[?] Subscribe To This Site

Email Name Then Don't worry -- your e-mail address is totally secure. I promise to use it only to send you Consciousness NOW!.

Joesph Campbell is quoted saying:  "Follow your bliss" in order to find your life's work...but what if my bliss is drinking beer and watching TV all day?
  
So, if I drink beer and watch TV, I will find my life's purpose?  I think there must be more to "follow your bliss" than just do whatever you want to do.

I am still "following my bliss" but that doesn't mean that I think I have found my perfect job yet...and even when I do find a job that is more fun, I will still do things I don't like to do...so what are we really talking about?

I know this is a recurring theme, but I will say it again...I think it's important to seek inside yourself to find "your happy place" before you start to try to follow your bliss in day-to-day life.

If you are happy, then your current vocation, however un-blissfull it may seem at the time, won't bother you.  You will learn that whatever job you are working now....is ok, just not perfect.  And really, isn't that great!  I don't want to work the same job for my whole life...yuck!

That is not to say that you shouldn't follow your bliss, only that your bliss is inside you...that's why you can follow it...it is in you.  If your bliss was outside of you in the "day to day" world then Joseph Campbell would have said "find your bliss" or "seek your bliss"...

...but he said follow your bliss, like your bliss is a dog on a lease that can smell out your next thing to do.

I agree that I want to create a more fulfilling and exciting way to make money (hey writing this web page is a lot more fun than my current job), and at the same time I accept that my web business is still a work in progress and that I still have bills to pay...

...so I will keep the job until the business makes money.

Now, even when my web business takes off and I can quit my job, I won't be done doing the "follow your bliss" thing.  The web page will create new opportunities to travel, meet new people, join new groups and work in a completely new way...

...but I won't be done, I will come up with some new goal and eventually the web page will be done and I will move onto the next thing in my life.

Oh yeah, I don't think it is written in stone that there is one thing or a list of things you need to do in order to fulfill your "destiny" while you are on earth.  You get to fill in the blank with what you WANT to do.

Another important point about the idea of "follow your bliss" is that you should take the idea of money out of the equation when deciding what you want to do.

When I was younger and I was trying to figure out what to do to make money, I came up with a lot of ideas, but none of the ideas seemed all that exciting.  I made my goal:  "I need money....what can I do?"

Now, I want to say, I want to get excited about writing web pages that help people learn to be happy and I think I can make money doing that.

I put the "excited" part first, and then the money will follow.

The "system" and your parents and a lot of people will tell you that you need to make money, and of course you do...but you should always be working towards doing something that you want to do for free and keep trying to come up with ways that you can make money doing something that you enjoy doing.

How do I know if what I am doing is "the right path"?

1.  There is really is no right path beyond what you say is the right path.
You get to fill in the blank with what makes you excited.

2.  If you are excited to do the thing for free (this web page doesn't make money yet...but I get up a 4:00 am every day to write...I like it!)

3.  If what you are doing provides value to others...eventually, they will return the value to you in the form of money or other gifts.

There are a few ideas I like to keep in mind while I do the "follow your bliss" thing.

1. Detach from outcome.
2. Don't get hooked or addicted to the activity

De-attach from outcome:  Deepak Chopra has a wonderful way of saying you walk toward your goal...you keep looking at the goal and you walk towards it.  Then you don't care if you get there....your job is to be happy walking.

You are always going to have a goal, as you finish things, you will start walking toward the next goal...there is always something new to do.

This way you won't end up like Brett Favre.  He retired from football in March, but now he wants to play again.  My guess is that he found his bliss, he thinks the bliss is outside of himself...it's not.

He doesn't need to play football to be happy, but he is hooked on a feeling that he doesn't think he can get doing anything else.

I just retired from the Air Force after 20 years.  I have to admit that I was running for retirement.  I loved the Air Force, but I was done.  And even though I did have a lot of fun in the Air Force, I was very much looking forward to doing something new.

I got a job as a civilian...working for the Air Force!  It's like I really never retired...but the job is better than the Air Force was in a lot of was...and not as cool in other ways.  The important thing is that I learned to be happy without be attached to a job or an Air Force life style.

Brett Favre LOVEs playing football...but he will have to quit someday, time to look inside and find that the bliss is not the game, but the quite cheerleader inside you watching you succeed.

Brett doesn't need to play football to be happy...just keeping loving life and giving your joy to people...and follow your bliss.