Do What You Love, In Every Area Of Your Life

Back in June, as most of you know, I hosted the Do What You Love Telesymposium, which was all about finding or creating a career that stirs your soul and lifts your spirit. It's a topic near and dear to my heart. I've been on that quest myself for several years, most actively in the last three since leaving the safety and security of a regular, full-time paycheque. 

So it's no secret: I believe that doing work that's truly fulfilling to you, that helps others in some way, is a big part of creating and sustaining a feeling of well-being and joy in your life. 

Yet your 'work' or career is not the be-all and end-all of your well-being. It's important to look at the big picture when it comes to creating the life of your dreams. 

The key word being your.

Your life, your dreams. We all grow up taking in ideas - consciously or subconsciously - about what kind of life we 'ought' to have and the kinds of things we 'should' strive for. Your ideal life may or may not look like what you always thought it 'ought' to be. 

Only you can know what you need in order to feel really good in your life, deep down in the core of your being. By this, I don't just mean feeling at peace with yourself in a meditative Zen kind of a way, but I'm also talking about having people and things in your life that stoke you up and give you a bit of a buzz (and I mean the kind of buzz that's internally generated, not the kind you get from external substances, if you know what I'm sayin'…).   

Besides 'doing what you love' from a vocation standpoint, there are all kinds of different factors that contribute to your quality of life, and there are a lot of different frameworks out there for categorizing those different areas. 

My earlier-days Optimal Living categories included Physical; Mental; Emotional; Spiritual; Social; and Environmental. In my Dream Life Guidebook program, I refined them even further to twelve distinctly-different areas of life.

Another framework, by way of example, is John DeMartini's Seven Areas of Life: Mental/learning/personal development; Vocational/career/business; Financial; Family; Social; Physical and Spiritual. 

Yet another that I stumbled upon was from @OolaSeeker—whose website I haven't even taken time for more than a fleeting glance at yet—but I like his categories because they're easy to remember:

• Fitness

• Finance

• Family

• Field

• Faith

• Friends

• Fun

...not to mention they're "Fonetic" (just kidding, I know that's misspelled and that it's alliteration, not phonetics! lol)

You can slice and dice life categories any which way that makes sense to you, and sometimes these category titles might mean different things to different people. 

Let's pick a hot button: take "Faith", for example. I personally don't feel that one necessarily needs to be religious nor even spiritual to have faith, but whether you put your faith in your god or in your scientific community or in the idea that your dog will greet you at the door every evening, I believe it's helpful to clearly identify what you put your faith in. 

Certainly there will be people who disagree with me on this point, but that is the point. What 'Faith' means to me may be different from what it means to you. My ideas of 'Fun' might either put you to sleep or scare the pants off of you. The way I maintain my 'Fitness' is very different from how an Olympic athlete maintains hers (and even THAT differs, depending on whether we're talking about Aly Raisman or Zhou Lulu).  

If you're not entirely clear and honest with yourself about what brings you fulfilment, joy and well-being in each of these areas, you might find yourself misdirecting any feelings of discontent that arise, toward the wrong area(s) of your life. 

For example, if it's too scary to really be honest with yourself about how you feel in an unhappy marriage, you might tell yourself you need a career change, when what you really need to look at is the quality of your relationship. 

Or you may convince yourself that your friendships are unfulfilling, when maybe it's your own lack of ability to either open up or have some fun that's hampering things on your social scene. 

So strive to be really, completely honest with yourself about what you want and what you need; about what fulfills you and what drains you. It's not always easy to get that honest, but doing anything less doesn't do anybody any favours, least of all yourself or the people you love. 

When you're able to get really clear on this stuff, you are so much better equipped to make decisions that will truly serve you, and ultimately those around you too. Only then can you take the right action steps to get aligned with your ideal life. 

Thinking about it isn't enough; only by taking action will you start to draw in more of what fuels you. Once you get so fueled up that 'your cup runneth over', you'll be much better equipped to give of your beautiful self to the people around you. 

So do what you love…in every area of your life. 💛

xo

Kelly