Why You Should NOT “Follow Your Passion” if You Want to Be Very Successful AND Happy
In today’s post you’ll learn why you should STOP trying to follow or find your passion in life if you want to be extremely successful AND happy…
There’s a lot of talk about “just do what you love” and then you’ll never “work” another day in your life and everything will be fine and dandy. This advice is a bit misleading and even dangerous for some people…
I’m all for doing what you love, but I really think that should come second, not first. Why? Because doing only what you love probably won’t make you as happy as you think it will, nor will it make you massively successful…
Click here if you prefer to watch directly on Youtube. Or scroll down for the written version.
Why Doing What You Love Doesn’t Lead to Happiness (Or Success)
Doing what you love is part of the equation, but there’s something that has to come before that if you really want to live a peaceful and prosperous life…
You might love playing video games or taking strolls on the beach, but that doesn’t mean doing those things is going to make you happy or successful in life.
A lot of people live their whole life for themselves and get addicted to pleasure, short term gratification, and things that don’t actually bring long term fulfillment.
Pleasure does not equal happiness.
Playing video games, eating food, traveling, or thinking all the time about how you can do less work and earn more rewards — this is the path to misery, in my experience at least…
How Doing What I loved Made Me Miserable
Earlier in my life, I started an online business because I wanted freedom. I wanted to be financially free. I wanted to be able to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and basically live life on my own terms.
I eventually reached a level of success where I had a high degree of freedom and didn’t really have to work that much. I only had to work about an hour per day to maintain this business that I had. I basically got what I wished for…
Once I got the success, I became lazy. I became complacent. I stopped enjoying my work. I started to live for comfort and short term gratification instead of longterm fulfillment. And pretty soon I got very, very depressed…
Even though I had more success than I’d ever had in my life, I was more unhappy than I had ever been. How can that be?
I was literally doing what I loved. I was going down to the beach every day, meditating, reading books, and just living my life how I wanted to live it. Yet I wasn’t happy at all…
I found out in due time that “doing what you love” doesn’t actually bring fulfillment and it definitely doesn’t bring success because success comes from…
How to Have the Best of Both Worlds
If you truly want to be happy and successful, forget about passion and focus on one thing above all else…
Providing value and service to others.
This is the first thing you need to ask yourself when you’re trying to figure out what path you should take in life. If you want to do what you love and get paid to do what you love, don’t ask yourself, “what’s my passion?”
First ask yourself, “what am I already good at that I could use for the benefit of others?” OR “How can I provide value or service to this world?” These are the first questions you should ask yourself.
Learn to Love the Process of Providing Value
Instead of taking what you love and trying to turn that into a career, look at what you can do for others and then learn to enjoy the process of providing excellent service and value to the world in your own unique way.
Serving others is what brings true fulfillment, at least that’s what I found in my life. There are things in my life that I don’t necessarily love to do, but I learned to love them because of what they can do for others.
For example, making this article for you is something that I was resisting earlier today. I didn’t want to do this, but now that I’m doing it, I feel it is a very useful way to spend my time. It’s something that is serving the world and as long as I keep that in mind, this is very fulfilling work.
You Won’t Love it Right Away
I don’t necessarily love putting myself out in front of the masses. I’m a naturally introverted person, but I do this because it serves others. I find joy in the process of my work not because of the work itself and not for self-gratification, but because of what the work can do for others.
So, it’s not that you have to love something first and then figure out how to make it a career. First, you should find the need that can be filled in the world, the way you can help others. Then try to find as much love in that as possible.
Bring Love to What You’re Already Doing
It has to start with where you are right now. You can’t wait until you find that one special thing. You have to start bringing joy and love to what you’re already doing.
This is exactly what I did many years ago when I was working a factory job that I really hated. I really wanted to quit this job. I would wake up every day with a feeling of dread. I did this for months, until I couldn’t take it any longer…
One day, I thought, “You know what? It’s just not worth being miserable about this anymore. It’s not worth all this pain. I might as well just learn to enjoy this job since I’m going to be here for a few more months at least.”
What happened next was a little magical…
Change Your Vibration, Change Your Life
Instead of resisting my job, I started focusing on relaxing and trying to bring happiness to it. Right away, I started to enjoy the job a lot more, just by deciding to do so!
What previously felt dreadful suddenly became joyful! Not that I wanted that job for the rest of my life, but at least while I was in the process of transition, I could enjoy my life.
I realized my true power. I saw that I was giving my power to my job and the people and circumstances around me, letting everything dictate and control how I felt inside. I saw clearly that I didn’t have to do that anymore.
I also noticed that people who I worked with started treating me a lot differently. Before, they wouldn’t even talk to me, probably because I was in a bad mood all the time and giving off negative energy. But when I started to bring a different energy to my job, people started talking to me, smiling at me, and sparking up conversations with me.
My whole world started to change. I began to see that your internal state of being, your attitude and how you feel really does affect the world around you.
What You Resist Will Persist
If you can start brining joy to what you are already doing, you’ll find that it changes your life much faster than would be possible if you were just resisting and fighting against your circumstances. It’s very hard to make significant changes when you’re stressed all the time.
It’s actually scientifically proven that when you’re in a state of joy, fulfillment, or peace, your brain works much better. The left and right hemispheres of your brain synchronize and you become much more creative, resourceful, energetic, and productive. You can suddenly do things that you weren’t able to do previously when in a state of stress.
This was exactly my experience. When I started to bring joy to that job I hated, I started to become more creative. Ideas flowed to me that showed me how I could create something better for myself.
I started to become more productive and actually move towards my goals, whereas before I felt like I didn’t have any time or was just too stressed out to take any action.
Ask “How Can I Give?” Not “How Can I Get?”
When you’re stressed, you just want to feel good right now, so you sacrifice the long term goals for short term pleasure. To be successful, you have to be happy first!
Take the focus off of you and your problems. Start thinking about how you can help others and bring more joy and success to their lives. When you do this, your own problems essentially disappear because your mind isn’t focused on them. Then suddenly you’re a lot less stressed. Ironically, this gives you the ability to solve your “problems” much more effectively.
You’re a lot less reactive and anxious, and that helps you be much more effective in all areas of your life. You’re more productive, more creative, and resourceful. You’re more outgoing, happier, and that internal state of being leads to the external life that you want in due time.
I made a video about this recently. It’s called the “law of causality.”
The law of causality basically states that the external circumstances of your life are a reflection of your internal state of consciousness. To change the external circumstances in any major way, you have to first learn how to think, feel, and BE a new kind of person…
You can watch, read, or listen to that episode right here.
Before I go, I just want to encourage you to switch the focus from “how can I get what I want in life” to “how can I help others get more of what they want in their life.”
This simple switch in your thinking will help you become so much more successful in whatever you decide to do.
I’m wishing you the best.
The post Why You Should NOT “Follow Your Passion” if You Want to Be Very Successful AND Happy appeared first on Perfectly at Peace.
Original source: https://perfectlyatpeace.com/dont-follow-your-passion/
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