It’s funny when certain themes show up with my coaching clients and several women are experiencing a different version of the same thing at once.
One of those themes lately is about taking risks and it can show up as a conflict between…
doing what inspires you or doing what makes sense
making decisions with your heart or with your head
pursuing your passion or just working to pay the bills
Sometimes we fear that making a change will automatically cause our career or income to suffer. We worry that if we give up our current paycheck, we won’t be able to support ourselves. We question whether taking that step that we intuitively know will pay off for us will really be just a waste of time.
We cling to our reasonable nature like glue knowing we’re smart, even if we’re miserable.
If you find yourself in a battle between passion and reason, here are some things to consider.
Being too smart for your own good
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to be said for being smart! Especially as we've all been through so much challenge in the past year and a half.
I never recommend taking unnecessary risk - professional, personal or financial - without thinking things through and creating a solid plan.
I don’t tell clients to just quit their job then we’ll figure out what’s next. But I might ask “if you got fired tomorrow, what would you do?” to see how they’d handle it and what steps they’d take.
Listening to our head can be important and wise.
The challenge comes when the voice in our head drowns out the desire in our heart, time and time again.
We get frustrated, we stay stuck and our creativity, vision, success and being all suffer in the process. Plus, we lose sight of the fact that passion and inspiration can actually “work” for us when they’re backed with intelligence and planning.
Letting passion lead and strategy follow
When we let our smart, savvy selves fully support our desire, that’s when the magic happens.
We take a shot and go for that dream job, we launch that business we’ve been thinking about for years or we make a big move across the country because we want to live in sunshine by the beach (that was my wife and me back in 2009).
We do all of this not because we’re crazy, but because we’re brave and we know what’s best for us. We do it because we believe in ourselves and we’re ready to bring our wishes to life.
And when we shift our perspective and put our brains behind our passion, we can then use every ounce of our experience - along with the resources and the people that have gotten us where we are now - to help our new idea FLY.
Creating the perfect combination
So what does it look like to marry passion and reason?
It’s using your network to help you get leads and secure a job you adore. It’s planning and following through on the details of your brilliant business concept. It’s taking classes, finding mentors and getting support to reach your vision more quickly and easily, instead of doing it alone.
It’s asking HOW rather than IF, over and over again.
Will there still be risk? Absolutely.
But letting your passion team up with your smarts turns desires into projects - and that gives you the best possible shot at making your dreams come true.
Just think, if you can be successful at work that doesn’t thrill you, imagine what’s possible when your head and your heart team up to do something you love?
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