‘Discover what your soul has always wanted to do… and do it!’

Elizabeth Gilbert

 

Do you ever feel a longing to do something, anything? Does your mind wander to the same thing time and time again? Do you put that same thought to the back of your mind and dismiss it as a ‘silly dream’?

If so, stop right there.

That longing you are feeling could be your passion, yur reason for living. Denying your passion can leave you living an unfulfilled and lacking life. Sure you might be able to put the thought to the back of your mind but it will always come back.

Do you wake up every day excited at the prospect of another day of work? A day where you complete your lifes work and make a difference to people around you and stir your senses?

Work doesn’t have to be a struggle. If you don’t like what you are doing you can always change it, there’s always a way. You can literally do anything you want in life if you are willing to make it work.

Isn’t that an amazing feeling?

Sometimes you don’t discover your passions until later in life. I certainly didn’t. Did I let the fact that I had a career already established and a city centre flat hold me back when I discovered my passion for travel? No, and you shouldn’t either. It wasn’t a decision I took lightly, I requested a sabbatical and worked it out from there. Following your passions doesn’t mean you should leave your senses.

I had a longing to work with children and a longing for travel. In the early days when my passion was just a tiny flame of excitement some people dismissed my dreams as ‘silly’, said that I was stupid for wanting more as the ‘grass isn’t walways greener’ and that I should just buy a dog and be happy with my lot. I ignored them and decided to follow my passion for children with my love for travel by moving to Japan to teach English in Elementary school.

Sometimes the grass is greener. If you are living a life lacking in vibrancy and passion I can guarantee that the grass will be greener! It’s all about perspective!

I may not have a house and a fancy car like many of my peers but I’m emotionally satisfied. I’ve taken risks that have payed off, because what is the alternative? To always wonder and then when I’m 80 regretting my life, wishing I had the guts to fulfill myself and not just do what is expected of me?

Starting off in a new country is not easy but my soul feels alive because I’m doing my lifes work. I’m living my passions.

Can you afford to deny your passions? Is a stable wage worth starving yourself of your true reasons for living?

Take a chance on life and follow your passions.

Can you afford not to?

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22 thoughts on “Why denying your passion is dangerous

    1. Thanks April. Travel won’t make everyone emotionally satisfied but it’s important for people to find out what they love and incorporate it into their life.

  1. I agree with you. I’m living a life completely different from the ones of people my age in my country, and I’d never regretted. I did 3 years of uni but it simply didn’t work for me, so I quit and have been an expat ever since. I think it’s all about living life doing whatever makes YOU happy (without harming anyone of course).

    1. That’s so true Valeria, what works for one person won’t work for another! I think some of us were meant to live as expats 🙂

  2. Hi Elizabeth, I totally agree with you! Life should be worth living, and everyone should be entitled to decide for herself what to do with it, not simply following the beaten path. I’m also trying to shift to a ‘life of travel’, so far I downshifted at my day job and now I have more time to take care of my blog and to travel, I hope one day I can afford to quit it and travel full time. As you wrote, ‘following your passions doesn’t mean you should leave your senses’… people often say I’m silly to daydream about a different way of life, and that I should think about settling and raising a family, but they don’t get that we do have a ‘strategy’, we are not simply running away from something or wishing to lay all day on a Caribbean beach, but doing a bit of soul searching (and that’s something everybody should do…) and asking ourselves what works for us… this also means to be pragmatic, research about different ways of living and find a way to afford it! thank you for your inspiring words! 🙂

    1. At first I found being brave so hard! Now I realise that great things in life only come when you break out of your comfort zone.

  3. This is so true. You have to follow your passion. Sometimes it may take a while for you to realize what it is, but when you do, no one or thing should stop you.

    1. I actually realised my passion when I was living my passion! I went travelling to find my passion and purpose in life and the answer was simple, travel is my passion! I also found out that I loved children on that trip. Something I would have never discovered in my regular life.

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