What You Love — Full Stop
Even if what you love seems impractical or improbable, do it anyway. The alternative is to give in to fear, and let it keep you in servitude to things you don’t like for the remainder of your years.
You (like me) will likely never conquer all of your fears. That’s just life, and you should never feel bad about that–being human is a GOOD thing after all. Just keep pushing toward what makes you happy, what drives you. Do what you love, or die trying. The alternative is to do what you hate, and die doing that. Seems like a pretty easy decision to make when you look at it that way…
All the best,
Jon
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In my coaching practice, I am always looking for the simplest, “lowest common denominator’ concepts to present to my clients. It’s not because they can’t understand concepts that are complicated (they easily can), but because the simplest ideas are usually the most powerful.
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