Follow Your Heart

You have a heart for a reason. Following it can be a good thing if its in line with your passions… your gut instinct.

You probably already follow your heart anyway

We have all heard the phrase, “life is short,” or the more accurate version, “Life is too short”. It is a summary bit of advice that can be used for good or bad reasons. For example, “Life is short, eat dessert first,” is a silly way that the concept is used, but there is a lot of accuracy in the idea that our lives are too short to waste even a bit of time.

This is why some of the wisest career advice will include following your heart. It may be an oversimplification, but you should make sure that you do what you love and that you subsequently love what you do. This is not so easy, but if you are someone who works in a creative capacity, you are already on the path to professional and personal happiness.

If you are honest, you will strive for success as a creative as this is where your heart really lies. Your dedication to your work is almost a secondary issue because you are looking first at your creative drive. This will access your greatest talents because your heart tends to steer you naturally towards your strength.

Let your heart lead you, just make sure its not leading you into the ditch.

As an example, if you are someone in Dallas who has a natural love of design, you can follow your heart into website work, video production, and a host of other creative or visual jobs. You will find that you succeed at your endeavors because you are being honest with yourself about what makes you happy. Think of jobs or tasks that have you dragging your feet – they are not inspiring because they are not what you want to do with your skills.

Whether you are working as a creative or not, you need to consider where you find the most inspiration. While you might read that and think, “Sure, and what about money?” you have to also reconsider that stance. There are countless examples of immensely wealthy people who are miserable. They chose sensible or expected over [their hearts]. (Good, 2014) They represent a financial or business success, but they achieved goals that were not inspiring or even worthy of their years of dedication.

Happiness is priceless, so set aside the emphasis on income as you contemplate a realistic set of goals. Taking a career or business to the next level, starting out on a new and more honest career path, and figuring out how to use your creative energies will all bring you more happiness when you use your heart to guide you in the right directions.