Anthony Rich: Creating And Discovering
I write, you follow...
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Follow Your Bliss 101
Photo by: vonSchnauzer
It seems as I read more and more of Seneca’s letter I am having things thrown at me that are not new to me, but things that I already know. Or at least I’d heard of, but not really known.
“Follow your bliss”
-Joseph Campbell
Follow your bliss. I have always heard it - and thought I knew it - but today I get a realization that I’ve never had before.
I was speaking with a buddy who is a partial owner of a restaurant with his brothers and asked him how his real estate business was going. After a long sigh he told me he was tired of it. Now, this man is pretty successful when it comes to real estate and he’s not doing too bad even in this tough economic state our country is in.
He told me he doesn’t have the - exact quote - “zill” he once had for it. He told me he grew out of it and grew into other things.
Now, this got me thinking. This man along with his brothers, which are twins, have done and been successful at numerous different ventures and at 47 he is still growing out of things and into others. Amazing! He has only started his restaurant business 1 1/2 years earlier and has big plans for it, but you would think that a man that is so good at real estate would just stay and become a “master” at his trade.
No he doesn’t care about that - which I love and can relate to. See, he understands that a man grows out and into things throughout his life and by following his bliss and going after what he wants doesn’t necessarily make him a “dabbler”, or a “master of none”. It makes him natural. It makes him humane. It makes him happy.
People tend to do what is socially right and put their passion behind them. They put their joy, their fire, their true self in the bottom of their priority list and say “I will do those things later”. Then they forget, or later never comes, and if it did come they would have suppressed themselves so much that they wouldn’t’ even know who they are anymore!
We get caught up in what others tell us is right and never have the balls to go for what we really want to do in life. Why live a life that the world wants you to do when you don’t want to. Who’s living it? Them or you?
“Do what brings you joy and you will love your life. Follow your bliss.”
I always thought that there was something wrong with me because I wanted to do so many different things. Things that were no where near the same category: Chef; Pilot; Actor; Filmmaker; Writer; Business Owner; Swimmer; Athlete; Explorer; Traveler; Import Exporter; Aerospace Engineer; Astronaut; etc. The list goes on!
The problem is that society doesn’t like this. We should do one thing and do it for the rest of our lives they say.
The problem is that an ambitious person who just wants to “be them self” get scared and falls into society’s trap. They get stuck in a trade that they do for majority or the rest of their lives and die asking the same question over and over again…”what if…”
Ask yourself this “what if”: What if I didn’t do what they said and lived life as if it was my life?
Guess what? It is your life. Its OK to be you and to want to do things that no one else wants to do; and live where you want to live; and be who you want to be.
This brings me back to the main point: Its OK for your passion to grow out of one thing and into another. Others will judge you, its OK, just…
Follow your bliss…and your life will always be filled with joy.
- notesurl
I write about whatever and I hope to help a few...
