Bliss

“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living.” – Joseph Campbell

Bliss, passion, happiness – all words that describe what we all want in our lives. So why do we chase it, and why is it so elusive? Usually because we are following a path that isn’t really ours. From the time that we are young, we are told that we need to get a good education, find a high paying job, climb the corporate ladder to the highest rung, get married, have children, and then when we are old enough we get to retire and do what we want. Where in that sentence were the words bliss, passion or happiness?

We focus on fame and fortune, and not on what makes us happy. The old saying that money can’t buy happiness is true. What makes it true is that we are looking for happiness on the wrong path. We are looking for it on that path that is in the above paragraph.

Instead, if we get really quiet and still, and look inside ourselves, we will see ideas that form about things that we could do that would make us happy. In the past we have pushed aside those ideas because they didn’t fit inside the formula that we have had drummed into us all of our lives. Instead of pushing those ideas aside, start exploring this new path. Look for ways outside of the box to monetize the ideas to the point that they can provide us with a living.

As you walk down this path, you begin living the life that you were meant to live. As you explore this path, you will meet people that will expand on your ideas and want to work with you. As you go around the bends, new vistas will open up before you. You will see new directions to take that will expand your business ideas. Your ideas begin having ideas as your passion catches fire. Before you know it, bliss will have seeped into every area of your life without your even noticing.

Whenever you find life getting hard again, you will know that you have stepped off the right path for you. Don’t worry, you aren’t lost. You just need to use your internal compass and get back on your true path.

Friends and family may not understand at first what you are doing, or why. But if you hold true to yourself and keep on your own path, they will understand when they see that you can be both happy and successful in all of the ways that really matter. Just hold true to your “true north” and keep your compass handy to reorient your direction when needed. Then you will really be living the life that you ought to be living!