Contributed by by Tanya S.
My relationship isn’t working anymore; I’m not happy, I’ve fallen out of love. My career doesn’t excite me. My life is going nowhere and I don’t know what to do. How many times had I heard this from friends or even asked myself these questions? More times than I can count! Frankly, I was tired of it. What I finally came to terms with was this: I didn’t fall out of love; it wasn’t my career—it wasn’t them, it was me:
I wasn’t following my heart; I didn’t have an intimate relationship with myself; I was looking to outside sources to bring excitement and adventure into my life.
With the expectation that others were responsible for my happiness, when the excitement faded, I would blame my job, my boyfriend, everything outside. Then it dawned on me: If I were happy with myself, I wouldn’t need outside sources for the excitement I was seeking.
The fact was, I had abandoned what I loved doing a long time ago: writing, drawing, and being creative. I thought I needed to get an office job to be a success! But the office bored me (or so I thought) and I complained. What really happened is I gave up all the things I love and put them aside. I stopped being true to myself. Rather, I had ignored my needs and passions, and made my job and my relationship responsible for my happiness. As you can imagine that did not go well. I kept going form job to job and relationship to relationship looking for them to fulfill me.
With the view that being happy was an inside job, I asked myself: What did I love to do? Writing made me happy years ago and the thought of doing it made me feel good. So I decided that I would write again. It took some time to get back in the groove but here I am writing blogs, newsletters, tweets, etc. I feel much happier and I am satisfied with my career. I no longer look to my work for excitement, doing what I love is fulfilling and makes me happy—I have a new attitude towards my career and my life!
How do you fuel your passions? We invite you to share your comments in the box below.
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