Forget Following Your Passions, Follow Your Energy

19 May Forget Following Your Passions, Follow Your Energy

I love the word ‘passion.’ I love that there are things in this world that light a fire within me, and I love how I feel when doing those things.

But for some people it’s a terrifying word. The kind that brings about a deer-in-headlights look if someone asks them what they’re passionate about or simply says, “Follow your passion.” Because they just don’t know what it is that ignites them.

Elizabeth Gilbert explains this perfectly in her book Big Magic when she writes: “If you don’t have a clear passion and somebody blithely tells you to go follow your passion, I think you have the right to give that person the middle finger. Because that’s like somebody telling you that all you need in order to lose weight is to be thin, or all you need in order to have a great sex life is to be mutiorgasmic: That doesn’t help!”

I hadn’t thought about it this way before. And I’m admittedly guilty of being that person. On the flip side, I’ve also been the person being told to “follow my passion” when I had no idea what it was, and I can attest to the frustration of hearing those words.

So what if instead of telling someone to follow his or her passions, we encouraged them to follow their energy?

I’ve read this idea a few places recently, most notably in an ebook Mel Robbins wrote called How to Live with Passion.

According to Mel, we’ve been going about this whole passion thing the wrong way. She writes:

“The biggest mistake we make when we think about passion is that we ask the wrong questions.

We ask ourselves “what am I passionate about?”

This puts the answer outside of you.

It makes you start looking for clues in the world (like a new job) as if it is the answer. That will not work.”

Based on my own past experience looking for these clues and the real world, and I can confirm exactly what Mel says: it doesn’t work.

Instead, she says that we should ask ourselves ‘When do I feel energized?’ and ‘What makes me feel energized?’ because to answer them “you have to look inside yourself.”

The great thing about energy is that we’ve all felt it before. We know what being energized feels like, so we can identify it. And we can make note of when it happens and what causes it.

And then, we can do more of those things. Whatever those things are.

But also recognize that what brings you energy is unique to YOU. And it’s okay if it doesn’t fit the status quo. Or if you’re the only person you know who loves to do it.

Stop looking for validation from society, because you won’t get it. Going against the grain is hard. But it’s also incredibly rewarding.

The things that give you energy, your passions, do so for a reason. They’re calling to you. They’re trying to entice you with their electricity. And if you follow them, Mel says, “…you will be able to live the life you want.”

What is it that brings you energy? If you can’t easily identify it, I challenge you to starting tracking! You might be surprised at what you learn, or you may discover that what you currently dismiss as only a hobby is precisely what you should be pursuing as a career. Whatever it is, follow it. Make all the space for it that you can.