Find your passion. Uncover your purpose. Live your dream.
Wherever I look people (myself included!) are proclaiming it’s time to find out who you are, to uncover your purpose, to live your passion. Yet there seems to be a myth that it’s a simple process. That once you know, you know. There is the idea of a state of enlightenment after just one or two epiphanies (or workshops!). The ten step plan to get to where you want to get to. A world of rainbows and unicorns that you’ll stay in for ever.
Oh how I used to long for that place.
One of clarity and focus, decision and action.
I wanted to just click my fingers and get there.
The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
And yet through trial and error, giving things a go and trying new experiences I am there. I know what I love to do and get to do it a lot of the time. I have had so many amazing experiences and feel blessed to live the life I do. There are blissful days of lollipops and rainbows where I seem to be in my flow and it feels easy. But then I wake up another day in a state of fog unsure of where I am heading.
You see, I regularly forget.
I forget that I need my 8 hours sleep a night.
I forget how I’m like a dog that needs to be taken outside and exercised at least once a day.
I forget how important real human connection is for me.
I forget that although money is important it isn’t my primary driver.
I forget that what I really love doing is connecting with people 1:1 and helping them move forward.
And then I remember.
I turn off my phone, step away from the computer and read my book and fall asleep for an amazing 8 or 9 hours of blissful sleep.
I go camping for a weekend where anytime I am not asleep I’m outside in the fresh air.
I move my body at swim squad or yoga or bike to my work meeting.
I become aware when I am in a procrastination loop and I step away, give myself a 20 minute timer and get back into action.
I have amazing coaching sessions with clients and feel as though I’m walking on air.
I’d like to banish this myth that we find our thing, our passion, our path, our purpose and then hallelujah life is easy.
It’s bloody fantastic and I love the work I do, but I am off the wagon probably as much as I am on it. Some days are foggy and others are wonderfully clear and bright. And I celebrate the bright days, revel in the clarity and know that the fog is so much less than it used to be. On the foggy days I don’t let it get me down and find ways to move through it without it becoming part of who I am. I connect to what is important and keep doing it more and more often so the forgetting is short and the remembering is long.
Life sure is a journey, so don’t beat yourself up if the fog is currently in your life.
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