It has been a year since I returned home. Part of the motivation behind the move was to do more of what I love.
When I moved, I had no idea of what was ahead of me. Although it has only just been a year, it has already been a powerful journey for me, with many ups and downs. As I’ve gone about doing what I love, my approach has been to immerse myself in it, expand my understanding around it, and align myself (and my effort) to it.
As I have reflected on my journey so far, three key lessons have emerged that I have learned during my first year of doing what I love.
Doing What We Love Can Help Us Overcome Challenges
Having never worked for myself before and with the emergence of a global pandemic, I had to quickly learn that doing what I love would not shield me from challenges despite my best effort or planning. However, because I was finally doing what I love, facing these challenges felt more natural.
When we truly immerse ourselves in what we love doing, such that the primary motivation for doing it is for the pure joy it brings to us, we become better-suited to face challenges that might emerge. It doesn’t matter if what we do brings us success or makes us broke. It might even be the death of us, but we will gladly do it because it makes our soul come alive.
What We Love Doing Keeps Revealing Itself
I have also learned that the more we do what we love, the more it reveals itself. Just like we discover new things about a friend or a partner as time passes, so is the case with doing what we love. The journey of figuring out what we love doing does not end when we start doing what we love, but only begins then.
Despite having done the hard work of figuring out what I wanted to do (writing, making music, and capturing visuals), I still had many specifics to figure out. Each dawn that I have spent immersing myself into doing what I love has brought with it a sense of purpose and clarity on these specifics.
So it helps to be patient with ourselves as we go about figuring out what we love doing. To not look at doing what you love as a place to arrive at but rather a continuous process.
We Can Outgrow What We Love Doing
Lastly, I have learned that sometimes doing what we love may reveal that we have outgrown doing it. In the year that has passed, I’ve had to let go of many things that I have at one point loved to do.
This process of letting go wasn’t easy and has demanded being aware and open. But each time I had to do it, it felt like the only honest way forward since I was no longer enjoying doing those things. Letting go also presented the benefit of creating space that I otherwise would not have to prioritize more of what I did enjoy doing.
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