How To Be Smart & Follow Your Passion

One of the themes that’s common for my coaching clients is the conflict between taking risks and playing it safe professionally.

This can be tough to manage because decisions around what steps to take (or not to take) are unique to each person’s situation, risk tolerance and capacity for change.

You might experience this conflict as doing what inspires you or doing what “makes sense”. Making decisions with your head or with your heart. Pursuing your passion or simply paying the bills.

More often than not, we fear that making any change will cause our career to suffer.

We worry that giving up our current income will mean that we can’t support ourselves. We question our great idea, even if we know it can pay off. We convince ourselves that our current reality is better than our dream.

We cling to our reasonable nature like glue…knowing that we’re smart, even if we’re miserable.

If you’re battling between desire and common sense, here are some things to consider.

You’re too smart for your own good

Don’t get me wrong, being smart is important!! Especially when you’ve dealt with challenges in your past that you don’t want to relive.

I never recommend taking unnecessary professional, personal or financial risks without careful consideration and a solid plan. I don’t tell clients, for example, to just quit their job when they’re unhappy…but I might ask them to imagine losing it to see how they’d manage.

Listening to our head is often very wise. The problem comes when our head drowns out our heart, every time.

We get frustrated, stay stuck and our creativity, success and happiness suffer. We also miss the fact that our passion can “work” for us when it’s backed by strategic thinking.

Let passion lead and strategy follow

When you allow your savvy self to fully support your desires, that’s when the magic happens.

You’ll take action and apply for that dream job. You’ll craft a plan to launch your business. You might even figure out exactly what needs to happen to live near the beach and be warm year round, like my wife and I did years ago.

We do these things not because we’re crazy, but because we’re brave…and we know deep down what’s best for us. We do them because we believe in ourselves and we’re ready to bring our dreams to life.

When you put your brain to work on your passion, all the knowledge, resources and people that got you to where you are now help your new idea to FLY.

The perfect combination

So what does it look like to be smart and follow your heart?

It’s using your network to get leads and secure a job you love. It’s implementing the details of your brilliant business concept, step by step. It’s taking classes, finding mentors and getting support to reach your vision more quickly and easily than you can on your own.

It’s asking HOW rather than IF, over and over again.

Will there still be risk? Absolutely.

But letting your passion work with your smarts turns dreams into projects…and that gives you the best chance of making them come true.

Just think, if you can be successful doing work that doesn’t thrill you, imagine what’s possible when your head and your heart team up on something you love??

My interview with Bold Journey Magazine

In my recent interview with Bold Journey Magazine, it was a gift to talk about my business, beliefs and experience from a personal perspective. I share a bit about everything from who inspired my "success without exhaustion" theme and what many smart, talented women get "wrong" about success - to my own experience as a client, how I stay connected spiritually and why I know I'm doing what I'm here on earth to do. I’d love for you to read it :).