Of course, it is vital to follow what you love, and strive to actualize your goals
But, do you really know what you want?
A lot of people told me they know what they want to do in their lives and that it Is their passion, and I could say by the look on their face that I wasn’t sure if what they are seeking is their true life’s passion, only to find out years later that they are seeking something else.
Not only have I seen this in many people, but I have experienced this for myself!
Jumping from one thing to another thing, one job to another job since I was a teenager, and took me over 15 years to achieve complete clarity about my life’s purpose!
Although I always had a feeling of what it’ll be like, I knew almost what I wanted to become, but I didn’t know all the details at the level of my conscious mind!
There is something in you that always knows everything. Somewhere you already know what you want, what is right for you and what makes you happy.
But You don’t allow it to surface up to your conscious mind, because of what you intellectually believe; your limited thinking, beliefs, things you think you should be and you should do because everyone else thinks like that, or someone else’s expectation of you
It usually takes a lot of self-digging, study, belief work, contemplation, meditation and being in silence, to remember why you are here and what you wanted to accomplish in this life.
I encourage you to strive to find out goal of your life; I believe souls choose to accomplish something before they enter this world, you are also here for a reason, and if you don’t find that reason, and don’t work toward it, you won’t have a sense of satisfaction and peace.
If you don’t move toward your life’s goal, you may always feel a burden, a heaviness and a sense of not being useful.
It’s like this, let’s say you know you must save some money for down payment of your dream house which you want to buy and happily live in it, But instead, you’ll take all that money and spend it partying, how does that make you feel?
Do you feel you have invested your time, energy and money in something that’ll end up making you satisfied in the long term? Or do you feel you have done something against your good?
It’s kind of like that, when you are doing something in your life which is not what you really want deep down in your heart. You may experience some pleasure and temporal satisfaction here and there, but you won’t feel that you’re moving toward your highest goal and direction, and that your life is expanding.
Maybe you’ve been on a job for a long time that doesn’t make you really happy, you want to find another job, enter into another field or start your own business, but you are afraid of making changes because you don’t know what will happen next and you don’t want to risk losing your current situation.
Most people prefer to stay on a known trail than trying a new one. Because the known trail has been already tried, is familiar and the unknown trail is not. People are always afraid of the unknown, but interestingly it’s almost always the courage to enter the unknown that transforms people into something higher and better
Then I think we need to overcome our fear of doing new things and become ok with not knowing everything; we have to risk, if we want to do something different; anyone afraid of risks never accomplishes something significant in life
The trouble with fear of risk is that you think there are only certain changes that may sound risky, and other things are safe; let me tell you this, the whole life is risky, just take a look around the world and realistically investigate people’s lives, read about people who experienced unexpected deaths, people who died in car crashes, had strokes, were robbed, or affected by wildfires and earthquakes.
If you realistically investigate, you’ll see that every moment there are thousands of threats to the existence of your physical body; this is not pessimism, don’t take me wrong, it’s reality and you should face it, if you want to become something great, you have to face the truth, and the truth shall make you free!
And let’s finish with 2 beautiful quotes from two great man:
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
From Steve Job’s speech at Stanford University (Read the full speech)
“I’ll tell you what changed my whole life: I finally discovered that it’s all risky. The minute you got born, it got risky. If you think trying is risky, wait until they hand you the bill for not trying.”
– Jim Rohn