On Following Your Bliss

I was looking for something on Netflix the other day to watch while working out, and I settled on “The Power of Myth” (yes, I’m a bit of a nerd). If you don’t know it, this PBS miniseries from the ’80s involved discussions between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell about mythology, how myth works in everyday life and the mythological journey that we are all on.

Campbell talks about each person as having a dragon to slay, and that dragon will reveal to you what it is you really want to be doing with your life.

His famous shorthand for the way life ought to be lived is “follow your bliss.”

Simple, but hard

Which sounds nice — who wouldn’t want to be following their bliss? — but it also sounds completely unrealistic when you’re just trying to pay the bills and a dead end job is better than no job at all.

I get that. I also get that a lot of us don’t act on our bliss — that thing that really excites us, that will make us want to get out of bed in the morning instead of wishing it were the weekend again on Monday morning — because we’re afraid.

Afraid of failure.

Afraid of success.

Afraid of what other people will think.

Afraid of what we’ll think of ourselves.

We aren’t willing to take the plunge because it seems too hard. We don’t follow our passion because that seems like something that only people with wealthy spouses or trust funds can do.

But the truth, as Joseph Campbell would tell you, is that we all ought to be following our bliss, and to fail to leaves your life less than fulfilled.

What You Can Do About It

Of course, the advice to simply start following your bliss now, today, before it’s too late, isn’t really all that helpful.

But it’s exactly what you need to do.

Can you take a small step toward that ideal life today? Do you even know what it is? If not, that’s probably the place to start.

If freelancing is where you think your bliss is and you haven’t yet taken the plunge, maybe today’s the day to actually pick a market and write a query (or send one if you have one already written that you’ve been looking for the right home for).

It might be the day to start a blog or to brainstorm topics that you’d like to write about.

If you’re already on the road to freelancing, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your goals, look at your client list and see if you’re really being served by those clients or if they’re all heading you in the right direction.

Taking Action Myself

I’m not just writing this blog post for you. I think it’s important for all of us to take a look at how we’re spending our time and if it’s really getting us closer to our goals.

For me, this sort of soul-searching is telling me it might be time to detach from a long-time client whose work seems to be taking more time than it’s worth these days. The extra time I’ll have by not working with this company means I’ll be able to do more of the work I really want to do — and maybe even have time to write another book.

Now that would be bliss.