I stood on the train station platform. It was a searing hot summer day. I was just seventeen and I was leaving home for the first time. I was on my way to college. In my arms, was my 2-year-old sister and next to me were Mum and Dad. They were saying goodbye.
The steel trunk with rusting handles that had been borrowed from my grandparents with my clothes and essential items inside had been loaded onto the freight car. I was heading off on a 1,000 mile journey to start my degree.
Over the last few months, I had been agonizing over what was my next step in life. The discussions bounced between what I wanted to do and what my parents “expected” me to be. I chose “expected.”
But leaving the known behind and stepping into the unknown was both exciting, scary and a step towards freedom. It took me another 33 years to leave parental expectation behind and discover my bliss.
So, what does it mean to follow your bliss?
At seventeen, I would have answered the question “What do you want to do with your life?” or other versions of that question such as “What is your purpose? with a blank stare.
I had seen that people with money didn’t struggle. Discussion with my parents as a teenager about happiness and purpose was non-existent.
Life was seen through a simple lens – Do the right thing, follow the rules, get a good job, listen to your parents and all will be well. Black and white would lead to a life of everything will be alright.
Joseph Cambell was the author of the books “The Hero’s Journey” and “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” that inspired George Lucas to create and produce the movie “Star Wars.”
It became a cultural phenomenon that transformed Hollywood and led to other multi-film blockbusters. These included – The Matrix, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.
He discovered that the path to a fulfilling life filled with purpose started with following your bliss. At an early age, he was curious about the stories, myths and legends of the American Indians through many visits to the American Museum of Natural History.
So what does “follow your bliss” mean?
“Follow your bliss” means pursuing a path that brings deep fulfillment, joy, and alignment with one’s authentic self. Campbell believed that everyone has an inner calling or passion—a unique, personal source of “bliss” — that, when followed, leads to a more meaningful and enriched life.
To sum that up in a simple phrase: “Follow your burning curiosity.”
Why following your bliss matters
Turning up to work every day can pay the bills. It keeps your partner happy and food on the table. But if you are slowly dying inside one day at a time then happiness, health and overall well being are sucked from your soul.
Crossing the chasm from existence, struggle and ordinary to joy, flow and extraordinary is a hero’s journey. The challenge is finding a way. It requires the right attitude that demands that we see opportunity in adversity.
We see problems not as failure but a life lesson. We turn negatives into positives. We see answers in questions.
How do you discover your bliss?
My answer was found in the middle of chaos. I was between jobs, divorced and close to penniless. To top it off, I was fifty one years old.
That age is often at the cusp of what we call the ‘unemployable zone’, especially when you are fighting for jobs with cool 30-somethings in the digital industry and you are told you are not a good culture fit.
Ageism is real and a career death sentence for many. I didn’t have much money but I had plenty of time.
Many of us start down paths shaped by our parents’ and society’s expectations. As young, impressionable souls, we step into the world guided by adult authority, cultural norms, and the influence of our parents, who seem like infallible guides.
Without questioning, we follow their roadmap, only to later realize that we’ve been climbing a ladder leaning against the wrong wall—our dreams don’t quite align with theirs.
Discovering our uniqueness is often obscured by the weight of others’ expectations. At times, a parent who hasn’t fulfilled their own dreams may hope to live them out through us.
So what do you do?
You need to pay attention to what makes you feel alive, energized, and true to you. Following your bliss suggests that by aligning your passions and inner desires, life will unfold in ways that support your journey, often with unexpected opportunities and connections that help sustain the pursuit of a chosen path.
Essentially, “following your bliss” is about recognizing and embracing what brings purpose and significance, even if it means taking risks or stepping outside societal and parental expectations. This is where experimenting with life steps up to the plate.
Step 1: Discovery
The whisper of your purpose will never shout. It often shows up as a hunch mixed with a dose of intuition. It is a synergy of reading, researching and reflecting.
It is a zone where you feel some joy mixed with dread. But you need to ask one question: Is this a yes or a no? Once that is sensed as an ”Yes” the next step is action. And I am not talking drastic action but purposeful and considered intent.
I had a curiosity about social media, I sensed its promise and potential. I followed my bliss. That led me to my next step. Creating.
Discovery without action is just an idea. And many of us have good ideas that die in fear, anxiety and procrastination. And discovering your bliss needs actualization. Until you act on your bliss, you will not know if it is real or just a myth or a ghost passing in the night.
Creating is where your bliss starts to unfold and reveal itself.
Experiment
One way of discovering your bliss is to experiment. The phrase “You don’t know what you don’t know” is telling. From a distance many opportunities are viewed with rose-colored glasses. The myth exceeds the reality.
So go and test those myths out. Go and do some “free’ work experience. Volunteer. I did 3 career experiments in my summer school teacher break. In that test the answer became clear. And it changed my life.
Once you step into the real zone the reality will tell you some answers dragged from the question. Is this a yes or a no? Intuition and your gut will tell you the answer if you are aware.
Step 2: Creation
We are now in the middle of the biggest creator economy revolution that the world has ever seen. According to Goldman Sachs, it could reach half a trillion dollars by 2027. This is a digital creator economy. There has never been a better time for creators who take action on their bliss and create.
We have the creator tools, apps and the platforms to place our art into the world for everyone to see. Your smartphone, WordPress, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok are just a few of many technologies that have democratized creating and sharing.
An insight into what’s needed to be a creator is revealed by Stephen King. “If you want to write you need to read, there is no other way.”
Creators need input to inspire the output. If you don’t like reading then watch a video. If you don’t like watching then listen to audio and there are many podcasts that will inspire and educate.
New ideas, innovation and creation don’t arise from a vacuum. Isaac Newton said in 1676 “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Step 3: Sharing
Creating is one thing but making a difference comes down to sharing your bliss’ output with the world.
Taking a photo, creating a video, writing an article and hiding it on your computer or phone is not where magic happens.
Waiting for perfection is a losing game. The only way to know if your bliss-inspired art will resonate is to put it out there.
The impostor syndrome is real. And it stops many of us from taking the final step and revealing your passion to the world.
Don’t wait to be perfect.
Discover your bliss, create and share it with the world.
That is where the magic happens.
Don’t go to your grave wondering.
The post Feeling Lost? The 3 Key Steps I Discovered For True Happiness & Bliss appeared first on jeffbullas.com.
* This article was originally published here
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