The Importance of Listening to Your Heart
The world is full of free advice. Work the highest paying job, drive a new car, drink a Coke, save money at our bank. Whatever the current advice of the masses is, the worst thing you can do is listen to it.
Ultimately the responsibility is on us to decide what we want for our lives. If you don’t know what you want, you should figure it out as soon as possible — not listen to what everyone tells you.
As a matter of fact, the search for what we want in life is probably the most important process a person can start. Finding what will make us into the happiest people we can be is the highest calling. Once we find what we love and what makes us happy, we’re freed from the scarcity mentality. We’re free to give day in and day out, without ever loosing anything. There’s a danger, though, of getting caught in a cycle of perpetual search for the ULTIMATE ANSWER.
When you search for what you want for your life, remember that it’s not your final answer. It’s just your answer for right now. It doesn’t have to be some grand elaborate scheme, but if you want to be able to apply it to your work, find a way to share it with others. For example, if you want to be a professional writer, write as often as possible, and tackle the most difficult work. Tackling the most difficult work means you will get the biggest rewards, because there are millions of people who want to write, very few who want to work hard at it. Monetizing your passion is about making it worth something to other people. The easiest way to get people to think your passion is worth something is giving it away. That starts the dialog, and you get a chance to show your real worth.
But how do we find out what want in life?
Trial and error, reflection, and persistence. Starting out with the right morality speeds up this process, but ultimately, a rewarding answer only comes after hard work. Like everything else.
For me, the search for what I wanted began when I decided to pursue a career as a Permaculture Designer. I saw the beauty and simplicity of self-managing ecological agriculture, and just fell in love.
The only problem was, I had a full scholarship to any school in Florida, and if I left, I would be giving up all of the college money to do something that would pay much less than a computer science degree.
It was hard for me, but I knew that I would never be happy if I didn’t ever find out if this was for me or not. I turned down the scholarship and left on a plane for Central America.
I spent a year living in an ecovillage in Costa Rica, learning about the day to day effort necessary to produce such a system, and how far it is from solving the problems of today. I surfed every day, ate great healthy food, had great company, but wasn’t challenging myself enough. And that’s when I realized I need a constant mental challenge. Lesson #1 only took 1 year of living in the third world.
It’s been a constant trial and error process since then. The biggest lessons for what I wanted came from a few months of hiking the Appalachian Trail. Day after day I was stuck in my head with nothing but my thoughts, and I worked through about nine different life paths I could choose. I’m convinced a long hike is the best thing a person can do to get their dreams sorted out, and realize the power that lies just beneath the surface of themselves. If you can spend 3 months of snow, mud, rain, sleet, bad moods and weird smells, you can do anything.
So, if you want to discover your purpose in life, get lost! Get yourself out of your environment and throw yourself into a place where you’re uncomfortable. Long term travel is the best way to discover who you are and what you want. That’ll lead to your own happiness, and eventually the happiness of others around you, when you start sharing what you discovered.
If you can’t travel, because of any sort of non-negotiable commitments, don’t worry. Just get even more radical. Taking the time off for yourself and finding your direction is more important than any other pressing matter. Figure out a way to give yourself personal time every day for reflection. Waking up an hour earlier every day to take a walk would work too.
Either way, the most important thing is to start the process of self-discovery. Self-discovery is something that’s really overlooked by society today, because it’s viewed as selfish or flakey. Only the lucky get to have the dream jobs, so you might as well resign yourself to becoming whatever it is you can become through a four year school. (Or through years of climbing the corporate ladder) With this kind of approach, it’s no wonder so many people are unsatisfied with their work.
If you’re unsatisfied with your work, it’s your own damn fault. Have the gumption to start the difficult task of finding work that will make you satisfied. After all, you’re the one who has to face yourself in the mirror every day.
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