Follow Your Bliss

Joseph Campbell told us to “follow our bliss”.  He wrote, “What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea.  It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by someone else”.  

We are unique. Our potential for experience is unique. Therefore, at any given moment, we can put ourselves in the way of our destiny, so to speak.

Many of us resist the very idea that we have unique gifts and talents to offer the world.  Along our journey through life, we’ve been discouraged about pursuing our dreams, so we’ve simply dropped them along the side of the road, and forgotten about them.  What many of us don’t realize is that those dreams are still there inside of us, and that in order to lead a fulfilling life, we need to go back to the various crossroads in our lives, retrieve these shattered visions and bring them back to life.

Essentially, everyone who writes about success principles is saying the same thing.  On the surface, it appears as though a plain and simple, rather commonplace idea is being put forth.  However, upon closer examination, it is clear that, in fact, one of the most powerful bits of knowledge and wisdom is being imparted with a handful of words: success is as simple as finding out what your deepest, most heartfelt passion is and making your life about that. Period. 

Emerson called this tendency self-reliance. It often comes to those who discover that happiness and success isn’t outside of ourselves, it comes from within. Those who have searched for it have found that it’s been there all along. 

Waiting to be activated. 

Waiting to be shared. 

Waiting to manifest.

Isn’t it interesting that our life’s work—the work that will make us the most happy and fulfilled—is also the way that we can make the greatest contribution to others?  The two appear to go hand-in-hand. Being true to ourselves, automatically touches the lives of others.

Why haven’t we all discovered it then? 

Why aren’t we all doing it?

There are as many reasons as there are people who are living unfulfilled lives. 

We’re afraid of change. 

We are used to our habits and ways of doing things, and like it or not, we’re comfortable there (and also believe we’re safe and secure).

We believe that pursuing our dreams is too difficult and risky.

We believe we’re not entitled to do what we really want. 

We are so enmeshed with obligations and responsibilities, we don’t often take the time to even think about it. 

If I could give every man woman and child on this planet one gift, it would be to teach them to listen to and follow the unique song in their hearts. I’ve seen that work miracles in people’s lives. I’ve felt it transform my own life. 

Nothing is more beautiful that seeing others “doing who they are”.

Nothing is more powerful than a person who knows what he or she wants.

In religious terms as well as vocational terms one often hears of someone having a “calling” to minister to others or a “calling” to become a musician. I believe all of us having a calling. Some are fortunate to hear it at an early age. Others appear to never hear it at all. 

Most of us have heard it, but for one reason or another, have chosen to ignore it. Perhaps, we were never encouraged as children.  Or we were told our ideas and dreams were impractical.  Whatever the reason, we may now find ourselves at a crossroads in our lives wondering why we feel lonely or unhappy or unfulfilled. Perhaps, we simply feel an inner gnawing that something is not right. A kind of itchiness, restlessness or sense of being unsettled, and we have no idea why.

More than likely it is because we’ve been ignoring our need to express ourselves in our own unique way.  The cost of ignoring our need to be creative, self-expressive human beings is difficult to measure, but I am sure that many conflicts in human relationships could be resolved if people were simply able to follow a different road. 

Frustration, anger, resentment often arise out of feelings of powerless. Studies have shown crimes are often committed by those who feel the most powerless.  

True inner power is the result of a feeling that one has found his or her place in the world, and that he or she is making a worthwhile contribution to it. There is a free flow of energy with this type of power: one is in a position of both giving and receiving at the same time, taking care of the human need to not only receive love but to express it as well. 

There is no lack here.  

Incredible things happen when people arrive at this place. The right connections, money and opportunities tend to move toward them in a magnetic way. 

Years ago, I read a book called, The Master Game.  In it, the author compared life to a game and he challenged the reader to find a game worth playing, a life worth living. It’s a challenge I took seriously. My entire adult life has been devoted to finding a game worth playing. The Master Game, as I see it, is a game in which you are the master of your own destiny.  All of us are to one extent or another, but few of us acknowledge it.  We’ve moved out of the driver’s seat of our lives, and let someone else or several other people do the driving for us. Some have even forgotten how to drive.

Finding your bliss is the first step to getting back into the driver’s seat.  From today forward, consider yourself on a mission to follow your bliss.